2015 Student and Faculty Award Winners

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES TEACHING AND ADVISING AWARDS

The Deanne Gebell Gitner ’66 Family Annual Prize for Teaching Assistants went to graduate students Sarah Maxey, government, Allison Tracy, ecology and evolutionary biology, Danielle Morgan, English, and Laura Manella, neurobiology and behavior.

The Dean's Prize for Distinguished Teaching was awarded to graduate students Corinna Matlis, Medieval Studies, Tatiana Sverjensky, comparative literature, Soumyajit Bose, physics, and Elizabeth Blake, English.

The Robert and Helen Appel Fellowship for Humanists and Social Scientists was awarded to Assistant Professor Pedro Erber, Romance studies, and Associate Professor Sarah Kreps, government.

The Robert A. and Donna B. Paul Award for Excellence in Advising went to Professor Jane Juffer, English and feminist, gender and sexuality studies. 

The Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award went to Associate Professor Masha Raskolnikov, English; Senior Lecturer Shalom Schoer, Near Eastern studies; and graduate student Chris Dalton, ecology and evolutionary biology.

AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM

The Arnold J Rabinor Civil Rights Award was awarded to Hannah McKinney.

DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES

The Asian Studies Summer Study, Research, and Service Travel Grants went to Edbert Cheng (Hong Kong/China/Taiwan), Hadar Sachs (Indonesia), Jung Ju Lee (Japan — partly funded by the Yasuko Nakanishi-Whitman Memorial Gift Fund for Japanese Language Studies), Kathy Zhang (China — partly funded by the Irene M. Anderson Summer Travel Scholarship for culture study and experience in East Asia), Margaret Wong (Taiwan), and Robert Duanmu (Japan — partly funded by the Irene M. Anderson Summer Travel Scholarship for culture study and experience in East Asia).

The Robert J. Smith/Russell Mann Gift for outstanding beginning and intermediate Japanese language students was awarded to Debotri Chatterjee, Mohammad Amin Nikbin, and Xinyi Wang.

The Korean Language Program Award for three years of hard work, dedication, and love of learning the Korean language went to Roddy Russell, Mizuki Yamakawa, Patricia Gonzalez, and Megha Cherian. 

For Outstanding Achievement at the Post-Secondary Level of Japanese Language Study, the Japanese National Honor Society College Chapter recognizes Max Zimmerman, Liang Zhang, Pysith Vanuptikul, Ilia Karp, Matthew Hudson, Caitlin Conahan, and Ezekiel Jin Sung Ahn.

DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMY

The Cranson and Edna B. Shelley Graduate Research Award, given to a graduate student to recognize outstanding accomplishment in astronomical research, went to Jason Hofgartner.

The Cranson and Edna B. Shelley Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, given to a graduate student in recognition of outstanding performance as a teaching assistant, went to Amit Vishwas.

The Eleanor York Prize, given to a graduate student to reward service to the community as well as academic achievement, went to Michael G. Jones.

The Cranson and Edna B. Shelley prize for Undergraduate Research went to Lea Bonnefoy.

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL BIOLOGY

The ACS Cornell Section Undergraduate Research Award for seniors was awarded to Dustin Lee, Yanqiao Chen, Corey Kaminsky, and Amy Frankhouser.

The George C. Caldwell Prize was awarded to Joseph Matragano and Swati Sureka.

The Leo and Berdie Mandelkern Prize for seniors was awarded to Zachary Nelson.

The Merck Index Award for seniors was awarded to Hayley Knox.

The A. W. Laubengayer Prize for freshmen was awarded to Aohan Dang.

The Hypercube Scholar Award for seniors was awarded to Gene Hu.

The Harold Adlard Lovenberg Prize for juniors was awarded to Peter Csernica.

The Tunis Wentink Prize for graduate students was awarded to Nathan Van Zee, Greg Merz, and Dipanjan Samanta.

The Howard Neal Wachter Memorial Prize for graduate students was awarded to Jessica Duke, Eric Skibinski, and Brian Van Hoozen.

The Bayer Teaching Excellence Award for graduate students was awarded to Will DeBenedetti, Lilliana Morris, Meghan Smith, Hui Jing, Beth Curley, David Vacarello, Janis Jermaks, and Kyle Mack.

The Robert W. Work Award went to Anna Overholts and Yuchen Sun.

The Frank L. and Lynnet Douglas Fellowship for Underrepresented Minority Undergraduates was awarded to Ashley Vincent and Sean Waterton.

The Gerald A. Hill and Kathleen Holmes Hill Fellowship for Undergraduate Summer Research was awarded to Peter Csernica.

The Bauer Scholarship Award was awarded to Josh Baccile, Cathy DeBlase, Brian Lindley, Matt Moschitto, Ace Santiago, and Abigail Van Wassen.

DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS

The Classics Department Book Prizes, given to those students with excellent scholarly records, went to Emily Nicole Collins, Kathleen Noelle Cruz, Rebekah Blair Foster, and Samantha Auxilio Viramontes.

Amanda Gaggioli and Coco Hui Ge Xiao have received Harry Caplan Travel Fellowships to study and conduct research in Greece and Italy, respectively.

Funding fellowships for study at the Paideia Institute in Rome were awarded to Adam James Mahar, James Officer, Colleen Cournoyer, and Angela Q. Yang.

Funding fellowship for Greek study at the University College Cork in Ireland was awarded to Ksenia Ludtseva.

DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

The Excellence in Teaching Award for outstanding work as a teaching assistant went to graduate students Fiona Soper and Maya Lim.

The Robert H. Whittaker Award, given in recognition of the best oral presentation by a graduate student(s) at the Annual Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Symposium, went toHuman Biology, Health and Society Class of /17, ecology and evolutionary biology, for “Developing Profitable Agricultural Management Practices that Enhance Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services ” and to Allison Tracy, ecology and evolutionary biology, for “Immune Suppression and Differential Responses to Two Pathogens in the Caribbean Sea Fan, Gorgonia Ventalina.” 

The Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Book Award, given in recognition of the best oral presentation by a beginning (first- or second-year) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department/Field graduate student at the Annual Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Symposium, went to Ellie Goud for “Short-term Effects of a Lowered Water Table on Carbon Cycling and Plant Community Structure in a Temperate Bog Margin.”

The LaMont C. Cole Award, for the most outstanding published paper written by a graduate student(s) in the department went to C. Guilherme Becker for “Partitioning the Net Effect of Host Diversity on an Emerging Amphibian Pathogen.”

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

The Uri M. Possen Memorial Award for the best undergraduate honors thesis went to Kushagra Aniket.

The Law and Economics Award went to Grace Gorenstein

The Behavioral Economics Prize was awarded to Yuezhou Huo.

The Health Economics Award went to Danielle Sochaczevski.

The Financial Economics Award went to Chenxi Dai.

The Industrial Organization Award went to Shengmao Cao.

The Public Economics Award went to Feng Hui Dileen Ee.

The Service to Department Award went to Nina Das and Adiwid Devahastin Na Ayudhya.

The Excellence in Coursework Award went to Shengmao Cao

The L.R. "Red" Wilson M.A. '67 Excellence in Economics Medal to support thesis proposal, research, and writing, was awarded to graduate students Jason Cook and Tirupam Goel. 

The Louis Walinsky Fund in Economics Outstanding Teaching Award in Honor of Professor Herbert Joseph Davenport went to graduate students Bryce Little and Sanket Roy.

The Ernest Liu Family Outstanding Teaching Award went to graduate students Todd Jonesand Caroline Walker.

The Howard and Abby Milstein Graduate Teaching Assistanceship Award went to graduate students James Elwell and Duk Gyoo Kim.

The Anindya (Bappu) Majumder '98 Memorial Prize for Excellence in Teaching was awarded to graduate student Tamara McGavock.

The Ernest Liu ‘64, Ta-Chung and Ya-Chao Liu Memorial Fellowship, which award funds graduate student tuition, stipend, and health insurance for a full academic year, was awarded to graduate student Nellie Zhao.

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

The Martin Sampson Teaching Fellowship acknowledges the importance of one of the most vital parts of the profession of literature, the teaching of writing and reading to undergraduates. The recipients were graduate students Matthew Kibbee, Matthew McConnell, Daniel Radus, Aaron Rosenberg, Kristie Schlauraff, and Ben Tam.

The Joseph F. Martino '53 Lectureship in Undergraduate Teaching, which supports English graduate student seminars offering some form of a literary historical survey in the framework of a writing course, was awarded to Bernadette Guthrie.

The Meyer H. Abrams Summer Graduate Fellowship, which provides a summer stipend to support work towards completion of an English dissertation, went to Christine Yao.

The Shin Yong-Jin Graduate Fellowship, for demonstrated excellence in scholarship and teaching, went to Kaylin Myers.

The Truman Capote Ph.D. Writers' Fund, providing summer fellowships for Ph.D. students in English who are also poets or fiction writers, went to Jungmin Kim.

The James McConkey Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Award for Summer Support, Established by His Enduringly Grateful Student, Len Edelstein '59, was awarded to graduate student Olanrewaju Akinsiku.

The David L. Picket '84 Summer Fellowship in Creative Writing was awarded to graduate students Olanrewaju Akinsiku, Travis Duprey, Liza Flum, Cody KLippenstein, Richard LaRose, Ling Ma, Mary-Margaret Stevens, and Renia White.

The Alan Young-Bryant Memorial Graduate Award in Poetry went to graduate students Elizabeth Blake and Stephen Thompson.

The Corson-Browning Poetry Prize was awarded to graduate student Liza Flum for “Guy Lines” and undergraduate students Clare Boland for “Selected Poems” and Alejandra S. Alvarez for “Lessons in Love.”

The Robert Chasen Memorial Poetry Prize was awarded to Alana Siqueira for “Burned Lavender” and Cassidy Rosalia Molina for “Half Fluent.” 

The Dorothy Sugarman Poetry Prize was awarded to Lianne Bornfeld for her “Untitled Poetry Collection” and Molly Atkinson for “Assorted Poems.” 

The Arthur Lynn Andrews Prize graduate student winners were Cody Klippenstein for “Animal” and Mary-Margaret Stevens for "The Mother Home." The Arthur Lynn Andrews Prize undergraduate winners were Madeleine Moss for “Breakdown” and You-Chi Wu for "Before I Left.” The Arthur Lynn Andrews Prize honorable mentions were awarded to undergraduate students Hye Won Cho for "Two-Love Landscape" and Sanskriti Gupta for "3 steps to clarity.”

The George Harmon Coxe Award in Creative Writing (fiction) was awarded to Scott Chiusano for “Loafer and Me,” Matt Siliciano for “Chronology of the Fourth Man’s Meal,” Susan Tu for “LIX” and Bennett Winters for “Big Heart.”

The Guilford Essay Prize, given to the doctoral student in any field whose thesis is judged to display the highest excellence in English prose, went to Jillian Spivey Caddell (English) for “‘An Exchange of Territory’: Geography, Literature, and the American Civil War" and Adin Lears (English) for “Noise & Knowing in Late-Medieval England.”

The Barnes Shakespeare Prize 1st place co-winners were Hana Megumi Yampolsky for “‘Reading’ the Powers of Emilia’s Silence and Voice in Trevor Nunn’s and Janet Suzman’s Productions of Othello” and Raphael Agundez for “Unsex Me: Humoring Lady Macbeth’s Request with Early Modern Conceptions of Gender.” The Barnes Shakespeare Prize 2nd place winner was Cooper Truman for “The Scope of Metadrama in Shakespeare’s Second Tetralogy.”

The M. H. Abrams Thesis Prize went to: Sara Birmingham for “Framing and Posing in Eudora Welty's Fiction and Photography," Kathleen Cruz for "Problematizing the Validity of Glamr's Curse: The Recognition of an Eddic Hero in Grettis saga Asmundarsonar" and Jacob Harry Glick for "Between the City and the Sea: Melville, Fitzgerald, and the Insecurity of the American Dream." Honorable mentions went to Raphael Agundez for "A Second Impression: Reading Textual Variants as Performances" and Vrinda Jagota for "My Friend Taylor: Girl Fans as Active Producers and Community Builders."

The George Harmon Coxe Award in Creative Writing (poetry) was awarded to Aquillah White for “Written From an Unmade Bed,” Austin Park Ward for “Poems,” and Brian Andrew Young for “Intercourse of Correlations.”

The Moses Coit Tyler Award for the best essay by a graduate or undergraduate student in the fields of American History, literature, or folklore went to David Fischer for “The Role of the Court System and Newspapers in Native Son.”

FEMINIST, GENDER, & SEXUALITY STUDIES PROGRAM

The First-Year Writing Seminar Award went to Elizabeth Blake, doctoral candidate, Department of English, for her course “Women’s Work,” and Zachary Price, doctoral candidate, Department of English, for his course “Queer Cinema.”

The Mildred April Memorial Award went to junior Jamie Zabinsky, a Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and English major.

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, & TRANSGENDER STUDIES PROGRAM

The Biddy Martin Graduate Prize for work on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer studies went to Lynne Stahl, doctoral candidate, Department of English, for her essay “If You Don’t Believe Us, Read the Book: Queer Feminist Spectatorship and Filmic Tomboy Narrative.”

The LGBT Studies Undergraduate Prize for work on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer studies went to Carlos Kong, a Comparative Literature major, for his essay "Flesh of Another Machine."

DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN STUDIES

The Goethe Prize is awarded annually for the best essays on any topic connected with German literature or culture. In the Freshmen and Sophomore category, first place went to Amanda Coate, freshmen in the College of Arts & Sciences, for "The Dead Lyric in the Poetry of Hölderlin & Celan.”  Second place went to Eng Liang Daniel Cheong, freshmen in the College of Arts & Sciences, for “The poet’s Condition in Relation to humanity: Understanding Rilke’s Second Duino Elegy through Close Reading.”  In the Junior and Senior category, first place went to Jonathan Barry Schmidt-Swartz, senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, for "Moses Mendelssohn: “Historical without being historicist" Second place went to Patrick Molligo, senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, for "Unhaltbares Gleichgewicht; Amerikanische Außenpolitik und der Zerfall der Weimarer Republik"  An additional second place went to Carolina Iribarren, senior in the College of Arts & Sciences for “Exposing the Metaphysical Subject Via Nietzsche’s Genealogical Method.”

The Simmons Award in German, given to the student who has done the "best work in German," went to sophomore Ruzha Delphi Cleaveland.

Book prizes are given to outstanding students nominated by their German instructors. The books are donated to the Department of German Studies by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany.  The recipients were: Chuting Deng, Inyoung Hong, Jixun Ding, David Faust, Michaela Novakova, Andrew (Drew) Kott, Yu Lou, Tyler Etzel, Alexandra Bergmann, Ryan Shawindass Ramano, Avichai Natanel Kapach, Sarah Elisabeth Gutz, Brian Youngho Shin, Maxwell Vega, Yu Lou, Sohyeon (Catherine) Hwang, Matthew Luebbers, Emily Crawford, Taylor Goodin, Sherri Couillard, Nathaniel Williams, Matthew Owen Crescimanno, Emma Stillings, Moteleolu Monifeolu Onabajo, Joshua Levi Ringquist, Xinyi Li, Boomer Olsen, Kevin Parvizi, Arundathi Sharma, Alyssa Trigg, Emma Craven-Matthews, Nicole Helen Schwardt, Devon Langbein, Joshua Taylor, Stefanie McNerney, Lauren Stechschulte, Kristen Claire Hegedus, Nicole Helen Schwardt, Leighton Fernando, Yeuzhou (Celena) Huo, Isadora Anderson, Patrick Molligo, and Xinyi (Lena) Li.

The Language Certificate in German Language Study for having achieved an advanced level of language competence through course work at the 3000 level corresponding to the criteria set by The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (level B2+) was awarded to Ryan J. Campbell, Brittany David, Amy Frankhouser, Bianca-Herlitz-Ferguson, Taylor Lint, Amanda Molina, Ariane Walker-Horn, Yuezhou Huo, Jianing Yingand Ruoxi Zhang.

DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT

The Clyde A. Duniway Prize was awarded to Bianca Herlitz-Ferguson.

The Sherman-Bennett Prize was awarded to Terence Looi.

The Kasdan-Montessori Peace Prize was awarded to Shourou Li.

The Lieutenant David Chrystall Prize was awarded to Haejin Hwang.

The Janice N. and Milton J. Esman Undergraduate Prize was awarded to David Melly.

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

The Undergraduate Messenger Chalmers Prize for best thesis essay on research and thinking on human progress was awarded to John Handel, Daniel Marshall and Kiran Mehta.

The 2015 Messenger Chalmers graduate prize for best dissertation essay on research and thinking on human progress was awarded to Gregg Lightfoot and Amy Kohout.

The Cornelius W. DeKiewiet Prize to the outstanding history majors who have demonstrated unusual promise and excellence in the field was awarded to Zihao Liu and Aurora Rojer.

The Clyde A. Duniway Book Prize for the best graduating student in the College of Arts and Sciences was awarded to Kiran Mehta.

The Bernard and Fannie Lang Prize for the best honors thesis in US History or American Studies was awarded to Daniel Marshall.

The Anne MacIntyre Litchfield Prize to outstanding women graduating with a major in history was awarded to Christina Zhang and Rose Hanson.

The George S. Lustig Prize, awarded to the outstanding senior who intends to continue the study of history at the graduate level, went to John Handel.

Frederick Marcham Prize, to a student who excels in seminars and/or tutorials, and who is active in extra-curricular activities, awarded to Justin Pascoe.

The Benard E. West Prize, awarded competitively to the most promising undergraduate research scholar specializing in American history, went to Daniel Marshall.

The Moses Coit Tyler Award for the best essay by a graduate or undergraduate student in the fields of American History, literature, or folklore went to David Fischer.

DEPARTMENT OF THE HISTORY OF ART

The Sampson Fine Arts Prize, given to the members of the senior class who have consistently demonstrated academic excellence, commitment, and achievement, particularly in the field of the history of art, was awarded to Zoe Carlson and Carlos Kong.

The Petrine Archer-Straw Award for Excellence in Visual Studies was awarded to Caroline Adelson and Ephrath Tesfaye for outstanding papers written in Visual Studies.

JOHN S. KNIGHT INSTITUTE FOR WRITING IN THE DISCIPLINES

Fall 2014 Awards:

The Adelphic Award went to Qian Wang for “Queer and Bold.” Linfeng Shen received an honorable mention for “Thalidomide Tragedy: How to Improve Animal Testing.”

The Elmer Markham Johnson Prize was awarded to Yiheng Huang for “Sewage Systems in the United States—Tracing the History of a Mundane Artifact.” Zachary de Stefan received an honorable mention for “Female Passivity and Flawed Protagonists in Frankenstein.”

The James E. Rice, Jr. Prize was awarded to Aohan Dang for “Autism: The Neurobehavioral Disorder.” and to Alexander Maisel for “Douglass’ Declaration of Independence: The Schism between William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass.”

The Spencer Portfolio Award for Students and Instructors was awarded to Katy Jo Habr, student, and Caroline Zeilenga, instructor, for “Home is What We Carry Within.” Honorable mention went to Erica Resnick, student, and Anna Waymack, instructor, for “Erica’s Fairy Tale Portfolio.”

The Gertrude Spencer Prize for Students and Instructors was awarded to Elizabeth Gorman, student, and Kathleen Sexsmith, instructor, for Missing From the Milk Carton—The Hidden Reality of Migrant Workers in the VT Dairy Industry.” Honorable mention went to Kathryn Quizon, student, and Sara Keene, instructor, for “Reworking Welfare: Shifting From Familial to Societal Responsibility.”

The James F. Slevin Assignment Sequence Prize was awarded to Laura Martin for “Navigating Scientific Research.” Honorable mention went to Hayden Kantor for “Ethnography of Campus Food Cultures Research Project” and Marija Modanu for “Science for All.” Honorable mention was also given to Peter Wissoker for “Will a New Factory Help My City?”

The Knight Prize for Expository Writing was awarded to Allessandra DiCorato for “Choosing and Objective” Honorable mention went to Timothy Vhay for “Samantha Baker to Ferris Bueller.”

The Writing in the Majors Award went to Ismini Ethridge for “Executive Briefing Paper: Immigration” and Maria Smith for “The Role of Social Learning in Development of anti-predator behavior in the Moustashed Warbler (Acrocephalus Melanopogon).” Honorable mentions went to Karen Ceballos for “Arts and Acacias: The Savanna’s Very Own Action-Adventure Medieval Drama” and Lily Chchanowicz for “An Invention of Being.”

The John S. Knight Award for Writing Exercises and Handouts went to Chris Hesselbein for “Peer Review/Conclusion Writing Exercise.” Honorable mention went to Jesse Goldberg for “Transitions.”

The Buttrick-Crippen Fellowship was awarded to John Foo for “Engineering Marvels Deconstructed.”

The Neil Lubow Prize was awarded to Kelsey Mollura for “The Right to Work: Dissonance between Federal and Local Perspectives on the Undocumented Workers of Los Angeles.”

Spring 2013 Awards:

The Adelphic Award went to Emma Ianni for “Always the Hours: When Happiness is Diluted and Instants are Lost.” Yifei Wu received an honorable mention for “Disagreement between Peter Singer and Richard Miller on the Duty of Assistance.”

The James E. Rice, Jr. Prize was awarded to Emad Masroor for “Land Use in Central New York: Survival of the Fittest?.” and to Caitlin Noonan for “The Pioneer Woman and the Struggle to Redefine Gender Roles.” Amiri Banks received honorable mention for “The Key to Hugging Trees: Protecting the Forrest with Your Words.”

The Spencer Portfolio Award for Students and Instructors was awarded to Caitlin Gee, student, and Carl Gelderloos, instructor, for “Caitlin Gee’s Portfolio for Spring 2014 GerSt 1109.”

The Expository Writing Prize was awarded to Ana Nino for “Walking.” Matthew Farrell received honorable mention for “Approaching Escape Velocity in Akira.”

The Gertrude Spencer Prize for Students and Instructors was awarded to Lauren Cooley, student, and Janice Gallagher, instructor, “Is Australia Really Closing the Gap?: The Failed Indigenous Health Campaign.” Honorable mention went to Megan Joyce, student, and Taza Schaming, instructor, for “Black-footed Ferrets: The Link between Behavior, Reproduction, and Conservation.”

The James F. Slevin Assignment Sequence Prize was awarded to Lynne Stahl for “Academy of Motion Pictures: Exercises in Film Analysis.”

The John S. Knight Award for Writing Exercises and Handouts went to Daniel Tamayo for “Thinking through an Essay.”

The Writing in the Majors Award went to Mané Mehrabyan for “The Man and the Maqamat.” Honorable mentions went to Katharine Constas for “International Development/Personal Development” and Jesse Gonzalez for “A Generation of Hippopotamuses.”

LATINA/O STUDIES PROGRAM

The Latina/o Studies Program Award for Outstanding Senior Minoring in Latina/o Studies went to Sarah Jessica Proo.

The Latina/o Studies Program Award for Outstanding Master Student Minoring in Latina/o Studies went to Evelyn Ambriz.

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

Department teaching awards, which recognize the importance of faculty and graduate students in the teaching and learning of mathematics, were awarded to senior facultyYulij Ilyashenko and Mark Jauquet; junior faculty Sanjay Dharmavaram; and graduate students Laura Escobar Vega, Matthew Holden, and Zhengyi Zhou.

The Robert John Battig Graduate Prize was awarded to Laura Escobar Vega and Radoslav Zlatev.

The Eleanor Norton York Award went to Daniel Miller and Valente Ramirez Garcia Luna.

Hutchinson Fellowships were awarded to Jeffrey Bergfalk, Voula Collins, and Aliaksandr Patotski.

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC

The Ellen Gussman Adelson Prize, which rewards and encourages outstanding Cornell students excelling in instrumental music performance, went to Sarah Baldessari and Paul Hwang.

The John James Blackmore Prize was awarded to Jae Baek, Lizzie Lyons, Ryan McCollough, Sarah McDonald, Michael Small, Eric Tan, and Andrew Zhou.

The H.A. Falconer Memorial Scholarship, which assists talented undergraduates in studying voice, went to Amy Penick and Charles Phil.

The Otto R. Stahl Memorial Award, which honors a graduate composer for an excellent Festival Chamber Orchestra concert, went to Corey Keating.

The Barbara Troxell Vocal Music Award, for outstanding vocal students who evidence professional musical interests, went to Emma Keteltas, Martin Mahoney, and Philip Fargo.

The Donald J. Grout Memorial Prize, for recognition of exceptional dissertations, went to Mathieu Langlois for his dissertation, “Visuality and Pictorialism in French Baroque Music.”

DEPARTMENT OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

The Language Awards for excellence in Arabic went to Xinyi Chen, Allison Killea, Rebecca Mack, Madeline Cohen, Varqa Kalantar, Alexander Davies and Erica Augenstein. 

The Language Award for excellence in Persian went to Rehan Saber

The Kroll Travel Award went to Lei Yang and Elana Loeb.

DEPARTMENT OF NEUROBIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR

The Robert R. Capranica Award for an outstanding undergraduate honors thesis in neuroethology went to Nick Petersen (laboratory of Dr. Christiane Linster). 

The Miriam M. Salpeter Award for an outstanding undergraduate honors thesis in neurobiology went to Meghan Horne (laboratory of Dr. David Deitcher). 

The Cynthia Kagarise Sherman Award for an outstanding undergraduate honors thesis in behavior went to Jocelyn Stedman (laboratory of Dr. Maren Vitousek). 

The Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award went to Kevin J. Loope for “BIONB 2210: Introduction to Behavior.” 

The Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award went to Maria Carrizales for “BIOG 1500: Investigative Biology.” 

DEPARTMENT OF PERFORMING AND MEDIA ARTS

The 2015 Drama Book Shop Award went to senior Claire Stack.

The Marvin Carlson Award for 2015 went to Erin Stoneking for “(Re)Performing the American Civil War: Time, Memory, and Nation-making in Paula Vogel’s ‘A Civil War Christmas.’”

Worman Scholarships of $3,000 each were awarded to PMA undergraduates Carla Perez, Kimberly Scarsella, and Elana Valastro.

The Heermans-McCalmon Annual Playwriting Awards went to: sophomore Jacob Wang (first place, screenwriting) for his screenplay “The Blue and White Sea”; senior Jessica Evans (first place, stage plays) for her play “Cheese America”; senior Scott Chiusano (second place, screenwriting) for his screenplay, “Graffiti Gods”; and junior Brian James Murphy (second place, stage plays) for his play entitled, “The (Symbolic) Tree.”

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

The Program on Ethics and Public Life’s annual awards in honor of Robert S. Hatfield ’37 to support research and study of ethics in business went to Avi Appel, for research on issues of privacy and free speech confronted by Facebook and other social media; Tracy DiPetrillo, for participation in the Italia Innovation Program; Elinathan Ohiomoba, for study of human rights and corporate social responsibility at the 2015 Academy of European Law; and Jennifer Park for interviewing on questions of business ethics.

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

The Yennie Prize in Physics, for a senior student majoring in physics who shows unusual promise for future contributions to physics research and who intends to earn a doctorate, went to Laura Chang and Yimin Wang.

The Kieval Prize in Physics, awarded to senior physics students who demonstrate unusual promise for future contributions to physics research, went to Lipi Gupta.

The Hartman Prize in Physics and Applied Engineering and Physics, awarded to recognize outstanding work in experimental physics by an undergraduate in either program, went to Airlia Shaffer-Moag.

The Douglas Fitchen Memorial Award, in support of student travel abroad to study, pursue research, or participate in international physics-related events held outside the United States, went to graduate students Daniel Citron, Cody Long, Gregory Stiehl, andKyungmin Lee.

The Albert Silverman Memorial Award, in support of travel by graduate students in high energy physics, went to graduate student Jeff Dror.

The Lucent Travel Award from Lucent Technologies, in support of scientific travel expenses, went to graduate student Nima Afkhami-Jeddi.

The Stirling A. Colgate Award, in support of enhanced excellence in physics/astrophysics, went to undergraduate Matthew Moschella

The Boochever Fellowship from the Boochever family went to Jack Collins for the Fall 2014 semester and will be shared by Andrew Bohn and William Throwe for Spring 2015.

The Rao Fellowship, endowed by Professor and Mrs. Vithala Rao in honor of his late brother, is given to an international student to help encourage study in the U.S. and to recognize their accomplishments. This year’s recipient is graduate student Robert Noest.

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

The Thomas Arthur Ryan award for the best undergraduate honors thesis to the psychology department went to Kemar Prussien and Tabitha Kim.

The Ronald D. Mack Memorial for outstanding accomplishment in community service went to Kemar Prussien.

DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE STUDIES

The J.G. White Spanish Scholarship was awarded Andy Alfonso, Bjorn Bjornsson, and Emily Hardin.

The J.G. White Prize for Excellence in Spanish was awarded to Julia Vasta and Gabrielle Girard.

The J.G. White Prize for Excellence in English was awarded to Alexandra Ward.

The J. G. White Spanish Prize for an engineering student was awarded to Adrienne Scottand Jorge Torres.

The Carolina Corson French Prize was awarded to graduate student Neal Allar and to undergraduates Hazel Guardado and Therese Banks.

The Romance Studies Outstanding Performance as a Graduate Teaching Assistant Award went to Edward Curran and Valeria Dani.

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES

The Tallman Prize in Honor of Professor William Provine and his dedication to teaching, was presented to Marc Hershberg for his paper in STS 4071: Law, Science, and Public Values.

The Abraham ‘Zito’ Boczkowski Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student went to Mehmet Ekinci.

The Sheila Jasanoff Prize for Academic Excellence in Science & Technology Studies, for the best graduate student paper within the previous three semesters, was awarded to Ranjit Singh for “Back to the Future: Situating the ‘T’ in ‘STS.’”

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

The Leo Meltzer Award, celebrating the contributions of former Professor Leo Meltzer, is for the best undergraduate thesis in the field of social psychology, broadly defined.  The award went to Daniel Rubin for his thesis “From the Court to Culture: Supreme Court Decisions on Gay Rights Issues and Changes in Public Attitudes toward Homosexual Relationships, 1973-2014.”

The Robert Wertheimer Award honors the continuing contributions of former sociology major Robert Wertheimer and is for the best thesis outside the field of social psychology.  The award went to Alyssa Webb for her thesis “At the Forefront of Integration: A Descriptive Analysis of Mixed Income Neighborhoods in the City of Chicago.”

The Department Citation for Excellence in Teaching went to Alicia Eads.

The Robin M. Williams, Jr. Best Paper Award for the best graduate student paper went to Dafna Gelbgiser.

The Robert McGinnis Best Paper Award for the best graduate student paper went to Alicia Eads.

The Center for the Study of Inequality's Inequality Honors Thesis Contest winners were seniors Jessica Barragan, sociology and government, for "Hispanic Disadvantage in Criminal Jury Trials: A Multi-Method Study of Juror Bias Against Hispanic Defendants in Four Urban Counties"; and Zoe Otedola, sociology, for "The Impact of Aspirations on Educational Attainment."

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