The Marshall Scholarship, which falls under the Marshall Plan offered to the U.K. after World War II, was launched in the year 1953. The U.S. gave it to the U.K. as an appreciation of gesture for help and assistance during the war. A student of Northeastern University, Michael Tormey was awarded the same which enabled him to study Transportation for two years in the U.K.
Tormey grew up in a town consisting of 3,622 people with barely any traffic lights. While he was there he had dreamt of building a transportation system that would eliminate congestion and misery from the lives of people. He wished to combine Economics and Civil Engineering to develop keenness towards sustainability. Tormey wants to utilise the Marshall Scholarship which had helped Pulitzer Prize winners and Supreme Court Justices to broaden his perspective.
The U.K. has consistently been the leading globally in public transportation and Tormey wants to benefit from that by learning from the challenges the U.K. faced. He will be working on behalf of the U.S. city to improve transportation efficacy and reduce accidents, pollution, and time taken to travel.
A professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Auroop Ganguly, praises Tormey for his ability to take down and remember information impeccably. He says, “Michael can bring quantitative and qualitative concepts together and translate them in a way that makes sense, he’s a very well-rounded engineer in that he can digest scientific principles, translate them into engineering principles, and then use his knowledge of economics and policy to inform the conversation.”
Tormey has planned to spend his time in the U.K. between two universities. He will start off with the University of Leeds where he will study transportation planning and engineering. In the following year, he will focus on regional and urban planning at the London School of Economics. He has received praise from all his mentors for being energetic and being respectful.
Everyone is looking forward to seeing how Tormey aces in his career and hopes to see him shine.
Subarna Basu