Felicia Walton
Asheville, North Carolina
Double Major: Biology and Chemistry

Felicia Walton, a Duke University senior who has already made her mark as a biology researcher, has won a prestigious Marshall Scholarship for two years of graduate study in the United Kingdom.

Walton, of Asheville, N.C., plans to use her Marshall Scholarship to obtain a master's degree at the University of Cambridge, and may possibly continue on there to work on a Ph.D., she said in an interview.

"I'm going to be studying cell division in mammalian cells, which is somewhat related to what I've been doing at Duke," she said. "Cambridge has an outstanding history of scientific contribution that I'm excited about. And the other big draw for me is the opportunity to live and work abroad for several years and meet new people and experience new cultures."

Established in 1953 to commemorate the Marshall Plan, the scholarships are awarded each year to 40 or more "talented, independent and wide-ranging" young Americans to finance their study in the United Kingdom.

Arriving at Duke in 2003 with no laboratory experience, Walton began approaching faculty about gaining research experience beyond the classroom and quickly joined the laboratory of Joseph Heitman, director of the Duke Center for Microbial Pathogenesis.

While working there, she discovered a number of new genes as she studied forms of a fungus that causes dangerous infections in humans whose immune systems have been compromised. She has co-published two papers in respected scientific journals.

"Felicia has matured into a full-fledged contributing member of our research group," Heitman said. "This is no small task for an undergraduate working in a group of a dozen postdocs and four or five graduate students. Even amongst this talented group, Felicia stands out with her ability, her questions and her productivity."

While at Duke, Walton has been supported by a number of awards, including a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a Howard Hughes Research Fellowship, an American Society of Microbiology Research Fellowship and a Trinity College Dean's Summer Research Fellowship.

She is also president of the Biology Majors Union at Duke, and taught and mentored Durham public school students in biology and mathematics both during the academic year and summer.

"I think it's important to mention the tremendous amount of support I've also received from the Duke faculty," she said. "I think the professors here are amazing in their willingness to work with undergraduates."

Walton expects to graduate in the spring at age 20 with a double major in biology and chemistry.