Ayesha Riaz has been named the recipient of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. The Gates Cambridge Scholarship, begun by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 with a $210 million endowment, enables outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to study at the University of Cambridge. Funding is provided to the recipients for postgraduate study at the University for the duration of the degree.

Ayesha was in the IG program at ISU, and worked in the Drosophila project with Gustavo MacIntosh and Linda Ambrosio. In a letter to Ayesha from ISU President, Steven Leath, he congratulated Ayesha for being the first Gates Cambridge Scholar from Iowa State University, and wished her success in obtaining her doctorate at the University of Cambridge in genetics and continuing her research of neurodegenerative diseases.