Louisa Shepard, Penn Today
Seven University of Pennsylvania affiliates—five fourth-years and two recent graduates—have each received a 2025 Thouron Award to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom. Each Thouron Scholar receives tuition for as long as two years, as well as travel and living stipends.
Penn’s 2025 Thouron Scholars are fourth-years Benjamin Cohen, Joy Gong, Sarah Hinkel, Sophie Kadan, and Joey Wu and recent graduates Alexander Gerlach and Benjamin May.
Established in 1960 and supported with gifts by the late John Thouron and his wife, Esther du Pont Thouron, the Thouron Award is a graduate exchange program between Penn and UK universities that aims to improve understanding and relations between the two nations.
Joey Wu, from Woodbury, Minnesota, is studying bioengineering and environmental science in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research, a dual-degree program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and School of Arts & Sciences. He is a plastic researcher in Penn Engineering’s McBride Lab. Wu founded Waterroots, a global education nonprofit that works to combat water insecurity through developing grassroots water literacy projects in more than 25 countries. Wu is an active climate activist, serving as a Penn Climate Fellow, EarthEcho Marine Plastic Ambassador, a member of the Student Advisory Group for the Environment, and a PBS Climate Storytelling Fellow. A 2025 Dean Scholar, Wu is a Clinton Global Initiative Scholar, a Duke Interfaith Climate Fellow, an Ashoka Changemaker Fellow, an IEEE Bio-X Scholar, a 2023 Millennium Fellow, a 2023 Udall Scholar, a UN Youth Delegate, a World Bank/IMF Youth Delegate, and a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society.