Mental health focus for Gates Cambridge scholar

Friday, 27 April 2018

University of Adelaide student Ethan Dutcher has received one of the world’s most sought-after and prestigious international scholarships: a Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

Ethan, a final-year medical student, is one of only 92 students world-wide out of nearly 5,800 applicants selected for one of this year’s scholarships, which is worth more than $250,000 AUD over three years. He is the only student from a South Australian university to receive the scholarship this year.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship provides full funding for postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge and is awarded to applicants across all fields of endeavour who are academically outstanding and are likely to be transformative leaders. 

“I hope to ultimately become a leader in the field of mental illness neurobiology and contribute to the development of new treatments for mental disorders,” says Ethan. 

“Early in my medical training, I was struck by the fact that across my lifetime we will finally come to understand much of the neurobiology underpinning psychiatric disorders. With this will come a profound shift in the way these disorders are viewed by the public and managed by medical professionals. 

“I have found the lure of watching and contributing to this change irresistible and am particularly interested in helping to unravel what is happening at the molecular and cellular level in these conditions,” says Ethan. 

While at Cambridge, Ethan will undertake a PhD in neuroscience which will equip him with many of the tools he will use throughout his career. 

During his studies at the University of Adelaide, Ethan has excelled academically, attaining first-class honours in his Bachelor of Medical Science and winning several scholarships for research he has performed at the University of Adelaide and at the South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Harvard University. 

Alongside his studies, he has held many roles as a student advocate, including serving as the chair of the University’s peak student representation committee, the Student Affairs Committee, and as a member of the University’s board, University Council. 

He has been an active contributor to the medical student community, in part by leading the launch of a student association that seeks to foster interest in psychiatry and raise awareness of mental health issues, and by delivering revision lectures to younger students. 

Around 90 scholars are selected each year for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship on the basis of academic excellence, leadership potential, commitment to improving the lives of others, and fit with the program they are applying for. The scholarship is to the University of Cambridge what the Rhodes Scholarship is to the University of Oxford.

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