Shovik Bandyopadhyay, a student pursuing an M.Phil degree at Purdue University, was among the 15 students named as 2017-2018 Churchill Scholars by the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States.

Bandyopadhyay, of Eureka, Mo., studies biological science in the College of Science and Honors College at Purdue. He is laying the foundation to pursue his goal to discover new and better treatments for blood cancers, the university said.

In his university profile, Bandyopadhyay, a 2016 Goldwater Scholar, said he aspires to focus on research in cancer biology while maintaining patient contact. The research, he said, should result in treatments while maintaining the human side of medicine.

Bandyopadhyay has conducted lab research at Purdue and Washington University in Saint Louis. He initiated a cooperative effort between labs to research the combination of two drugs for a synergistic interaction to fight chronic myelogenous leukemia.

The Indian American said he also is committed to supporting the health of his local community and citizens abroad.

The scholarship, established in 1963 at the request of Winston Churchill, provides undergraduates with outstanding academic achievement in the science, technology, engineering and math fields the opportunity to complete a one-year master’s program at the University of Cambridge.