Punahou School graduate Jennifer Lai, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology double major, future physician and first-rate pianist, has been named a Rhodes scholar.

The 21-year-old is one of 32 American students to receive the prestigious scholarship this year to study at Oxford University.

Lai will start at Oxford in October 2011, where she’ll pursue a master’s degree in integrated immunology before entering medical school.

Lai, a senior at MIT, is majoring in biological engineering and music.

As an undergraduate, she has conducted research in the molecular basis of glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, and the use of engineering toward the development of potential treatments.