Brown School of Engineering research assistant Hana Butler Gutiérrez ’24 is one of 35 individuals named to the 2025 Gates Cambridge Scholars U.S. cohort. The scholarship will sponsor Butler Gutiérrez as she pursues a master’s of philosophy in the University of Cambridge’s micro and nanotechnology enterprise program.
Butler Gutiérrez, originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, completed her mechanical engineering honors thesis on “elastomeric lattice materials with tunable mechanical properties” last May, after working as an undergraduate in Associate Professor Haneesh Kesari’s Applied Mechanics Lab and serving as teaching assistant for two courses. She was also awarded a Carl Nielsen ’56 Summer Research Fellowship for work alongside a faculty member, and is a co-founder of the student group Women Build at Brown. She credits her elective courses in architecture and art to help find her passion for sculpting and 3D modeling, which led her to the geometric lattice work in Kesari’s lab.
Since graduating in 2024, Butler Gutiérrez began working as a research assistant in Kesari’s lab, where she helps develop silicone shock-absorbing lattices designed for helmets, absorbing the impact of blows to the head. She has aspirations to turn her research into business ideas, and believes microstructures are the key for better design. She will begin the enterprise program in micro and nanostructures at the University of Cambridge in October.
Gates Cambridge Scholarships are among the most prestigious awards for postgraduate study in the world, and this year marks the 25th anniversary of the program. The 35 U.S. students, announced last week by the Gates Cambridge Trust, will begin their studies along with 65 other new scholars from other parts of the world. The full class of 2025 will join almost 300 current Gates Cambridge Scholars already studying at Cambridge.
The Gates Cambridge scholarship fully funds postgraduate study and research in any subject at the University of Cambridge. It was established by a $210 million donation to the University of Cambridge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. Criteria for selection includes outstanding intellectual ability, reasons for the scholar’s choice of a field of study, a commitment to improving the lives of others, and leadership potential.
Brown engineering’s last Gates Cambridge Scholar was in 2015 when Alejandro Rivera Rivera ’12 was the first Guatemalan admitted to the program. After graduating from Brown in 2012, he returned to Guatemala to work as an Engineering and Sustainability Coordinator for an architectural firm. After earning his master’s in philosophy from Cambridge in engineering for sustainable development, he is now the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of NARUM Consult, a consulting group in Guatemala specializing in sustainability certifications, LEED consulting, sustainability strategizing, integrated design, and project management.