Ambassador Louis Susman specifically requests to meet Gates scholars.
Gates scholars met the US Ambassador to the UK as part of his visit to Cambridge at the end of April.
Ambassador Louis Susman specifically requested to meet with Gates Scholars during his visit to the University on 28 April and spent an hour talking informally with a group of scholars and members of the Trust in the Gates Scholars’ Room. It was a very free-flowing conversation and touched on everything from the daily life of an ambassador and Internet privacy to foreign policy and the involvement of young people in politics.
During his visit, Ambassador Susman had lunch at Clare College with Professor Tony Badger, Master of the College, Dr Jennifer Barnes, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Strategy, the University Registrar Dr Jonathan Nicholls, Professor John Rallison, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, University of Cambridge and Dr Toby Wilkinson, soon to be Head of the University’s International Office.
After lunch, he met the Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz and was then introduced to Gates scholars by Professor Robert Lethbridge, Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust, and Andrew Thompson, the Trust’s Treasurer. His speechwriter, Michael Lea, was at the meeting.
In the evening he gave a speech at Clare College on ‘US Foreign policy and the role of young people in a changing world’, followed by a drinks reception.
Ambassador Susman, whose background is in banking and law, was sworn in as the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s in 2009.
Professor Lethbridge said: “We were delighted that Ambassador Susman took the time out of his busy schedule to speak with Gates Scholars in Cambridge. The hour-long conversation was both informal and stimulating and covered a wide range of topics. The Trust was especially pleased that the Ambassador recognised the Gates Cambridge Scholarships – which support a large number of outstanding students from the USA and many other countries – as an important programme with Scholars are likely to have a substantial impact in all walks of life”.
