Aman Sinha ’13 wins Churchill Scholarship

Mechanical and aerospace engineering concentrator Aman Sinha ’13 has been awarded the Churchill Scholarship, the University announced on Jan. 18. The scholarship allows the Ivyland, Pa., native the opportunity to conduct research on information engineering and control theory next year at Cambridge University.

Each year, the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States awards the scholarship to 14 American citizens studying sciences, engineering or mathematics who display outstanding academic and personal qualities. Rather than look for well-rounded applicants, the scholarship committee seeks applicants with “interesting ‘jagged edges,’ ” according to the scholarship’s website. Princeton has had 39 Churchill Scholars including Sinha, the greatest number from any school, followed by Harvard with 35.

“I’m very excited to be working in the control engineering group in the department of engineering,” Sinha said. He compared the concept of controls to a complex type of feedback system, such as cruise control in a car, which responds to sensors and makes adjustments to maintain the car's speed.

At Princeton, Sinha won the George B. Wood Legacy Prize and the Class of 1939 Princeton Scholar Award, which recognize exceptional achievement during the sophomore and junior years, respectively. He is also a two-time recipient of the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence and 2012 recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious award that awards scholarships to sophomore and junior undergraduates who excel academically in the sciences.

On campus, Sinha has participated in the Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering group, club fencing, club running and intramural sports, and he has played alto saxophone in Princeton Tarana.

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Peter Bogucki, who chaired the University’s Churchill nomination committee, said that while there were many accomplished applicants, Sinha had “the whole package deal of extraordinary academic accomplishment, a really rich research biography and testimonials by faculty that were extremely impressive.”

“He’s absolutely somebody that would be a great addition to an international community of scholars,” added Bogucki, praising Sinha’s “real sense of intellectual maturity.”

According to a release by the Churchill Foundation, Sinha’s recommenders referred to him in glowing terms, calling him “the most promising undergraduate seen in 31 years at Princeton in terms of creativity and deep insight into physics.”

“I am really excited to be heading out to the U.K. I can’t thank enough my recommenders, the Office of Fellowship Advising, Dean Bogucki and the School of Engineering. I couldn’t have done it without them,” Sinha said.

After his Cambridge experience, he plans to return to the United States to pursue a doctorate in engineering and to continue his work with control groups.

“After that, I’d really like to pursue research at the intersection of academia and the tech industry, to be able to do the cutting-edge research the tech companies are doing but still have that rigorous academic background,” Sinha said.

“Sinha will have a productive year at Cambridge and then be poised to do whatever life takes him to,” Bogucki said. "We will be hearing from him.”