<Stanford university students awarded by prestigious awards>

 

 

<Stanford undergrads awarded Firestone and Golden Medals and Kennedy Thesis Prizes>

Students from 29 undergraduate departmental and interdisciplinary honors programs were recently

selected for the 2020 Firestone and Golden medals and the Kennedy Honors Thesis prizes.

 

Thirty-seven winners representing 29 undergraduate departmental and interdisciplinary honors programs

were recently honored for excellence in their theses and research. These students have received the

2020 Firestone and Golden medals, as well as the Kennedy Honors Thesis prizes.

The Firestone and Golden Medals are awarded to the top 10 percent of honors theses completed in a

given year. The Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research recognizes theses written in

the social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. The Robert M. Golden Medal for Excellence in the

Humanities and Creative Arts similarly distinguishes theses in the humanities or creative projects in the

arts. The students will each receive an engraved bronze medal, citation and a monetary award.

The David M. Kennedy Prize is awarded annually to the single best thesis in four academic areas:

humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering & applied sciences. Recipients of this

award have accomplished exceptionally advanced research in the field and have shown strong potential

for publication in peer-reviewed scholarly works. The prize was established in 2008 in recognition of

history professor David M. Kennedy’s long-standing mentoring of undergraduate writers. Winners will

each receive an engraved plaque and a monetary award.

The projects conducted by the winners capture the breadth of the undergraduate experience at Stanford

and span diverse academic areas, from the sciences to the arts.

The David M. Kennedy Honors Thesis Prizes

Engineering & Applied Sciences: Maya Varma, “Artificial Intelligence Methods for Improved Diagnosis of

Autism Spectrum Disorder,” Computer Science, advised by James Landay (Computer Science) and

Dennis Wall (Pediatrics-Systems Medicine).

Humanities: Amir Abou-Jaoude, “Robert Mapplethorpe and the Allure of Antiquity,” Art and Art History,

advised by Jody Maxmin (Art & Art History) and Richard Meyer (Art & Art History).

Natural Sciences: Walter Sobba, “ARID1A Loss Leads to Mucinous Differentiation and Therapeutic

Opportunities in CRISPR/Cas9-Engineered Human Gastric Cancer Organoids,” Human Biology, advised

by Calvin Kuo (Hematology), Paul Fisher (Pediatrics), and Yuan-HungLo (Medicine).

Social Sciences: Toren Fronsdal, “Essays on Health Care Pricing,” Economics, advised by Jay

Bhattacharya (Medicine).

The Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research

Emily Bishko, “Of Dinners and Diplomacy: What White House State Dinners Reveal About Relationship

Building and Goodwill Signaling in U.S. Foreign Policy,” International Relations, advised by Robert

Rakove (International Relations).

Cade Cannedy, “Why Your Air Will Not Get Better: Path Dependence and Capture in Air Quality

Regulation,” Political Science, advised by Bruce Cain (Political Science).

Clementine Chou, “Investigating the Links Between Creativity, Attention, and Exploration,” Psychology,

advised by Anthony Wagner (Psychology).

Jñani Crawford, “Validation and Generalization of Pixel-wise Relevance in CNNs Trained for Face

Classification,” Symbolic Systems, advised by Kalanit Grill-Spector (Psychology) and Sonia Poltoratski

(Psychology).

Sani Eskinazi, “A Centriole-less Pericentriolar Material,” Biology, advised by Jessica Feldman (Biology)

and Tim Stearns (Biology).

Alexandra Henzinger, “Automating the Mapping of Computation and Data onto Heterogeneous

Hardware,” Computer Science, advised by Alex Aiken (Computer Science).

Laura Jonsson, “Home Language Environments of Young Children across Households and

Socioeconomic Status: Evidence from Rural China,” Human Biology, advised by Scott Rozelle (SIEPR)

and Virginia Marchman (Psychology).

Eric Kilgore, “Global Non-Linearly Stable Solutions to the Spherically Symmetric Einstein Scalar Field

System,” Mathematics, advised by Jonathan Luk (Mathematics).

Nick Kingsley, “African Autocrats and Progressive Refugee Governance,” Center on Democracy,

Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), advised by Jeremy Weinstein (Political Science).

Harika Kottakota, “Who ‘Speaks’ for Autism and Who is ‘M[i]ss[i]ng’? Examining Autism Narratives and

Advocacy in the Era of Genomics,” Science, Technology, and Society, advised by Duana Fullwiley

(Anthropology).

Jonah Martin Glick-Unterman, “The Cost-Capitulation Paradox: Compellent Signals, Sequences, and

Selection Effects,” Center for International Security & Cooperation (CISAC), advised by Scott Sagan

(CISAC, Political Science) and Condoleezza Rice (CISAC, Political Science).

Demetri Maxim, “A Novel 3-D Culture System for Modeling Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney

Disease,” Biology, advised by Vivek Bhalla (Medicine-Nephrology), Tim Stearns (Biology), and Jeffrey

Axelrod (Pathology).

Cameron Nosrat, “Impact of Recent Climate Extremes on Mosquito-Borne Disease Transmission in

Kenya,” Human Biology, advised by Desiree LaBeaud (Pediatrics), Paul Fisher (Pediatrics), and Jonathan

Altamirano (Pediatrics).

Michael Quezada, “Exploring the Epigenetic and Microenvironmental Factors Promoting Proliferation of

Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma,” Bioengineering, advised by Michelle Monje-Deisseroth (Neurology) and

Jennifer Cochran (Bioengineering).

Spencer Robinson, “Investigating the Role of Tomato Plasma Membrane Protein RLK15 in Tomato

Defense Responses to Bacterial Infection,” Biology, advised by Mary Beth Mudgett (Biology) and Jose

Dinneny (Biology).

Atlanta Rydzik, “How to Get Away With Murder: The Racialization of Police Killings, Criminalization of

Black Victims, and Protection of Police Officers in the News,” Sociology, advised by Forrest Stuart

(Sociology).

Nikhil Shankar, “Adult Education and Missing Women: Evidence from India’s Saakshar Bharat Literacy

Program,” Economics, advised by Grant Miller (Medicine).

Zhengyan Darius Shi, “Many-body Quantum Chaos Beyond Semiclassical Fields,” Physics, advised by

Sean Hartnoll (Physics) and Stephen Shenker (Physics).

David Tattoni, “Riparian Avifauna of the San Francisco Bay Region: Population Dynamics and Future

Outlooks with Anthropogenic Climate Change,” Earth Systems, advised by Rodolfo Dirzo (Biological

Sciences).

Katharine Woo, “Analytic Number Theory and Exponential Sums in the Function Field Setting,”

Mathematics, advised by Kannan Soundararajan (Mathematics).

Victoria Yuan, “Investigating Interactions Between the Native Left Ventricle and Berlin Heart Excor With

a Novel, Mechanistic Lumped Parameter Network,” Biomedical Computation, advised by Alison Marsden

(Bioengineering) and David Rosenthal (Pediatrics).

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

Joss Paxton Cameron, “Walking Through Overcome,” Music, advised by François Rose (Music).

Courtney Cooperman, “Loss of Place, Loss of Voice: How Homelessness Impedes Political Equality,”

Ethics in Society, advised by Debra Satz (Philosophy) and Brian Coyne (Political Science).

Irie Evan, “Theater Performance, Acting,” Theater and Performance Studies, advised by Amy Freed

(Theater and Performance Studies).

Lily Foulkes, “Queer Deviancy, Undesirable Caribbean Refugees, and the Rise of Carceral Immigration

Detention,” History, advised by Ana Minian (History) and Estelle Freedman (History).

Ashley Hannah, “Jacksonville, a Photographic Essay on Landscape and Violence,”, Art and Art History,

advised by Gail Wight (Art & Art History).

Maddie Kim, “Performance, Materiality, Postmemory: Dancing Toward History in Theresa Hak Kyung

Cha’s DICTEE,” Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, advised by Roanne Kantor (English) and

Marci Kwon (Art History).

Mahima Krishnamoorthi, “After Care and What Happens Next: An Exploration into Political Discourse

and Sociocultural and Stigma and Effects on the Post-Abortion Experience,” Anthropology, advised by

Sharika Thiranagama (Anthropology) and Clea Sarnquist (Pediatrics).

Savannah Mohacsi, “Body as Canvas,” Arts Institute, advised by Mad Luellen (Art & Art History) and

Jessi Piggott (Arts Institute).

Madeline Snigaroff, “Constructing Language Revitalization Resources,” Linguistics, advised by Paul

Kiparsky (Linguistics).

Josh Wagner, “Solid Fluctuation: Practicing Difference and Repetition through Blake’s Urizen Cycle

(1794-5),” English, advised by Denise Gigante (English) and Tom Owens (English).

Lina Wang, “Simulacra Classica: Hyperreal Replication of Ancient Monuments and Buildings,” Classics

, advised by Grant Parker (Classics) and Jody Maxmin (Art and Art History and Classics).

Sam Wolfe, “Lovecraft and the Question of an Uninhabitable Universe,” Division of Literatures, Cultures,

and Languages), advised by Robert Harrison (French and Italian) and Russell Berman (Comparative

Literature).