22-year-old former King Edward’s Witley pupil Andrew Baxter from Elstead, Surrey joins the academic elite after having achieved a first class degree in Chemistry from Oxford University. He joins an illustrious list of former Oxford graduates, including David Cameron, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen Hawking, creator of the Internet Sir Tim Berners-Lee, scientists Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle and American astronomer Edwin Hubble.
Andrew praises his former school for helping him to prepare for Oxford. “King Edward’s Witley really helped me in that aside from the obvious excellent academic training, the School has a number of traditions and the boarding house atmosphere isn’t too dissimilar to the colleges. Getting involved in everything King Edward’s offered – from drama to pretty much every sport going as well as charities committees and Sixth Form socials – meant that I carried through the same attitude to university and I had a brilliant time.”
Andrew, who studied for seven years at King Edward’s as a day pupil and was Head Boy and House Prefect in his final year says, “I chose to do A-levels rather than the IB, because I knew I would be taking a science degree and wanted to achieve the depth of study in my chosen subject.”
Currently traveling in Asia, Andrew is looking forward to starting a new job in January as a Graduate Synthetic Chemist for global healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where he continues to aim high. “It would be fantastic to be part of a team that makes a breakthrough in the development of a drug for a previously untreatable or poorly treatable disease,” he said.