Posted on March 1, 2002 at 4:40 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham alumnus Neelaksh “Neel” Varshney has been awarded one of thirty 2002 Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellowships. Varshney will receive a $20,000 annual maintenance stipend plus half-tuition for as many as two years of graduate study at any institution of higher learning in the United States.

Varshney, a native of Madison, Alabama, completed his bachelor’s in electrical engineering at UAB. Now 23, he was born in the United States for parents who emigrated from India. Both parents are naturalized U.S. citizens.

Varshney has a long history of scholastic achievement and volunteerism. While at UAB, he maintained a 4.0 GPA and was elected to Tau Beta Pi. He received a number of scholarships to attend UAB, including the Charles W. Ireland Presidential Scholarship, UAB's top award for an incoming freshman. Varshney was named to the USA Today 2000 All-USA College Academic First Team, a prestigious ranking as one of the top 20 college students in the United States in 2000. In 1999, he became UAB’s first Rhodes Scholar.

He was a member of the UAB Honors Program and the Early Medical School Acceptance Program, which gives a few very gifted high-school seniors a guaranteed admission to the medical school at UAB when they come to UAB as undergraduates. In addition to his academic achievements, Varshney was the UAB student representative to The University of Alabama Board of Trustees in 1998, Mr. UAB 1998, and a UAB Ambassador. His many volunteer activities include helping to build homes for area low-income residents.

On his Rhodes Scholarship, Varshney is now attending Oxford University. There he completed an MSc in neuroscience and is currently reading for a second BA in mathematics. He has been accepted into the Health Science and Technology MD program in Harvard University and MIT.

“Neel deserves the Rhodes Scholarship in every way possible,” said UAB President W. Ann Reynolds. “He served as a UAB ambassador, was a student leader and has a sparkling personality. He is the child of immigrant parents and has been thoroughly integrated into American society. Through this fellowship and the Rhodes Scholarship he is becoming an international ambassador.”

“Neel truly exemplifies the kind of creative, multi-talented and extraordinarily accomplished New American that Paul and Daisy Soros want to honor and support through this program,” said Warren Ilchman, director of the fellowship program.

The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans was established in 1997 as a charitable trust of $50 million to assist New American in furthering their careers through graduate education. The donors, both New American themselves, created the trust to thank the Unites States for the life it has provided them and their children.

More than 1000 applicants who are naturalized citizens, resident aliens or the children of naturalized citizens completed applications this year. They represented 141 countries of national origin and came from 360 colleges and universities. The 30 fellows were selected from 84 finalists who were interviewed in New York and Los Angeles.