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Rancho Bernardo grad wins Gates Cambridge Scholarship

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Rancho Bernardo High 2012 alumnus Kamal Obbad has won a scholarship that will let him spend the next year studying in England for free.

Obbad was one of 35 Americans selected among 826 applicants for a Gates Scholarship. Of this year’s winners, 22 — including Obbad — will participate in a one-year master’s degree program and 13 will participate in a Ph.D. program at Cambridge, officials said.

The postgraduate scholarship program was established through a $210 million donation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 to the University of Cambridge.

Obbad said his Gates Cambridge Scholarship will pay for one year of tuition, travel expenses to and from England plus provide a housing allowance while he pursues a masters degree in advanced computer science, starting in September.

He graduated from Harvard University in May with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. Obbad said his career goal is to find “more effective ways to personalize medicine and diagnose diseases by combining computer science and medicine.”

For example, he said when a patient is diagnosed with cancer, a doctor could look at the patient’s genes that are causing the tumor and with that information choose a chemotherapy treatment.

Depending on how things go over the coming year, Obbad said he might apply to stay at Cambridge to earn a doctorate, or return to the United States. He is also considering medical/Ph.D. combined programs.

Obbad said he was attracted to Cambridge’s masters program because it only requires one year of study, unlike the two-year programs at many universities in the U.S. However, he could not have gone to Cambridge without the Gates Scholarship, he said.

“I didn’t expect (to win), but was happy that I was given a chance,” Obbad said.

The son of Rancho Bernardo residents Marc and Rajaa Obbad said he was mostly interested in studying biology while in high school and college. However, lab work during a computer science course a couple years ago made him realize the latter’s usefulness in medicine and led to his current educational focus.

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