Princeton seniors Maya Butani and Daniel Yu win Marshall Scholarships

Class of 2026 members Maya Butani and Daniel Yu have been named Marshall Scholars to pursue two years of graduate study in the United Kingdom.

The Marshall Scholarship allows “intellectually distinguished young Americans, their country’s future leaders” to study at the U.K. institution of their choice, according to the Marshall Scholarships organization. Butani and Yu are among the 43 winners of the 2026 scholarships, selected from more than 1,000 applicants from colleges and universities across the United States.

Maya Butani

Butani, of Moorestown, New Jersey, is a molecular biology major pursuing minors in engineering biology and global health and health policy. For her first year of graduate study, she plans to earn an MSc in the immunology of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, followed by a second year pursuing an MPhil in chemical engineering and biotechnology at Cambridge University.

Butani plans to become a physician-scientist and said the Marshall Scholarship will allow her to “engage with new ways of thinking about the intersection between biomedical research and global health” — a research passion she developed at Princeton. 

Her senior thesis studies rRNA modifications, and how new ribosomal drug targets could be used to treat protozoan parasitic infections. As part of her project, she is interviewing drug manufacturers, health advocates and clinicians about ways to adapt her lab research to practical global health solutions. 

“Ultimately, I hope my research and medical career will not only produce new innovations, but that they will have a durable and widespread impact on global health,” Butani wrote in her application essay, adding that her career goal is to “reimagine biomedical research to benefit underserved communities around the world.” She plans to enter a dual M.D.-Ph.D. program following her two years as a Marshall Scholar. 

Cliff Brangwynne, the June K. Wu ’92 Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, said Butani “has distinguished herself not just with her academic brilliance, but also with her singular ability to connect fundamental research to broad, real-world challenges in global health.” 

He said Butani is a curious, creative and innovative student and researcher as well as a “public-spirited” leader. 

“I have no doubt that she will use her scientific talents to improve human life on a global scale,” added Brangwynne, director of Princeton’s Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute.

Outside of Princeton, Butani has conducted biomedical and immunology research during internships at the Wyss Institute at Harvard and Rowan University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. 

Her interests in biomedicine and global health extends to her service work and leadership roles outside of the lab and classroom. In 2023, she spent the summer in Cape Town, South Africa, through Princeton’s International Internship Program, shadowing hospital clinicians through the nonprofit organization Child Family Health International. 

On campus, Butani is a senior Service Focus fellow at the Pace Center for Civic Engagement. She received the Santos-Dumont Prize for Innovation for co-founding Creative Care, which designs solutions to improve healthcare accessibility for underserved student communities. 

She has also served as the president of the student-run Princeton Biotech Group and Alimtas Bioventures, which is part of the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club. She has also volunteered at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center. 

A member of Whitman College, Butani is a peer academic adviser, an Orange Key tour guide and a member of the club flag football team.

Daniel Yu

Yu, of New York City, is majoring in African American studies and pursuing minors in English and in gender and sexuality studies. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and previously won the University’s Freshman First Honor Prize and Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence. 

Yu said the Marshall Scholarship will support his goal of becoming a scholar of race, gender and the law. He plans to earn a master’s degree in race and gender studies from SOAS University of London and then pursue an MSc in socio-legal studies at a different U.K. institution. 

“I am intent on a public-facing career in writing, research, and political advocacy, using a critical lens to contribute to global debates on LGBTQ+ justice,” he wrote in his application essay.

Yu said two years in the U.K. will provide important global perspectives on the topics he studies, helping to deepen his scholarship of the histories, laws, and cultural and political frameworks that affect LGBTQ+ communities across the world. 

“I'm excited to further develop a transnational perspective working with leading British scholars of race, gender and injustice,” he said. 

Marcus Lee, assistant professor of African American studies, said Yu is “an exceptionally talented, diligent and enterprising student” deserving of the Marshall Scholarship. 

“His scholarly ambitions are matched, moreover, by his keen attention to the real-world stakes of academic research,” Lee said. “I am confident that he will excel during postgraduate study — and that his work will continue to enlarge our understanding of the human condition.”

Yu is currently an intern for the National Political Advocacy Department of the American Civil Liberties Union, and he serves as a fellow with the national student-led organization OutVote. He previously interned at Lambda Legal and the Hetrick-Martin Institute. 

After his time as a Marshall Scholar, Yu said he hopes to pursue an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in critical studies, combining scholarship with real-world experiences in political and social advocacy work. 

At Princeton, Yu is a member of Forbes College. He co-founded Positions Magazine, which celebrates Asian diasporic writing and the arts. He was the lead organizer for the 2025 “Black Queer and Trans Studies Roundtable” which brought together scholars from Princeton and beyond and he is currently working on expanding the roundtable into an academic conference for the spring semester. 

Yu is a member of the undergraduate board of advisers for the Department of African American Studies, a head fellow at the Princeton Writing Center, and a peer education and leadership fellow at the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center.