Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and best endowed scholarships in the world. The Gates Cambridge Scholarship accepts less than 0.3% of applicants and remains extremely competitive. Each year, approximately 100 new graduate students from around the world receive funding to study at Cambridge University. The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was launched in mid-2005 as a "Learning Initiative", and became a full-fledged program under the Global Development Division in early 2010. The foundation has since 2005 undertaken a wide range of efforts in the WASH sector involving research, experimentation, reflection, advocacy, and field implementation. In 2009, the
USS Thomas S. Gates and other personal business. The Navy decommissioned "Thomas S. Gates" on 15 December 2005, four months earlier than the planned March 2006 date, and after serving only 18 years in the active fleet. She was stricken the same date and was berthed at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, PA as of 2014. As of 2008, she was slated to be dismantled in the next five years along with her sisters and . As of July 2014, NAVSEA planned to place ex-"Thomas S. Gates" and ex-"Ticonderoga" up for bid to scrappers via the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). DLA