Zoë Batterman ’24, a math major, has received the renowned Churchill Scholarship. The scholarship, which is offered to 16 brilliant scientists, mathematicians, and engineers in the United States each year, covers one year of study at Churchill College, University of Cambridge.
The program, formed at the request of former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, carries out his objective of extending the US-UK collaboration to develop science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic.
Beginning in October, Batterman will perform full-time pure mathematics research alongside Professor Dhruv Ranganathan. “My advisor will give me a research problem,” she says, “and then I’ll have to read and acquire the necessary background to be able to answer it.”
She will work with Chow homology groups for her research challenge, allowing her “to engage in the research discourse which lies at the intersection of algebraic geometry and number theory,” she says.
She looks forward to having chats with the other Churchill Scholars as well as embracing the social life at Cambridge, including competing in the pentathlon, which she says combines “pretty much all the sports I love.”
Batterman, who hails from New Orleans, was also previously given the Alice T. Schafer Prize for Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Women and the Goldwater Scholarship, both in 2023.
“Zoë is having a remarkable run for the these past two years,” says Edray Goins, professor of mathematics and statistics.
Her research experience includes two NSF-funded REUs (research experiences for undergraduates): one at Pomona with Goins in summer 2022 and one at Williams College in summer 2023.
Konrad Aguilar, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, says he isn’t surprised that Batterman received the Churchill prize. “Zoë has excelled in our most advanced courses here. Furthermore, we completed research together at the graduate level and higher,” he says. “I am grateful that I got a chance to work with Zoë while she has been at Pomona.”
