UGA Honors student Josh Woodruff named one of 40 Marshall Scholars
WRITER: Kim Cretors, (706) 542-6927, kcretors@uga.edu
CONTACT: Jere Morehead, (706) 542-6908, morehead@uga.edu
Dec 9, 2002, 16:21

ATHENS, Ga. — It’s been nearly 40 years since a University of Georgia student has been selected as a Marshall Scholar, which makes it all the more noteworthy that Josh Woodruff, a senior in the Honors Program at UGA, has been named one of only 40 Marshall Scholarship recipients in the United States this year. In 1965, Joseph Harris was selected from UGA; he went on to become a chaired professor of English and folklore at Harvard University.

Woodruff is the son of Drs. John and Ina Woodruff of Thomasville. He is a double major in biochemistry/molecular biology and cellular biology with a 3.96 GPA. Through his Marshall Scholarship, Woodruff plans to earn a master of science in immunology of infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“This high honor is yet one more indication of the rising quality of the University of Georgia student body,” said President Michael F. Adams. “As they have shown, our students are the equal of the best students at any American college or university, and I am extremely proud to be a part of this institution.”

The Marshall Scholarship program was established in 1953 to express the gratitude of the British people to the United States for its role in the Marshall Plan. Each year the Marshall Scholarships enable up to 40 young Americans of high ability to earn a degree in the United Kingdom in any field of study. The program allows the scholars, who are potential leaders, opinion-formers and decision-makers in their own country, to gain an understanding and appreciation of British values and the British way of life. It also establishes long-lasting ties between the peoples of Britain and the United States. Each scholarship is held for two years.

In a 1947 Harvard commencement speech, U.S. Secretary of State George Catlett Marshall proposed a solution to the wide-spread hunger, unemployment and housing shortages that faced Europeans in the aftermath of World War II. Marshall suggested the European nations themselves set up a program for reconstruction with U.S. assistance. The speech marked the official beginning of the Economic Recovery Program (ERP), better known as "The Marshall Plan." Under the plan, the United States provided aid to prevent starvation in major war areas, repair the devastation of those areas as quickly as possible and begin economic reconstruction.

The Marshall Scholarships are distinctive among British award programs in that they were established through an act of the British Parliament. The principal architect of the plan was Roger Makins (Lord Sherfield), who, as Deputy Under Secretary in the Foreign Office supervising the American Department, arranged for the bill to be drafted and passed through Parliament. Soon after the bill passed Makins was appointed British ambassador and moved to Washington, D.C., where he was able to further develop the program. To date, more than 1,300 scholarships have been awarded.

The Marshall Scholarship program received 962 applications from throughout the United States this year. Woodruff was awarded his scholarship through the program’s Atlanta region, which received 115 applications; twenty-one of those applicants were interviewed.

The Marshall Scholarship will enable Woodruff to further his education in the field of infectious diseases, an interest that stems from a trip he made to Tanzania during the summer of 2001 as a Courts Scholar in the Honors Program. While there, he developed a deep interest in the culture and natural beauty of Africa but also a serious concern for the suffering he saw.

Upon returning to the United States, Woodruff recruited two friends and fellow UGA students and began a fund-raising campaign that would enable the three of them to return to Tanzania the following summer. In May 2002, Woodruff and the others worked with local public health officials in Mwanza, Tanzania, to improve the quality of health care in the community.

“Josh Woodruff is a wonderful young man and an outstanding representative of the UGA Honors Program,” said Jere Morehead, director of the Honors Program. “He is a caring and dedicated young scholar who plans to devote his life to helping others.”

At UGA, Woodruff has performed biochemical research on variegate porphyria in the laboratory of Harry Dailey, professor of microbiology and director of the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute, and has researched one aspect of the immune response to the parasite that causes Chagas’ disease in the lab of Rick Tarleton, Distinguished Research Professor and member of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases. Woodruff’s other honors include a Barry Goldwater Scholarship in addition to Courts, Regents, Governor’s, Charter and HOPE scholarships, and he is on the UGA President’s List.

“This is an awesome opportunity for me as a student,” said Woodruff. “The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is one of the best schools in the world to study tropical medicine, and it happens to be located in an incredibly fun city.”

Woodruff will return to the United States in 2005 and plans to pursue an M.D./Ph.D. in immunology and microbial pathogenesis at the Emory School of Medicine where he’s been accepted into the Medical Scientist Training Program. His acceptance into the program includes a full scholarship to medical school.

Upon completion of his doctoral work, Woodruff plans to become a biomedical researcher while working as a professor at a university or as a scientist for the U.S. government. He hopes to eventually establish a not-for-profit organization devoted to the development of vaccines for infectious diseases that affect the world’s poorest nations.

A photo of Josh Woodruff is available at www.photo.alumni.uga.edu. For more information on the Marshall Scholarship program, visit www.marshallscholarship.org.