Following closely on the heels of Harvard students' triumph racking up Rhodes Scholarships, yesterday eight Harvard students won British Marshall Scholarships for 1998.

The winners are Sewell Chan '98 of Quincy House, Rhiju Das '98 of Lowell House, Matthew F. Lima '98 of Winthrop House, Joshua H. McDermott '98 of Leverett House, Ramesh O. Johari '98 of Leverett House, Geoffrey C. Rapp '98 of Leverett House, Brian J. Saccente '98 of Lowell House and Eric G. Sheu '98 of Kirkland House.

Paul A. Bohlmann, fellowships director at the Office of Career Services, said he was extremely pleased with the results. "It's a really neat group of people," Bohlmann said. "It's a great day for Harvard."

Harvard yielded the highest number of Marshall Scholars among U.S. colleges this year.

Chan, a social studies concentrator and a native New Yorker, plans to obtain either a masters or a doctorate in European politics at Oxford. Chan, who is also a Crimson executive, said he has a particular interest in urban poverty.

"I hope to become a newspaper reporter, writing about contemporary social problems in American cities and maybe overseas one day," he said.

Chan has also served as a co-president of the Asian American Association and volunteers as an English as a Second Language tutor with the Phillips Brooks House Association Chinatown Committee.

Das, a physics concentrator from Bartlesville, Okla, will conduct radio astronomy research at Cambridge. After studying particle physics, Das said he wanted to conduct experiments in cosmology for a change.

"[Studying] radio waves left over from the Big Bang is the best way to do it," Das said. "And Cambridge has the best program."

Das is a teaching fellow for Physics 11b and is planning a career as a physicist.

Lima, a music concentrator from New York City, plans to study music composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with a focus on Renaissance instruments.

"It's just really cool to be able to do what I want to do," Lima said.

In the long term, Lima said he hopes to become a composer of concert music. He also plans to teach and found an arts consulting firm.

McDermott, from Arlington, Va., created a special concentration in brain and cognitive science. Currently taking a semester off, he plans to go to University College London to study math and statistics, which he said will help him in his study of neuroscience.

"I don't know if I want to be on the theory or experimental end," McDermott said. "But I definitely want to be a professor of neuroscience one day."

A mathematics concentrator from Elk Grove Village, Ill., Johari will be enrolling in a one-year masters program in mathematics at Cambridge. Primarily interested in the interactions between pure and applied mathematics, he said that he hopes to use his experience in England to learn to shape university mathematics education.

"The English university system is completely different from the American system," Johari said. "By studying their system, I'll be better prepared to help improve the American system."

Rapp, an economics concentrator from Honolulu, plans to continue his studies at Oxford, specializing in the economics of the educational labor market.

Planning to pursue a career in educational policy, Rapp has headed the Institute of Politics' Student Advisory Committee.

A linguistics concentrator from Roslyn, N.Y., Saccente said he plans to obtain classical training in acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

At Harvard, Saccente said he was particularly proud of having played the role of Figaro in last year's Dunster House Opera's production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. In the long term, Saccente said he hopes to become a stage actor.

Sheu, a biochemistry concentrator from Dunwoody, Ga., will be going to Oxford to research malaria and the human response to the disease. He said that he hopes to coming up with a vaccine which will help millions.

"There's no effective vaccine for malaria yet," Sheu said. "[But] it affects 500 million a year and kills 3 million a year. It's really tremendous compared to anything else."

Sheu is active in community service, teaching music to inner-city children and counseling for Room 13.

According to Bohlmann, Marshall Scholarships developed as a way for the British people to thank the American people for implementing the Marshall Plan that aided European economic recovery after World War II.

The Marshall Scholarship committee has similar requirements to the Rhodes Scholarship committee, basing its selection criteria on academic excellence, leadership, and community service, Bohlmann said.

One difference between the two is that the Marshall tends to have more tolerance for people with particular excellence in one area. The Marshall committee also focuses more on academics, asking applicants to think beyond Oxford and Cambridge to identify the program in the U.K. best suited to their interests.

According to Bohlmann, the one puzzling aspect of this year's winners was the absence of any Harvard women on the winner's list.

"That is unusual," Bohlmann said. "Last year, four men and four women won [from Harvard]."

11 women and 27 men representing 18 different U.S. universities comprise this year's Marshall Scholars. Over a thousand young Americans have been awarded Marshall Scholarships since the British established them 44 years ago