Senior reflects on Marshall scholarship

Moriah Mulroe has success down to a science.

Mulroe, a senior majoring in biochemistry and geology, joined a distinguished group by becoming a recipient of the 2016 Marshall Scholarship.

The Marshall Scholarship is an extremely competitive scholarship provided to high achieving American scholars in order to finance graduate studies in the United Kingdom. Forty students are awarded the scholarship each year.

Mulroe, a Mork Scholar, knew of her passion for chemistry when she came to USC, but it wasn’t until later that she discovered her love of geology.

“Before college, I used to love reading about chemistry, — I had a great chemistry course in high school, [and] started checking out all the books in the library. The typical story,” Mulroe said. “I found geology once I got to college actually. Didn’t know I was interested in it until I started attending seminars, talked to some professors and realized I really liked geochemistry. So then I kind of found my niche by combining the majors.”

Mulroe has been an active student throughout her college career. She attributes the direction she has taken in her studies to her research on analyzing organic atmospheric acids and her impactful discussions with professors she has worked under like Hanna Reisler, the Lloyd Armstrong Jr. Chair in Science and Engineering and professor of chemistry at USC.

While Mulroe hasn’t had the opportunity to spend a semester abroad during her undergraduate studies at USC, she did participate in Problems Without Passports. PWP is a summer program that combines problem-based research with study in a foreign country. Mulroe studied the biology of tropical disease at Oxford University through PWP. This steered her to write her research proposal on health care after natural disasters, which embodied both of her majors.

Katie Calvert, associate director of USC’s Academic Honors and Fellowships, originally presented the prospect of the Marshall Scholarship to Mulroe, but she said she was surprised to receive it.

“I was definitely shocked,” Mulroe said. “It’s something I tried very hard on the application and definitely something I really wanted, but also something I didn’t expect to receive”

Mulroe will be achieving her graduate studies at Queen Mary University of London thanks to the Marshall Scholarship. The masters course she will be studying solely focuses on freshwater management. This includes, but is not limited to, looking at modeling flooding, flood control, hurricane, tsunamis and the remediation of water systems. Mulroe looks forward to this opportunity and truly enjoys what she will be studying.

“It’s a cool area to work in because it’s a lot of science, but still a humanity side to it. I like to say it’s science but you know what purpose you’re serving,” Mulroe said.

Mulroe isn’t sure yet what the future holds after graduate school. She would love to have a job where she can work with natural disaster management, either in a research position or at a non-governmental organization or governmental position.

“I’m always up for new adventures,” Mulroe said.

Mulroe was one of two recipients of the scholarship from USC. The other scholarship recipient is alumna Anu Ramchandran of the class of 2013. Ramchandran will conduct research at the London School in the Public Health in Humanitarian Crisis Group. Mulroe and Ramchandran are two of 11 Trojans to receive this award since 1969.