Five Indian-Origin students among 32 winners of prestigious 2025 US Rhodes Scholarship
On November 16, 2025, the Rhodes Trust announced its selection of 104 Rhodes Scholars from around the world, 32 of them from the United States.
Among the 32 US Rhodes Scholars are at least five of Indian origin. That makes 15.63 percent of the US Scholars, way above the proportion of the Indian and Indian American population in this country.
This year’s Rhodes Scholars representing the US go to Oxford University in England to pursue graduate studies.
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To get an idea of how competitive the selection process, these students had to undergo a tough vetting over and over again, to be finally elected by 16 independent committees around the country.
The 5 students of Indian origin were among 3,000 applicants; 865 were ultimately endorsed by 243 different colleges and universities. Committees of Selection in each of the 16 U.S. districts then invited 238 finalists to appear before them for interviews. All districts interviewed 14 or more finalists.
Rhodes Scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford (ranked the #1 university in the world in some global rankings) and may allow funding in some instances for four years.
Following are the winning students of Indian origin (Their brief bios were provided by the Rhodes Trust in a press release):
- From New York-North Aneesh Muppidi of Schenectady, NY, from Harvard University
Aneesh C. Muppidi, Schenectady, is a senior at Harvard University where he majors in Computer Science and Neuroscience. He has conducted research at Harvard’s Computational Robotics Lab, Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, and MIT’s Fiete Lab. Aneesh’s scholarship also informs his work on AI policy at the OSTP at the White House. Aneesh served as the President of the Harvard Computational Neuroscience Undergraduate Society, CoPresident of the Hindu Students Association, and President of the Harvard Spikeball Club. At Oxford, he will pursue an M.Sc. in Advanced Computer Science and a Master’s in Public Policy.
- From Florida, Angelin T. Mathew of Davie, from Yale University
Angelin T. Mathew, Davie, is senior at Yale University where she double majors in Humanities and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Her medical research focuses on palliative care and cancer treatment and she has founded an international research team working across the fields of theology, public health, and clinical medicine to improve end-of-life care. She has won international awards for her research and also launched a lip-care startup focused on the needs of chemotherapy patients. Angelin performs Indian classical dance, is a powerlifter, and speaks three languages fluently. At Oxford, she intends to pursue an M.St. in the Study of Religions and an M.Sc. in Medical Anthropology.
- From Illinois, Om Gandhi of South Barrington, IL, from University of Pennsylvania
Om H. Gandhi, South Barrington, is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania where he is completing a B.A. in Neuroscience and Public Health as well as an M.S. in Bioengineering. His research focuses on novel cancer immunotherapies, and he has completed research experiences at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania Center for Childhood Cancer Research and Penn Medicine. Om does extensive volunteer work with individuals with substance use disorder. He is also a student leader of the Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club and the Penn HinduJain Association. As editor-in-chief of the Penn Healthcare Review, Om oversaw a major expansion of the journal’s application pool and editorial staff. At Oxford, Om will pursue a D.Phil. in Oncology.
- Oregon, Anushka Nair of Lake Oswego, OR, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Anushka Nair, Lake Oswego, is a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she is simultaneously completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence and ethics, and her graduate thesis examines how large language models can be used to identify harmful misinformation that is less easily identifiable by human fact-checkers or other automated systems. She has completed internships at Tesla, Oracle, and the United Nations. Anushka is a classical violinist and an amateur filmmaker. At Oxford, she will pursue a D.Phil. in Social Data Science.
- From Washington State, Ayush Noori of Bellevue, WA, from Harvard University
Ayush Noori, Bellevue, is a senior at Harvard University, where he is studying for A.B. and M.Sc. degrees in computer science and neuroscience. His research uses artificial intelligence to learn from large-scale biomedical data to identify diagnosis and treatment options, and he has developed an AI model that can be deployed to predict treatment outcomes in bipolar disorder, Parkinson’s disease and neuropathic conditions. He has coauthored over 20 peer-reviewed papers in top journals and was awarded the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship for natural sciences. Ayush is the co-founder and co-president of Harvard Undergraduate OpenBio Laboratory, where he manages a team of 36 students and has raised over $60,000 to support undergraduate biology research projects and support a free summer research program for high school students with backgrounds underrepresented in science. He hopes to complete an M.Sc.(R) in Clinical Neurosciences and an M.Sc.(R) in Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics.