Brightest scholars awarded top money

An interview with a billionaire to decide your future should be pretty nerve-racking, but Aaron Yorke was "Ghandiesque".

The 18-year-old was one of five of the country's brightest interviewed for the inaugural New Zealand Robertson Scholarship.

But he was the only candidate who asked why the scholarship existed.

"All the candidates were strong, but Aaron was an exceptional thinker," said billionaire benefactor Julian Robertson.

"The academics were just blown away. It was like meeting a philosopher."

New Yorker Mr Robertson, who owns golf courses in Northland and Hawkes Bay, has provided scholarships to US students since 2000.

This year he decided to offer one New Zealander the same scholarship - worth more than $130,000 over four years.

Former Palmerston North Boys High School dux Aaron will spend four years studying liberal arts and law at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and at Duke University.

Meanwhile, the latest Douglas Myers Scholar has been named as Michael Fletcher, a former dux of Auckland Grammar School.

It is the fifth Myers Scholarship and will see 18-year-old Michael travel to Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge University in Britain.

He will study natural sciences and will be specialising in biochemistry.

Businessman Douglas Myers set up the awards, worth $100,000 over three years, for candidates who he felt would make a real difference.