Title: Marshall Scholar Will Study Cutting Edge of Technology in England

Benjamin Buchanan (C’11, G’13)

Buchanan, who received his bachelor’s degree in government with minors in Arabic and English from Georgetown in 2011, is now in his last year with the university’s master’s program in security studies.

The Security Studies Program is part of the university’s School of Foreign Service.

He will use his scholarship to pursue a doctoral degree in war studies at King’s College London or a doctorate in Information, Communication and the Social Sciences at the University of Oxford.

Cyberspace Focus

“Tasked with geopolitics, states must interrelate the political, the economic, the military, and the domestic in the strategic assessment of cyberspace,” says Buchanan of New York City. “This calculus is now the focus of my energy.”

At the NYPD counterterrorism bureau, Buchanan wrote intelligence analyses on developments in cyberspace and helped build software that synthesized huge numbers of data points for improved counterterrorism and counter-crime efforts.

He says New York is the first installer of the system, but that it will soon be licensed to police across the country.

“I feel now as if I am both a witness and a curator of cyberspace’s might,” Buchanan says. “The next step for me is serious study of the developing geopolitical and technological strategic frameworks for cyberspace.”

Field of Utmost Importance

“Ben is a multitalented scholar who has accomplished everything from working with the NYPD and the White House to serving as an intern for ABC’s Investigative Unit,” said Georgetown President John J. DeGioia. “We are proud that he has won the Marshall and look forward to his contributions to a field of utmost importance – cybersecurity. In addition, we are grateful for his efforts with the university’s student-run Emergency Response Medical Service.”

Up to 40 American students are selected as Marshall scholars every year to pursue two years of post-graduate studies in any field in the United Kingdom.

Buchanan won the scholarship along with undergraduate Shea Patrick Houlihan. This puts the number of Georgetown’s Marshall Scholars at 21.

Team Player

Buchanan served as a resident assistant as an undergraduate and a full member of the Georgetown Admissions Committee.

In addition to his work as a practicing emergency medical technician who leads three ambulance crews per week with the Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service (GERMS), he led the fund raising of scholarships for students with financial need who want to become EMTs.

He also twice won the Bunn Prize, the university’s highest award for undergraduate journalism, and has organized competitive football intramural teams at Georgetown, despite a congenital eye problem.

John Glavin, English professor and director of Georgetown’s Office of Fellowships, Awards and Research, says Buchanan is a model of a team player.

“I have no doubt that in the decades ahead he will head up increasingly impressive and important teams,” Glavin says.