Note: Additional awards will be added as they are announced.
ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM
The 2026 Association for Asian American Studies Conference Travel Grants went to Henry Cheng, Stephanie Sang and Nic Vigilante.
CORNELL INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY & MATERIAL STUDIES
Hirsch Undergraduate Archaeological Research and Travel Grants were awarded to Esther Brenner, Claire Clifford-Langenek, Madelyn Funk, Sana Ghauri, Elizabeth Hall, Zacharie Henningsen, Grace Liu and David Suh.
Lewin Undergraduate Research and Travel Grants were awarded to Esther Brenner, Claire Clifford-Langenek, Madelyn Funk, Elizabeth Hall and Grace Liu.
The CIAMS Undergraduate Conference Travel Award went to Zacharie Henningsen.
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY
The Freedman Award for Undergraduate Research in Anthropology was awarded to Maddox Feldbaum and Madelyn Funk.
DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES
The Asian Studies Summer Study, Research, and Service Travel Grants went to Matthew Wang (Taiwan), Madeline McGee (Taiwan), Violet Bohler (China), Molly Murray (Korea), Thai Koehnie (Vietnam) and Troy Carrillo (Indonesia).
The Robert J. Smith/Russell Mann Gift for top intermediate Japanese language students was awarded to Tingyu Li.
The Japanese Language Program Robert Sukle Award for three years of outstanding work went to Zentaro Fujii.
The Korean Language Program Award for three years of outstanding work went to Clara Alcolea Vila, Luke Chang and Isabela Wilson.
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 Elija Mullens.
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 Abby Boehm.
The Eleanor York Prize, given to a graduate student to reward service to the community as well as academic achievement, went to Aiden Zelakiewicz.
The Cranson and Edna B. Shelley prize for Undergraduate Research went to Ian Branigan.
The West Undergraduate Fellowship went to Jerry Wang ’28, and Treyton Grahn ‘27.
DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
The Edgar Rosenberg Travel Grant for students majoring in comparative literature, to support intensive language study outside the U.S., was awarded to Jack Clauss to travel to Dakar, Senegal to study French at the Baobab Center, and to David Suarez to travel to Ciudad de México, México to study Spanish at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY & EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
The Robert H. Whittaker award, given in recognition of the best oral presentation made by a graduate student at the Annual Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Symposium, was presented to Jackson Phillips.
The Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Book Award, given in recognition of the best oral presentation by a beginning ecology and evolutionary biology department/field graduate student at the Annual Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Symposium, went to Rachael Shippee.
The Lamont Cole Award, given for an outstanding paper by a graduate student of a Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology faculty member or joint appointee, was presented to Bryce Robinson.
The Department TA Award for excellence in teaching was given to Jarrod Fyie.
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
The following graduating seniors are receiving Excellence in Economics in Memory of Tapan Mitra awards: Olivia Kim, Jeronimo Martin Duque, Karen Petrosyan, Brandon Shapiro, Caroline Smiltneks and Timmy Xi.
The Frank H. Vedder Award for best paper in an economics course is awarded to Liam Daly.
The Ernest Liu ‘64, Ta-Chung and Ta-Chao Liu Memorial Fellowship, which funds graduate student tuition, stipend and health insurance for one semester, was awarded to graduate students Yaling Xu and Zebang Xu.
The Labor Economics Small Grant Awards went to graduate students Lexin Cai, Senan Hogan-Hennessey, Kalie Pierce and Vaios Triantafyllou.
The L.R. "Red" Wilson M.A. '67 Excellence in Economics Award to support thesis proposal, research, and writing was awarded to graduate students Edoardo Bollati, Senan Hogan-Hennessy, Gautier Lenfant and Leonardo Peñloza-Pacheco.
The Ernest Liu ‘64, Ta-Chung and Ta-Chao Liu Memorial Fellowship, which funds graduate student tuition, stipend and health insurance for one semester, was awarded to graduate student Lexin Cai.
The Labor Economics Small Grant Awards went to graduate students Emiliano Harris, Julia Hewitt, Gautier Lenfant, Leonardo Peñaloza-Pacheco, Ming Wei Adelson Teh and Saloni Vadeyar.
The Howard and Abby Milstein Graduate Teaching Assistantship went to graduate students Aupamik Chakraborty and Ngoc Phuong Linh Nguyen.
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
The 2026 Undergraduate Messenger Chalmers Prize for best thesis essay on research and thinking on human progress was awarded to Danny Alonso and Mia Battistella.
The Cornelius W. DeKiewiet Prize to the outstanding history major (junior) who demonstrated unusual promise and excellence in the field was awarded to Tomas Comesana.
The Clyde A. Duniway Book Prize for the best junior in the College of Arts & Sciences was awarded to Emma O’Leary.
The Bernard and Fannie Lang Prize for the best honors thesis in U.S. history or American studies was awarded to Aitan Avgar.
The Anne Macintyre Litchfield Prize to an outstanding woman graduating with a major in history was awarded to Ciara Flaherty.
The George S. Lustig Prize, awarded to the outstanding senior who intends to continue the study of history at the graduate level, went to Nicholas Vega.
The 2026 Messenger Chalmers Graduate Prize for best dissertation essay on research and thinking on human progress was awarded to Jeremy Goodwin and Darren Wan.
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF ART AND VISUAL STUDIES
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 Olivia Kim.
The Alumni Distinguished Leadership Award, given to a member of the senior class who in her or his time as a major has demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment to the field of history of art, was awarded to Ashley Kim.
The Annetta Alexandridis Award for Advancing the Discipline of Art History, given to a member of the senior class who has advanced the discipline of art history through innovative research and creative projects, was awarded to Audrey Hanjie Hua.
JOHN S. KNIGHT INSTITUTE FOR WRITING IN THE DISCIPLINES
Spring 2025 Awards
The Adelphic Award went to Archawin Kittirattanapaiboon for “Undoing Un-Thainess: Portraying Isaan ‘Hired Wife’ (Mia Chao) in Thai Cold War Songs.”
The Writing in the Majors Prize was awarded to Tamana Ghaznawi for “Miscommunication and Medical Power: The Limits of Cultural Competency After the Afghan Evacuation.” Honorable mentions went to Max Guan for “Rethinking the RAISE Act: Protecting Texas’s Labor Market and Economic Stability” and Audrey Lovell Stavrand for “RNAi Knockdown of Olfactory Receptors Alters Callosobruchus maculatus Mating Behavior.”
The James E. Rice Prizes were awarded to Paulina Delgado for “Slamming the Door on Conversion Therapy” and Anton Nazarenko for “The Role of Sense in Song (and Poetry).”
The English 2880, Expository Writing Prize went to Muna Mohamed for “Of Gods and Melanin: Theorizing the Resistance to Black Bodies in White Imaginative Spaces.” Honorable mention went to Rma L. Polce for “The Price of Pain: How True Crime Media Commodifies Trauma.”
The Spencer Portfolio Award for Students and Instructors went to Katie Soltis, student, and Anna Koshcheeva, instructor, for “Portfolio: Investigating Cultural Transition and Gender through Cold War Cultural Objects.”
The James F. Slevin Assignment Sequence Prize was awarded to Lars Johnson for “Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Creation and Analysis.” Honorable mention went to Yue Zhao for “Making a Voice: The Art of Persuasive Writing Through an Op-ed.”
The Neil Lubow Prize was awarded to Simon Cui for “Unmasking Pandemic Legacies: Domestic Violence.”
The John S. Knight Award for Writing Exercises and Handouts went to Nic Vigilante for “To Be Or Not To Be: Writing Active Prose.”
Fall 2025 Awards
The Adelphic Award went to Uliana Doroshenko for “Impact of the war in Ukraine on smart textile innovation in military applications.” Honorable mention was awarded to Jianxi Wu for “Universal Language or Just a Tool: The Impact of Emojis on Digitalized Communication.”
The Spencer Portfolio Award for Students and Instructors was awarded to Katherine Zhao, student, and Chiara Visentin, instructor, for “Power in Medieval Paris: Causes, Conduits, and Contradictions.” Honorable mention went to Shabana Mahdis, student, and Tanner Crunelle, instructor, for “To Write is to Resist: Feminist Solidarity Across Borders.”
The Writing in the Majors Prize went to Jaxon Jacobs for “Revelation Without Revelation: The Intelligence Apocalypse.” Honorable mention went to Rylee Landau for “Quiet Symptoms with Loud Consequences: How Gender Norms Shape ADHD Diagnosis in Girls.”
The James E. Rice Prizes were awarded to Max Greene for “The Persistence of Vaccine Hesitancy: What It Says About Trust in Institutions” and Lionel Hearon for “What I Learned as Prey.” Honorable mention went to Cassidy Takeuchi for “Material Resonance: Embodiment, Gender, and the Acoustic Guitar.”
The Elmer Markham Johnson Prize went to Sean Li for “Fica! Automobility and Infrastructure in Post WWII Yugoslavia.”
The Gertrude Spencer Prize for Students and Instructors was awarded to Brenna Lucio-Belbase, student, and Jingya Guo, instructor, for “Debate of the Inner Chambers of the Bound Lotus.” Honorable mention went to Justin Chen, student, and Lanxin Shi, instructor, for “On Existentialist’s analysis of anxiety.”
The James F. Slevin Assignment Sequence Prize was awarded to Ryanne Berry for “Writing Like a Medieval Visionary: Visual Analysis, Creative Writing, and the Johnson Museum Collection.” Honorable mention went to Becca Ames for “From Personal Narrative to Analytical Argument: Mining Spatial Experience for Meaning.”
The Buttrick-Crippen Assistantship was awarded to Liam Packer for “Mathematics and Social Justice.” Honorable mentions went to Luc Barrett for “Writing the Universe: Science Communication in Physics & Astronomy” and Mark Mahoney for “Jazz Fictions.”
The Neil Lubow Prize was awarded to Nathan Speert for “Are States Like Clubs?”
The John S. Knight Award for Writing Exercises and Handouts went to Charlie Tebbutt for “Critical Essay Evaluation for Reflection on Writing and the Use of AI.” Honorable mention went to Kim Phung Nguyen for “Peer-Review Activity: Sentence/ Paragraph Puzzle, Bingo card, and Reverse Outline.”
LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER
The Lisa Sansoucy Language Scholar Award, recognizing a student who excels in learning a less commonly taught language as part of the Shared Course Initiative, went to Evelyn Elmer Fettes.
LATINA/O STUDIES PROGRAM
The Latina/o Studies Program award for outstanding work in the Latina/o studies undergraduate minor, community engagement and academic achievements went to Gio Rodriguez ‘26.
The Latina/o Studies Program Student Success Office certificate of appreciation recognizing outstanding dedication and service to Cornell's Latinx student community was awarded to Ximena Toxqui '26 and Shaunjae Suarez '26.
LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, & TRANSGENDER STUDIES PROGRAM
The Undergraduate Prize for work on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Studies went to Luke Knight for “’The Whole World Was Out to Kill You Both’: the Role of Queer Betrayal in Intimate Partner Violence.”
The Biddy Martin Graduate Prize for work on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender studies went to Moira de Kok for “Making Queer Kinship with Music: Listening to Songs ‘From the Bathroom at a Party.’” And to Ariel M. Dela Cruz for “The Power of Two Tomboy Celebrities: The Transing Performances of Ice Seguerra and Jake Zyrus.”
DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURES IN ENGLISH
Teaching Awards
The Shin Yong-Jin/Harry Falkenau Graduate Teaching Fellowship, for demonstrated excellence in scholarship and teaching, was awarded to Maria Al-Raes for the 2026-27 academic year.
The Joseph F. Martino '53 Lectureship in Undergraduate Teaching, which supports English undergraduate student seminars offering some form of a literary historical survey in the framework of a writing course, will be held by Margaux Delaney for the 2026-27 academic year.
Undergraduate Thesis Awards
The winners of the M.H. Abrams Undergraduate Thesis Prize, established in memory of the late Meyer H. “Mike” Abrams, Class of 1916 Professor Emeritus, who joined the Cornell faculty in 1945, are Christina Bonarti for “Desire on the Menu: The Paradox of Appetite in the Middle Ages” and America Casanova for “Si Yo Pudiera, Yo Lo Hiciera: Co-Illegality and Mother-Daughter Bonds in ‘Their Dogs Came with Them.’”
The winners of the Guilford Thesis Prize, established in 1988 in memory of J. P. Guilford ’21 and awarded to undergraduates who display excellence in English prose, are Sarah Mittleman for “The Dark and Doubtful Way of the Law: Prosecuting Women’s Oppression through Wilkie Collins’s ‘The Woman in White’” and Olivia Weeldreyer for “The Childhood Sublime: Architecture, Memory, and the Uncanny in Shirley Jackson's Haunted Houses.”
Creative Writing Prizes
The Arthur Lynn Andrews Award for Fiction graduate student winners are: 1st place, Otis Fuqua for “Two Stories”; 2nd place, Habiba Dokubo-Asari for “Arboretum and Abecedarian”; and 3rd place, Nicholas Kimble for “Whispers from the Shores.”
The Arthur Lynn Andrews Award for Fiction undergraduate student winners are: 1st place, Laura Lee for “Definitions”; 2nd place, Addison Smith for “Cherry Tomato,”; and 3rd place, Noor Jehan Ahmad for “Shanzai.”
The George Harmon Coxe Award in Fiction graduate student winners are: 1st place, Miklos Mattyasovszky for “My Father Before the Cardinal”; 2nd place, Fia Zhang Swanson for “Two Stories: Foreigner and Little Bug”; and 3rd place, Zibusiso Mpofu for “Reimagining What My Mother Would Have Done If She'd Had The (EYE).”
The George Harmon Coxe Award in Fiction undergraduate student winners are: 1st place, Conner Smith for “The Eidolon”; 2nd place, Luke Dennis for “Our House of Animals”; and 3rd place, Leena Jalees for “The Gravemist.”
The George Harmon Coxe Award in Poetry graduate student winner is Gerardo Azpiri Iglesias for “Pornstar Martini.”
The George Harmon Coxe Award in Poetry undergraduate winner is Dylan Drongesen for “Strange Fruits.”
The Robert Chasen Memorial Poetry Prize graduate student winners are: 1st place, Timi Sanni for “7 Poems” and 2nd Place, Samantha Samakande for “Rim of Dissolve.”
The Robert Chasen Memorial Poetry Prize undergraduate student winners are: 1st place, Shuwen Ding for “Reading Films” and 2nd Place, Iman Jumabhoy for “The Weight of One Hundred Skyscrapers.”
The Corson-Browning Poetry Prize graduate student winners are: 1st place, Anne Marie Zidek for “Plausible Maternity” and 2nd place, Bridget Huh for “Eight Poems.”
The Corson-Browning Poetry Prize undergraduate student winners are: 1st place, Defne Su Yucesir for “The Feminine Form” and 2nd place, Nadia Choophungart for “Entanglements.”
The Dorothy Sugarman Poetry Prize was awarded to undergraduate student Zoe Reay-Ellers for “Poetry Packet.”
Essay Prizes
The George Harmon Coxe Award in American Literature was awarded to undergraduate student Christina MacCorkle for “The Limits of the Liberal Imagination: Lionel Trilling, James Baldwin and the Failure of Interiority in Early Cold War Literary Politics.”
The Moses Coit Tyler Award, for the best essay by a graduate or undergraduate student in the fields of American history, literature, or folklore, was awarded to graduate student John Undaloc for “(Self-)Portraiture at Play in Harry Fonseca's Paintings of ‘Coyotes’" and undergraduate student Olivia Weeldreyer for “No Place at All: Domestic Space, Female Dispossession, and the Uncanny in Shirley Jackson.”
Writing Prizes
The Collected Writings Portfolio Award was awarded to Mairead Clas (co-winner Honorable Mention for Best Portfolio, co-winner Citation for Criticism); Sophia Friedman (co-winner Citation for New Media Composition); Madeleine Kapsalis; Angela Lloyd-Jones; Raina Lockwood (co-winner Citation for Criticism, winner Citation for Critical Reflection on Rhetoric and Composition); Isabel Macedo (co-winner Honorable Mention for Best Portfolio); Camila Morata; Sophia Romanov Imber; Jasmin Sin (co-winner Best Portfolio, winner Citation for Public Writing); Hazel Tjaden; and Defne Yucesir (co-winner Best Portfolio, co-winner Citation for New Media Composition).
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 graduate students Moriah Elkin, Mark Schachner and Katerina Tang.
The Robert John Bättig Graduate Prize for excellence and promise in mathematics was awarded to Emil Graf and Xuanyu Li.
The Eleanor Norton York Award for achievements to date in mathematics went to graduate students Juliet Aygun and Zachary Couvillion.
The Hutchinson Fellowship for outstanding work as teaching assistants or as students in the graduate program was awarded to Yibo Ji and Chase Vogeli.
The Torng Prize for outstanding work as a teacher was awarded to graduate student Aria Beaupre.
Winners of the First-Year Prize Exam are Derek Li (first place), Jiayan Ni (first place) and David Rodriguez (third place).
The Harry S. Kieval Prize in Mathematics was awarded to undergraduate mathematics majors Kevin Chen, Jiucheng Dai and Eugene Gonzalez.
The Transcendence Award in Mathematics was awarded to undergraduate mathematics major John Veliz.
DEPARTMENT OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND GENETICS
The Harry and Samuel Mann Outstanding Graduate Student Award was awarded to Nicolas Vergara Ruiz.
The George P. Hess Travel Award was awarded to Akshayakeerthi Arthanarisami.
The Rita and Joe Calvo Graduate Student Teaching Award went to Ben McCormick.
The CALS Outstanding Teaching Awards were awarded to graduate students Elaina Johnson and Serena Teh.
DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC
The Ellen Gussman Adelson Prize, which rewards and encourages outstanding Cornell students excelling in instrumental music performance, went to Turner Aldrich and Isaac Dorio.
The John James Blackmore Prize, which assists undergraduate and graduate students studying music, was awarded to Arthur Li, Ariel Mo, Abigail Gabalski, Cole Laudenslager and Seare Farhat.
The H.A. Falconer Memorial Scholarship, which assists talented undergraduates in studying voice, went to Pedro Villa-Forte and Anya Packard.
The Otto R. Stahl Memorial Award, which honors a graduate composer for excellent work, went to Eliot Burk.
The Barbara Troxell Vocal Music Award, for outstanding vocal students who evidence professional musical interests, went to Beyanca Guilme and Joseph Wolff.
The Donald J. Grout Memorial Prize, for recognition of exceptional dissertations, went to Cibele Moura.
DEPARTMENT OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES
Language Awards for excellence in Arabic went to Evan Sun Wu, Sophie Mei McAtee, Ahmed Syed Arif, Aleena Naeem, Brian Hoff, Ava Tafresh and Sadaqat Omar.
The Language Award for excellence in Persian went to Lily Ehsan.
Language Awards for excellence in Hebrew went to Cooper Sherman, Henry Brockman, Estelle D’Alessio, Levi Miller and Israel Gootin.
The Language Award for excellence in Turkish went to Matt Can and Hayden Krushel.
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 Atlas Bailly.
The Kieval Prize in Physics, awarded to senior physics students who demonstrate unusual promise for future contributions to physics research, went to Abra Geiger.
The Erik Cassel ’90 Prize, awarded to an undergraduate physics major who has demonstrated exceptional creativity and promise in applying computer programming to a project in physics or related fields, went to Albert Zhou.
The Hartman Prize in Physics went to Evan Navar Root.
The Boochever Fellowship from the Boochever family went to Steven Ferrante for Fall 2025 and Guglielmo Papiri for Spring 2026.
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY STUDIES
The Sheila Jasanoff Prize for Academic Excellence in Science & Technology Studies is awarded each spring to a graduate student in the Ph.D. program in STS for the best paper written in the previous three semesters. The 2026 prize was awarded to Yue Zhao for her paper “Science in Gestation: Potential Science and the (Re)production of Creativity in Reform Era China.”
The Abraham “Zito” Boczkowski Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student is awarded annually to a deserving graduate student for outstanding teaching as a teaching assistant and/or as the sole instructor for a Freshman Writing Seminar. The 2026 award went to Hai Ri (Sophia) Jeon.
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