The PhD scholarships are valued at about $200,000, spread over three years, and cover all course and college fees at Cambridge, as well as a yearly allowance and annual return airfares to New Zealand.
The third Rutherford scholarship this year was awarded to Yvette Perrott, of Auckland University.
Mr Peat and Ms White, both aged 22, were yesterday looking forward to their Cambridge studies, which start next October.
"It's going to be an incredible experience," Mr Peat said.
While at Cambridge, he will be studying ribonucleic acid (RNA), a building block of genetic material.
He is particularly interested in working out how RNA acts and interacts with cell components, with a view to helping develop a potential new therapy against HIV.
This year, he completed a bachelor of applied science honours degree in genetics, biochemistry and microbiology.
Ms White aims to study the improvement in social and communication skills in children with autism, arising from musical intervention programmes. This year she completed a BSc (Hons.) degree in psychology and has strong musical interests.
Otago University's "really strong research focus" and its many world-class researchers had contributed to recent successes by the university's students in national scholarships, Ms White said.
This is the fourth time in recent years Otago students have scooped two out of three national scholarships supporting research at either Oxford University or Cambridge University.
In both 2007 and last year, two Otago students gained Rhodes scholarships to study at Oxford, and, also in 2007, two Otago students gained Woolf Fisher scholarships, which support study at Oxford or Cambridge.
• The Rutherford Foundation was established by the Royal Society of New Zealand to support emerging New Zealand scientists.
