Ohio State student from Dublin awarded prestigious Rhodes Scholarship

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX/WTTE) — Thirty-two students were selected to join the latest class of American Rhodes Scholars including one Ohio State student from Dublin, Ohio.

Founded in 1902, the Rhodes Scholarship is "the oldest and best-known award for international study, and arguably the most famous academic award available to American college graduates," according to the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, Elliot Gerson. It provides all expenses for two to four years of study at the University of Oxford in England.

The winners were chosen from a pool of more than 2,300 applicants — of which 953 were endorsed by 288 different colleges and universities.

Daniel Lesman, a first-generation American and senior at OSU studying biomedical science, became the ninth Buckeye to win the scholarship. He has founded a non-profit organization that provides educational resources to homeless and at-risk students and has conducted biomedical research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Huntington's disease, and COVID-19.

“It was pretty overwhelming,“ Lesman told the Associated Press.

Pass the Class, a nonprofit organization founded by Lesman, has served over 100 homeless and at-risk youth in Columbus. The organization is currently expanding to other universities across the country, according to Ohio State.

Lesman conducted research with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2019. Ohio State said he researched how engineering principles could be used to combat disease.

In the summer of 2020, he returned to lead a project assisting with COVID-19 research efforts in which he discovered mutations in the virus and determined their functional outcomes.

"On behalf of Ohio State, we congratulate Daniel Lesman on this outstanding accomplishment. His commitment to research and service beyond self reflects the values of our university community and we are thrilled to see Daniel receive this well-deserved honor," said President Kristina M. Johnson.

Another Ohio student was also awarded the scholarship.

Swathi Srinivasan of Beechwood, Ohio, is a senior at Harvard College. She was an intern at the U.N. Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS in Geneva and has done extensive research and activism on the opioid epidemic, according to the Rhodes Trust.