Apr 15, 2008 - Claremont, Calif. - Nick Sherrow-Groves, a Harvey Mudd College senior, has been awarded the prestigious Watson Fellowship for one year of independent exploration and travel outside of the United States.

Set to graduate on May 18, 2008, with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, Sherrow-Groves earned the travel grant with his proposal, “The Impact of Structural Failure in Earthquake-Prone Countries.” He will be traveling to Japan, El Salvador, Peru and India starting this summer.

“Nick is committed to a career in civil engineering,” said Hal Barron, professor of history at HMC and liaison to the Watson Foundation for the application process. “For his Watson project he plans to look at both the technical and non-technical aspects of the interface between engineering and the threat of earthquakes in order to understand the successes and the failures that different societies have experienced. He hopes to use this year to get outside of his engineering ‘box’ and learn more about the human dimensions of the work he plans to devote his life to.”

“I hope to get an understanding of what my work as a structural engineer will mean to the world,” added Sherrow-Groves.

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program (http://www.watsonfellowship.org) was established in 1968 by the family of the late founder of International Business Machines Corp (IBM).

Regarding its investment in people as an effective contribution to the global community, the Watson Foundation awards $25,000 fellowships each year to 50 superb college seniors from around the world. In return, recipients—chosen from nominations made by their college–agree to remain outside of the United States and actively engaged in their project for 12 months.

Chosen from a pool of 175 finalists who competed on the national level, Sherrow-Groves will begin his travel in July.

“I will spend most of my work time networking, trying to make contact with people who have survived these disasters,” he said. “Interspersed in this will be interviews with government officials and engineers. I would also like to visit the locations at which major earthquakes have occurred.”

International travel is hardly foreign to this Washington State native, who spent a semester abroad at Oxford University (after which he traveled on his own for three weeks) and has seen a good part of Europe with his family.

The living situation is a bit disconcerting for him, however.

“I’ve actually never gotten a room for a long-term stay in my life,” said Sherrow-Groves, who plans to attend graduate school when he returns from his fellowship. “I’ve always lived in a dorm or at my parents’ house. Finding an apartment or some kind of home-stay in an entirely foreign country will be an experience, especially in Japan and Gujarat, India, where I don’t speak the language.”

But he’s looking forward to it all.

“I really hope that the Watson fellowship will change my life,” Sherrow-Groves said.