Three undergraduate and one graduate student from MIT have been selected as Schwarzman Scholars. They are among the 129 members of the program’s class of 2018, who will pursue a year of study and leadership training at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
MIT’s four students — Alix de Monts ’14, Lisa Ho, Anita Liu, and Melody Liu — will study public policy, economics and business, and international studies, and spend a year immersed in an international community of thinkers, innovators, and senior leaders in business, politics, and society. Expenses for each scholar are fully funded by the program, which is housed at Tsinghua University.
Alix de Monts is currently a master’s student in MIT’s Technology and Policy Program and earned a bachelor’s degree from the Institute in mechanical engineering. She is passionate about addressing the pressing geopolitical and technical challenges of the energy sector, and has had a wide range of international leadership experiences. She has raced the MIT solar car across Australia, been part of the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, and interned with ExxonMobil in Houston and ENGIE in Paris. Her research, developing techno-economic models of the electricity grid to advise governments on policy decisions and market design, has brought her to Saudi Arabia and China. Moreover, she was the content director of the 2016 MIT Energy Conference. As a Schwarzman Scholar, she hopes to build partnerships and policies for driving global energy transitions.
Lisa Ho is a senior in computer science and mathematical economics. She plans to develop an international network of researchers dedicated to improving education, using economics and machine learning together to devise intelligent policy. She taught students in Oklahoma City and Boston, ran MIT’s Educational Studies Program (which annually teaches more than 3,000 students), developed engineering education software for Google, and examined principal management practices as a researcher for Harvard’s Department of Economics.
Anita Liu is majoring in computer science and engineering and in brain and cognitive sciences, with a minor in political science. She dreams of a world in which children are cared for and guided to achieve their full potential. She has participated in multiple policy internships on child care issues, and she is the executive director of a nonprofit dedicated to dual athletic-academic mentorship for underresourced Boston high school students. Through Schwarzman Scholars, she hopes to develop both leadership skills and a refined understanding of policy.
Melody Liu is a senior in mechanical engineering. Her vision is to innovate in the space of manufacturing robotics within industry, working with international companies. Throughout her undergraduate career, she has conducted research in robotics, developing a gel robotic fingertip and building an instrumentation robot for people with prosthetics. She has been an active tinkerer, building her own electric scooter and setting up a makerspace for her dormitory. For Liu, Schwarzman Scholars is an opportunity to build connections with Chinese businesses and to enhance her leadership and business skills, in order to lead a research division.
