Legacy of Scholarship at USU Includes Seven Rhodes Scholars

Commit yourself. Find something you love and work hard at it. That's the advice coming from Utah State University graduate Lara Anderson, USU's seventh Rhodes Scholar, who was one of 32 in the nation in 2004 to receive the prestigious scholarship from the University of Oxford in England.

"Oxford is a world-class institution and its physics and math programs are phenomenal," said Anderson.

The Rhodes Scholarships are given to 32 U.S. citizens each year to promote international understanding and to provide special educational opportunities to talented students who offer the promise of service during their lifetime. To be considered for a Rhodes Scholarship, intellectual excellence is required, but not in isolation from other qualities. Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the scholarship, also looked for integrity of character, the ability to lead, commitment to hard work and physical prowess.

USU has a proud heritage of Rhodes Scholars and, according to Anderson, who earned undergraduate degrees in physics and mathematics and a master's in physics, she would never have made it this far without the excellent education she received at Utah State. "Utah State's undergraduate physics and math programs are as good as any other top-ranked programs you will find in the nation," she said. "The faculty is wonderful and really willing to give that one-on-one attention to students. They are supportive, friendly and accessible."

As Anderson began her adventure at Oxford she was especially excited to work with the mathematical physics group at Oxford's Mathematical Institute to further her research in quantum gravity, studying supergravity models and quantum field theory.

"It is my goal to make a contribution to our modern map of reality," said Anderson. Anderson hopes to be able to explore, teach, write about and make accessible what she called the "beautiful and astonishing ideas of physics." Utah State University was an important launching point at making these dreams become reality.

Anderson follows a legacy of scholarship at USU where previous Rhodes Scholars include James Butcher (1982), William S. McEwan (1938), George Piranian (1937), G. Fred Somers (1936), Karl E. Young (1926) and James Morris Christensen (1921).