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Yale senior Naina Agrawal-Hardin named 2025 Gates Cambridge scholar
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship, established in 2000 with a $210 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has awarded over 2,200 scholarships to scholars from 112 countries.
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Pranavi Sharma - Fri, 07, Mar 2025
- 22:45 EST
- 695
Naina Agrawal-Hardin. / Yale News
Yale senior Naina Agrawal-Hardin has been selected as one of 35 US recipients of the 2025 Gates Cambridge Scholarship, a prestigious award that covers full tuition for graduate study at the University of Cambridge. She will join an international cohort of scholars, including 65 additional recipients to be announced in April.
At Cambridge, Agrawal-Hardin plans to pursue a master’s in Anthropocene Studies, focusing on the intersection of climate change, history, and litigation.
“I have had amazing support from professors and from researchers at and beyond Yale during my undergraduate studies,” she said. “I really feel that I share this honor with the people who introduced me to the subject of climate change litigation, and the people who taught me how to conduct historical research, and how to think critically about the role of academics in relation to social movements.”
Agrawal-Hardin’s research on climate litigation has taken her across the world. In 2023, she conducted research at NYU Law School and the University of Oxford through Yale Law School’s Liman Undergraduate Summer Fellowship. The following summer, she traveled to the Maldives to study climate litigation’s role in environmental advocacy, supported by the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs.
Her time in the Maldives reinforced her interest in transnational climate litigation, shaping her decision to pursue further studies at Cambridge. The interdisciplinary nature of the Anthropocene Studies program, housed in the Department of Geography, will allow her to expand her academic scope beyond history.
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“My research concerns the history of climate change projections and particularly projections about spatially differentiated climate change impacts,” she said. “I want to assess to what extent fossil fuel companies, the general public, and policymakers were aware not only that climate change was a real threat but that it was a threat that would have disparate and inequitable impacts.”
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship, established in 2000 with a $210 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has awarded over 2,200 scholarships to scholars from 112 countries.
“I’m delighted to announce the U.S. Scholars for our 25th anniversary cohort,” said Eilís Ferran, provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust. “Since its inception, Gates Cambridge has selected scholars based on their outstanding academic achievement and their commitment to change the world for the better.”
Agrawal-Hardin’s academic excellence and leadership have been widely recognized at Yale. Sunil Amrith, director of the Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies, described her as one of the most exceptional students he has encountered.
“In my 21-year teaching career, I have rarely met a student more likely than Naina is to change the world for the better,” Amrith said. “She combines memorably outstanding academic abilities with a quality of leadership that is rare.”
Beyond academics, Agrawal-Hardin has led student organizations committed to environmental and social justice, including the Sunrise Movement. Amrith noted her ability to navigate differing viewpoints with sensitivity.
“For someone so prodigiously talented, Naina is grounded, humble, sensitive to others, and unfailingly kind,” he said. “Her personal qualities will only amplify the impact of her scholarship and her leadership in the years ahead.”
Looking ahead, Agrawal-Hardin plans to attend law school and is considering pursuing a doctorate alongside a law degree. She hopes to work on solutions that address transnational justice and climate change disparities between the Global North and the Global South.
“Geography has historically been such a strong field in the U.K., which is a big part of why I’m so excited to study there,” she said. “I think it will complement my history education very nicely.”
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