Naina Agrawal-Hardin ’25 has been selected as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, which provides a full-cost scholarship for graduate study at the University of Cambridge.
Henry Liu
Contributing Reporter
Yale News
Naina Agrawal-Hardin ’25, a current senior at Yale College, has been selected as one of 35 U.S. recipients of the 2025 Gates Cambridge Scholarship, a prestigious award covering full tuition for graduate study at the University of Cambridge.
This February, she was selected to join an international cohort of scholars, including 65 additional recipients from around the world who will be announced in April. Together, they will become part of a global academic community at Cambridge, where nearly 200 Gates Scholars are already pursuing research across a range of disciplines. At Cambridge, she plans to pursue a master’s in Anthropocene studies.
“I have had amazing support from professors and from researchers at and beyond Yale during my undergraduate studies,” Agrawal-Hardin said. “I really feel that I share this honor with the people who introduced me to the subject of climate change litigation, and the people who taught me how to conduct historical research, and how to think critically about the role of academics in relation to social movements.”
In summer 2023, supported by Yale’s Law School’s Liman Undergraduate Summer Fellowship, Agrawal-Hardin conducted research on climate litigation with teams at NYU Law School and the University of Oxford. Last summer, Agrawal-Hardin traveled to the Maldives to study the role of climate litigation in the country’s environmental advocacy, backed by the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at the Jackson School of Global Affairs.
Her time in the Maldives deepened her interest in transnational climate litigation and played a key role in her decision to pursue the master’s at Cambridge. She was drawn to the master’s program’s interdisciplinary approach, particularly its placement in the Department of Geography, which will allow her to expand her academic perspective beyond her background in history.
“My research concerns the history of climate change projections and particularly projections about spatially differentiated climate change impacts,” Agrawal-Hardin said. “I want to assess to what extent fossil fuel companies and the general public and policy makers were aware not only that climate change was a real threat but that it was a threat that would have disparate and inequitable impacts.”
The Gates Cambridge Scholars program was established in 2000 through a $210 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Since its first class in 2001, it has awarded 2,218 scholarships to scholars from 112 countries.
Agrawal-Hardin said that she was immensely excited to see the Gates Cambridge Trust support the emerging field of climate litigation.
“I’m delighted to announce the US Scholars for our 25th anniversary cohort,” wrote Eilís Ferran, provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust, in a press release. “Since its inception Gates Cambridge has selected scholars based on their outstanding academic achievement and their commitment to change the world for the better. Already they are having a ripple effect in the many disciplines and industry sectors they have gone on to work in.”
Agrawal-Hardin also credits several professors and mentors as crucial supporters of her journey.
Professor Sunil Amrith, the newly appointed director of the Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies, praised Agrawal-Hardin’s academic excellence and leadership.
“In my 21-year teaching career, I have rarely met a student more likely than Naina is to change the world for the better. She combines memorably outstanding academic abilities with a quality of leadership that is rare. Naina stands out as being among the most talented, inspiring and accomplished undergraduates I have ever had the privilege of teaching — and, in no small measure, learning from,” he said.
Agrawal-Hardin also credited Yale’s liberal arts curriculum and robust fellowship offerings, saying they gave her room to explore various interests surrounding climate justice and fostering her passion for climate litigation.
Amrith highlighted Agrawal-Hardin’s leadership of student organizations committed to environmental and social justice like the Sunrise movement, writing that she carried out her leadership roles with sensitivity and an ability to navigate differing viewpoints.
“For someone so prodigiously talented, Naina is grounded, humble, sensitive to others and unfailingly kind,” he said. “Her personal qualities will only amplify the impact of her scholarship and her leadership in the years ahead.”
In regards to her future plans, Agrawal-Hardin says she plans to attend law school, and is considering pursuing a doctorate alongside a law degree. In the long term, she hopes to realize solutions that achieve transnational justice and address disparities between the global north and the global south, especially in regards to impacts from climate change.
“Geography has historically been such a strong field in the U.K., which is a big part of why I’m so excited to study there. I think it will complement my history education very nicely,” Agrawal-Hardin said.
The Gates Cambridge Trust is located at the Bill Gates Sr. House in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
