Three individuals from MIT have been named 2025 Gates Cambridge Scholars, earning fully funded postgraduate scholarships to study at Cambridge University in the UK. The recipients are Markey Freudenburg-Puricelli ’25, Abigail “Abbie” Schipper ’24, and Rachel Zhang ’21.
Freudenburg-Puricelli, who is majoring in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, will pursue an MPhil in environmental policy. Schipper, who graduated with a SB in mechanical engineering, will pursue an MPhil in engineering, focusing on medical devices for pre-hospital trauma systems. Zhang, a physics graduate, will pursue a PhD in applied mathematics and theoretical physics.
The Tech spoke with Freudenburg-Puricelli about her path to the Gates Cambridge scholarship. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
TT: Tell us about yourself and why you decided to apply for the Gates Cambridge scholarship.
Freudenburg-Puricelli: I study geology. I’ve had a really good time as an MIT student getting to learn all the ways that geology can be applied to real world problems. There are a lot of earth science-based solutions to modern issues, especially climate change and preparing for a more sustainable future. But I think earth science alone can’t fix things, because I don’t really have the background knowledge or the context that I need in order to take these kinds of earth science-based solutions outside of labs.
Something that was exciting to me was trying to figure out how I could get this background in economics, in policy, in government, trying to figure out how I can use the science I’ve learned here to actually make a difference. It happened that the Gates Cambridge scholarship was the perfect way to give myself that background in a year in economics and environmental policy, and also get someone to pay for it!
TT: In the broad fields of environmental policy, economics, and geoscience, what are the specific areas you’re most interested in?
Freudenburg-Puricelli: I wrote in my application that I was excited to look into more sustainable means of extracting lithium — improving lithium mining, improving working conditions, and figuring out how to protect people who live here. Of course, those communities are affected by [lithium mining]. That’s something I’m still interested in.
Some other things that I’ve been thinking about lately are geologic hydrogen, and figuring out how we could produce hydrogen or invest in different ways of carbon capture. There are really cool geoscience methods to speed up natural processes, given what the earth is already doing, but also figuring out how to make them happen on a human time scale. It would be learning how to make these kinds of things economically viable, like figuring out the processes that you can tie to it such that you can make a profit doing this, so that people will actually start doing it.
TT: Do you see your future most oriented towards academia, a startup, industry, policy, or something else?
Freudenburg-Puricelli: Honestly, I don’t know. This fall, I wrote all my applications to PhD programs, and I submitted none of them. I don’t think I’m ready to commit to five to six years in academia, but I could totally see myself doing that. After next year, maybe I’ll go back and be a PhD student, then stay in academia and maybe become a teacher, continuing the research side of things with the necessary context to speak the language of those people who can help me take the science out of the lab.
At the same time, there are a lot of doors that are going to open next year that I feel like I don’t even know what they are yet. I could totally see myself being happy working at a startup, or working in industry.
TT: What at MIT has been the most transformative or made you interested in any of the other areas you’ve explored?
Freudenburg-Puricelli: I’ve done a lot of MISTI programs which have been really, really impactful. I live in my little MIT bubble, and I learn the science and see that the science solves problems.Then, I go to these different places where, like, the problems are just circulating; even though the science exists, it hasn’t been implemented. I spent this last IAP in Spain, and I just listened to my host family telling me about all the flooding that happened. People were devastated. There was a big flood back in 2018 in Peru, where my host family lives, and I could see all of the effects of the water level rise there.
I lived in Chile for a couple months, and we did a lot of research, like assessing and understanding the vulnerability of different communities in the shadows of the volcano. What we were saying was, “You guys are super vulnerable. We can be involved in helping you understand these risks, or how you’re going to respond to activity.” And I guess the hope is, with the background that I will get, or the connections that I will build, I can take these solutions and actually help them.
TT: Are there any professors you’re really excited to work with at Cambridge?
Freudenburg-Puricelli: Yeah, there’s this one professor who teaches a class in environmental policy that I’m excited to take. She is the perfect example of a person who did STEM, has a PhD in chemical engineering, and totally understands science. But she did this pivot to policy where she works with international governments in many different sectors, translates science for policymakers, and teaches classes. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. So maybe that will manifest itself in staying in academia and teaching about geology, or maybe in teaching about using geology for policy, right? I think there are a lot of good models.
TT: Are you excited for non-academic things in Cambridge?
Freudenburg-Puricelli: I like to say I feel like I have not reached adult status in my life yet. In order to become an adult, I need to be able to work by myself and feed myself. I’m very excited to go to a different country and know nobody and successfully exist as an adult. Then, I will reach the status where I am allowed to make decisions about five to six years in the future. I’m just really excited to be in a new place that is not my MIT bubble, and meet people who study things that aren’t science and technology.
TT: Would you give any advice to MIT students who are living in that science and tech bubble, or MIT students in general?
Freudenburg-Puricelli: Everyone should do MISTI. Everybody should go abroad. People should take our language classes here. I didn’t know a word of Spanish until I started taking Spanish classes here and now I’ve gotten to go to these incredible places. Because of MISTI, I found the perspective I needed in order to decide what my next steps would be, instead of blindly following the academic path and saying, “I graduated undergrad. Now I have to go be a grad student.” I mean, I am going to go be a grad student, but it’s different.
