Isabel Rancu received a 2026 Marshall Scholarship, which supports up to three years of graduate study in any academic field at any university in the United Kingdom. As a Marshall Scholar, she will pursue an M.Res. (Master of Research) in bioinformatics and theoretical systems biology at Imperial College and an M.Sc. (Master of Science) in applied infectious disease epidemiology at University College London.
The scholarship recipients, who are considered among the most accomplished undergraduate students and recent graduates in the United States, were chosen following an intense selection process and will begin graduate studies at top universities across the U.K. next year. The Marshall Scholarship program was created by an act of the British Parliament in 1953 as “a living memorial” for former U.S. Secretary of State General George Marshall and the assistance of the United States under the Marshall Plan.
Isabel is completing a B.S./M.S. in MB&B and a certificate in data science. She is a member of the Cohen Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, where she is interested in applying computational methods to better understand the transmission and evolution of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in Eastern Europe. She was awarded the Alan S. Tetelman 1958 Fellowship for International Research in the Sciences in 2025.
Beyond academics, Isabel is deeply involved in educational spaces. She is co-president of Code Haven — which provides weekly computing lessons at New Haven middle schools and is Yale’s largest computer science outreach organization — and works as an undergraduate learning assistant. She also serves as a first-year counselor for Pauli Murray College, a Spanish interpreter for HAVEN Free Clinic, and senior interviewer for Yale Admissions.
Read more here: https://news.yale.edu/2025/12/08/two-yale-seniors-named-marshall-scholars?utm_source=YaleToday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YT_YaleToday-Staff_12-9-2025.