Carmel Valley native named Rhodes Scholar

Carmel Valley News
Del Mar, CA

John Scotti, a 2007 graduate of The Bishop’s School in La Jolla and a former resident of Carmel Valley, is one of three students at the University of Chicago to be named a 2010 – 2011 Rhodes Scholar. Scotti will graduate this winter with a B.A. in chemistry, a B.S. in bio-chemistry and an M.S. in chemistry.

Scotti, who aspires to become a professor at a research university so he can pursue work to develop human therapeutic agents, says of his Rhodes scholarship, “Beginning next October, I will most likely begin a DPhil [doctor of philosophy] in organic chemistry at Oxford, which is a three-year program.”

The University of Chicago released the following statement: “Scotti, 21, a biochemistry major and jazz pianist, said synthetic chemistry bears similarities to jazz improvisation. Both pursuits allow him to experiment using a foundation of knowledge he has gained over many years. ‘Like jazz solos, the best syntheses are those that take universal chemical principles and apply them in a clever, unforeseen way to a specific molecule,’ he wrote in his application.”

Read more: http://delmartimes.net/2010/11/30/carmel-valley-native-named-rhodes-scholar/