The Lord Botetourt Medal

Alexander M. Holland ’26 - 2026 Award Recipient

The Lord Botetourt Medal is presented each year to the undergraduate student who has most distinguished him or herself in scholarship during their time at William & Mary. In 2026, this singular honor is awarded to Alexander M. Holland.

In the words of an advisor, Mr. Holland “exemplifies the highest standard of scholarship: intellectual rigor, clarity of thought, humility, collaboration, and persistence.” Mr. Holland graduates with a bachelors of science in neuroscience with an honors thesis in chemistry. He achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA.

During his first year at William & Mary, Mr. Holland played a central role in a large-scale qualitative content analysis of nearly 2,000 articles from a woman’s health magazine. He distinguished himself as a laboratory assistant in the Eating Behavior and Development Lab.

Garrett-Robb-Guy Professor of Chemistry Jonathan Scheerer praised Mr. Holland for his work focusing on a Blatter-type radical, an organic species with potential in organic batteries. Dr. Scheerer said he “is focused and engaged in his experiments, keen on planning the next steps, and communicative about his thought processes and result analysis.” Mr. Holland presented at the National Organic Symposium on a competitive honors fellowship. Dr. Sheerer anticipates that the strength of his honors thesis will lead directly to a single author publication.

What sets Mr. Holland apart, writes an advisor, “is the way he engages with knowledge, with others and with the process of learning itself.” Mr. Holland “anticipates confusion points, builds logical narratives, and supports claims with evidence, making difficult material accessible without oversimplifying it.”

Mr. Holland has accepted a position in the Chemical Biology & Medicinal Chemistry doctoral program at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Nominators praise his character as well as his acumen, writing that his “distinction lies in his willingness to engage with uncertainty. He continually refines his approach and persists, even when progress is difficult to measure.” An advisor wrote: “Intellectually curious, highly disciplined and exceptionally collaborative, Alex is among the most impressive undergraduates I have worked with.”