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2020-2021 Thesis Prize Winners

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David M. Kennedy Honors Thesis Prizes

Engineering and Applied Sciences: Jiarui Sun, Chemical Engineering. CD22 blockade is a target for reversing microglial lysosomal dysfunction in Niemann-Pick Disease Type C. Mentored by Tony Wyss-Coray and Monther Abu-Remaileh

Humanities: Marilyn Zhang, Ethics In Society. Affirmative Algorithms: Relational Equality as Fairness for Pretrial Risk Assessments. Mentored by Leif Wenar and Kathleen Creel

Natural Sciences: Jamie Leonard, Earth Systems. Long-Term Biodiversity Change in a Foundation Species Intertidal Community: Ecological Insights from Three Surveys Over Sixty Years. Mentored by Fiorenza Micheli and Rodolfo Dirzo

Social Sciences: Arjun Ramani, Economics. The Donut Effect: How work-from-home impacts migration patterns and real estate markets. Mentored by Nicholas Bloom and Pete Klenow


Firestone Medals for Excellence in Undergraduate Research

Melda Alaluf, Political Science. The “Politics” of Family Business: A Social Network Analysis of Turkey’s Koç Family & Their Political Connections. Mentored by Stephen Haber

Sofia Miranda Avila Jamesson, Symbolic Systems. Fallouts of Deportations in Texas: Analyzing the impact of large-scale workplace raids on academic performance. Mentored by Michelle Jackson and Beka Guluma

Audrey Bloom, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. How Doctors Influence the Price of Healthcare in the United States and Japan: The Critical Role of Interest Group Politics in America's Healthcare Cost Crisis. Mentored by Terry Moe

Nic Fishman, Sociology. Making (Global) Criminal Procedure: Empire, the End of Justice, and the Rise of Efficiency. Mentored by John Meyer

Matthew Hall, Chemistry. The 3’-5’ DEDDh RNA Exonuclease ISG20L2 is essential for maturation of the Telomerase RNA Component. Mentored by Steven Artandi

Jabari Hastings, Mathematics. Positive Correlation in Matroids. Mentored by Jan Vondrák

Elyssa Hofgard, Physics. Cuts Optimization and Machine Learning Models for Dark Photon Signal-Background Discrimination with the ATLAS Detector. Mentored by Lauren Tompkins and Ariel Schwartzman

Joy Hsu, Computer Science. Unsupervised Learning for Discovery in 2D & 3D Scenes: Towards Unbiased Understanding of Biomedical Images. Mentored by Serena Yeung and Wah Chiu

Rishabh Kapoor, Biology. Evaluating the Influence of the Nuclear: Cytoplasmic Ratio in the Maternal to Zygotic Transition in Xenopus Embryos. Mentored by Jan Skotheim and Or Gozani

Avi Kaye, Human Biology. Investigating the Role of Autophagy in Replication-Competent Hepatocytes. Mentored by Roeland Nusse

Nathalie Kiersznowski, Center for International Security and Cooperation. Fanning the Flames: The Impact of Targeted Sanctions on Foreign Militant Activity. Mentored by Jeremy Weinstein

Jamie Leonard, Earth Systems. Long-Term Biodiversity Change in a Foundation Species Intertidal Community: Ecological Insights from Three Surveys Over Sixty Years. Mentored by Fiorenza Micheli and Rodolfo Dirzo

Saket Myneni, Biology. Identifying the mechanism of aged oligodendrocyte progenitor cell rejuvenation by young cerebrospinal fluid. Mentored by Tony Wyss-Coray and Susan McConnell

Arjun Ramani, Economics. The Donut Effect: How work-from-home impacts migration patterns and real estate markets. Mentored by Nicholas Bloom and Pete Klenow

Julia Rathmann-Bloch, Human Biology. How The Angular Gyrus Updates and Integrates New Knowledge. Mentored by Anthony Wagner and David Lyons

Marisol Rodriguez, Urban Studies. Empire, the End of Justice, and the Rise of Efficiency. Mentored by Asad Asad

Chloe Sorensen, Psychology. News Media Reporting on Suicide: An Examination of Affect and Adherence to Safe Standards. Mentored by Jeanne Tsai

Jiarui Sun, Chemical Engineering. CD22 blockade is a target for reversing microglial lysosomal dysfunction in Niemann-Pick Disease Type C. Mentored by Tony Wyss-Coray and Monther Abu-Remaileh

Alexa Thomson, Education. Every Student Succeeds Act (2015): Exposing Racialized Disparities at the Intradistrict Level in Florida Schools. Mentored by Thomas Dee

Catherine Wang, Biology. Cell Surface Sialylation Modulates Neuronal Excitability and Network Integration. Mentored by Carolyn Bertozzi and Xiaoke Chen

Beatriz Yankelevich, Engineering Physics. Refraction of Dirac Fermions across Molecular Graphene Junctions. Mentored by Hari Manoharan and Jennifer Dionne


Robert M. Golden Medals for Excellence in the Humanities and Creative Arts

Caroline Baker, English. "Milk in a Male Tiger”: Sarah Siddons, Sarah Bernhardt, and Julie Taymor as Studies of Cross-Gender Casting in Shakespeare. Mentored by Blair Hoxby

Charlie O'Donohue, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Gender Liberation Demands Collective Liberation: a body of lived scholarship uplifting decolonization, reparations, and sovereignty work. Mentored by Samer Al-Saber and Asad Asad

Esther Abisola Omole, Honors in the Arts. Each Beloved Birth. Mentored by Jessi Piggott and Umniya Najaer

Hannah Scott, Science, Technology, and Society. "Light and Sound, Not Song and Dance": Cybernetic Subjectivity in the Environmental Art of the Pulsa Group, 1966-1973. Mentored by Fred Turner and Kyoko Sato

Jamie Seney, Art Practice. Repo/Possession. Mentored by Terry Berlier

Peter Thomas, History. Aristotelianism and English Political Thought. Mentored by David Como and Laura Stokes

AnQi Yu, Art and Art History. Unsettled Wests: The Cinema of Kelly Reichardt. Mentored by Karla Oeler and Pavle Levi

Marilyn Zhang, Ethics In Society. Affirmative Algorithms: Relational Equality as Fairness for Pretrial Risk Assessments. Mentored by Leif Wenar and Kathleen Creel

Yulou Zhou, Linguistics. Proto-Bizic: A Study of Tujia Historical Phonology. Mentored by Paul Kiparsky and Dominic Yu