Ashley Yeh, from Hsinchu, Taiwan, will pursue a PhD in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine. She is graduating from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), with a bachelor’s degree in biology. As an undergraduate, she conducted research across molecular, cellular, and behavioral systems, and studied computational neuroscience at various institutions, including ETH Zurich; Stanford University; University of California, San Francisco; and UCSB. Using her cross-disciplinary knowledge, Ashley aims to understand the neural circuits involved in behavior and their implications in neurological disorders while also working with clinicians to improve treatment outcomes for patients suffering from these disorders. She co-founded Science Translated, an international science communication organization, and aspires to continue this work by leading community outreach initiatives to promote scientific literacy in local communities. She received the Goldwater Scholarship and the ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship to support her research endeavors.

William Heap, from San Jose, California, is pursuing a PhD in mechanical engineering at Stanford School of Engineering. He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). William aims to translate novel research into impactful robotic systems through a combination of technical, managerial, and entrepreneurial skills. He is currently working to develop soft, pneumatic “vine” robots for use in search and rescue and hazardous environment inspection. At UCSB, he managed a multidisciplinary team to pursue technical and needfinding development for vine robots, and raised more than $100,000 in funding for the team’s work. William was awarded the University of California Regents Scholarship, was a Stanford Summer First Fellow, and is currently a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

For more information on the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, see the official website. Students can find UCSB-specific application information on our Knight-Hennessy info page.