Cameron Turtle

Two University of Washington students have been named Rhodes Scholars, including Cameron Turtle, a bioengineering major who has been studying protein engineering approaches to treat heart disease.

Turtle joins UW senior Byron Gray in receiving the prestigious scholarship. Gray is majoring in political science; law, societies and justice; and Asian studies. His senior thesis is on family law, human rights and religious sectarianism in India, according to an announcement from the Rhodes Trust made over the weekend.

Byron Gray

The UW said Turtle, a senior, has spent three years working in the laboratory of Professor Michael Regnier studying protein engineering approaches to treat heart disease. He also worked in a laboratory at Washington State University, where he was a Running Start student.

Here is more about Turtle’s college career, from the UW website:

He is a founding member of Bioengineers Without Borders at the UW, which develops technology that can be used in developing nations confronted with serious public health issues. He has also been a member of Engineers Without Borders, where he assisted in designing a water treatment system for a village in Suriname.

Of his decision to pursue a career in research, he writes, “My first job was as a summer worker on a wheat farm in Pullman. I woke up at the crack of dawn and spent every day trudging through fields with a backpack full of weed-killer, spraying any thistle I spotted. Between the wheat and the weeds, we had to wear full jeans and shirts through the worst of Eastern Washington’s summer. I have stuck to research labs ever since.

Turtle and Gray will study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.