Senior Lucas Mason-Brown, selected as one of 12 George J. Mitchell scholars for 2014, will spend a year of postgraduate study in mathematics at Trinity College Dublin. Mason-Brown is a cryptographer who deciphered a handwritten code developed by Roger Williams, the protestant theologian and founder of Rhode Island. Using an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from statistics as well as the history of 17th-century ciphers and the life of Roger Williams, Mason-Brown cracked the code in weeks, a task that had eluded scholars for centuries. The nationwide competition for Mitchell scholarships attracts nearly 300 applicants from whom 12 are awarded scholarships on the basis of academic distinction, leadership and service.
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