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Churchill

Naval Academy Midshipman Awarded Churchill Scholarship

  POSTED ON: Thursday, February 15, 2018 8:10 AM by mediarelations@usna.edu

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Midshipman 1st Class (senior) Michael Walker, 22, of College Station, Texas, was recently awarded the Churchill Scholarship to the University of Cambridge. The Churchill Scholarship provides funding to American students for a year of Master’s study in science, mathematics, and engineering at the University of Cambridge, based at Churchill College. Walker is the first Naval Academy midshipman to win this prestigious scholarship since 1968.  

Walker is a mechanical engineering major at the Naval Academy. He is a Trident and Bowman Scholar and currently serves as the 14th Company Executive Officer. He is a member of the Navy Motorsports team, and is a volunteer with the Special Olympics of Maryland and My Sister’s Place Women’s Center in Baltimore. Walker is a graduate of the SCUBA course at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center, the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, and the National Outdoor Leadership School, where he completed a six-week expedition on the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska.

Walker is a 2014 graduate of Saint Joseph Catholic School in Bryan, Texas. As a midshipman, he interned at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he helped develop chemical kinetic models for normal-heptane fuel, and Sandia National Laboratory’s Combustion Research Facility, where he performed optical engine experiments on diesel surrogate fuels. He has published multiple articles in peer-reviewed mechanical engineering journals. Walker plans to pursue a Master of Philosophy in Engineering at Cambridge and will attend Naval Nuclear Power School after graduating from Cambridge to become a Navy Submarine Officer.

The Churchill Foundation’s Scholarship Program offers American citizens of exceptional ability and outstanding achievement the opportunity to pursue graduate studies in engineering, mathematics, or the sciences at Cambridge. Churchill Scholarships support roughly 15 scholars annually for one year of Master’s study at Churchill College in the University of Cambridge. The Churchill Scholarship was set up at the request of Sir Winston Churchill in order to fulfill his vision of US-UK scientific exchange with the goal of advancing science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic, helping to ensure our future prosperity and security.

Founded in 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy today is a prestigious four-year service academy that prepares midshipmen morally, mentally and physically to be professional officers in the naval service.  More than 4,400 men and women representing every state in the U.S. and several foreign countries make up the student body, known as the Brigade of Midshipmen. U.S. News and World Reports has recognized the Naval Academy as a top five undergraduate engineering school and a top 20 best liberal arts college.  Midshipmen learn from military and civilian instructors and participate in intercollegiate varsity sports and extracurricular activities. They also study subjects such as leadership, ethics, small arms, drill, seamanship and navigation, tactics, naval engineering and weapons, cyber security, and military law.  Upon graduation, midshipmen earn a Bachelor of Science degree in a choice of 25 different subject majors and go on to serve at least five years of exciting and rewarding service as commissioned officers in the U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps.

For more information about the Naval Academy, please visit www.usna.edu or our Facebook page.

USNA


Category: Academics, General Interest, Press Releases