This weekend, four Columbia College students were named the 2012 winners of the Core Scholars Program.  Each of the winners, Rowan Buchanan, CC ’12, Marian Guerra, CC ’14, Gabriela Pelsinger, CC ’15, and Anneke Solomon, CC ’15, submitted a “Core Reflection.”  These Reflections are intended to analyze, question, dramatize, or interpret material of the Core Curriculum in order to “heighten understanding of Core topics, explore connections among Core works, and relate the Core to our contemporary world,” according to the Core Scholars Program website. 

The Chair of the Core Scholars Committee, Patrick Blute CC'12, said "I would like to congratulate all our wonderful 2012 Core Scholars. The entries this year were overwhelmingly full of creativity, talent and enthusiasm. We received over 70 quality submissions expressed through artistic, musical, written and filmed mediums. The 2012 Core Scholars and Honorable Mentions all touch upon the key themes of the Core - transformation, engagement, loyalty, honor...the list goes on."

The program, only in its second year, is open to anyone who has taken a Core course. The winners’ work will be featured on the Core website and they will each receive a cash prize of $200.

For more information on the winners, see this article in the Columbia Spectator.

The Columbia College Committee on Honors, Awards, and Prizes today announced the names of the Class of 2012 Valedictorian and Salutatorian. The Valedictorian is Zachary Brill, a Chemistry major from New Jersey.  The Salutatorian is Zachary Levine, an Anthropology major from California.

Zachary Brill has distinguished himself across all of his studies, and members of the Chemistry faculty report that he is a “truly special individual” who has made a significant contribution to research and citizenship in the department. Having received funding from the Columbia College Class of 1939 Fellowship and the American Chemical Society, Zachary has been able to sustain his research over three years in the laboratory of Professor Scott Snyder. His work, focused on the synthesis of two complex products derived from resveratrol, was published in the peer reviewed journal Organic Letters (2011, 13, 5524) and, unusually for an undergraduate, Zachary was the sole author with Professor Snyder. in 2011 Zachary was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and will continue his studies in organic chemistry when he starts his PhD work in the fall.

 Zachary Levine is currently completing a thesis on religion, symbolic economics, politics, and social justice in Nigeria (supported by three different and highly competitive research grants), and is researching public health programs in Peru. Both an extraordinary scholar and a committed citizen, Zachary’s nomination for this honor was, according to the Anthropology faculty, supported by a “level of recognition from … a diverse field of scholars” not previously encountered by the Department. In 2010 Zachary established the undergraduate journal Extension: A Columbia Journal of Anthropology – now a vibrant opportunity for undergraduate intellectual engagement – and in 2011 he was a Rhodes finalist.

The Columbia Global Scholars Program (GSP) offers highly motivated students of diverse disciplines the opportunity to investigate issues from a global perspective.  Based at Columbia Global Centers | Europe in Paris (CGC|E), the program encourages students to delve into another society and culture as they pursue their own projects, test their own goals against other peoples’ educational and intellectual systems, and develop a range of research, language, and networking skills to help them in this innovative intellectual endeavor. The GSP curriculum is designed to enable students to conduct individual research projects during the spring and summer semesters of their junior year.  The program, the first of its kind at Columbia, takes place during the spring and summer semesters.  The GSP for academic year 2013 is now recruiting students.

*Interested students should attend an information session held on Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 4:30pm in Fayerweather 411.*

For more information, please see this fellowship link:
http://www.college.columbia.edu/students/fellowships/catalog/global-scho...

Eight Columbia University professors received Guggenheim Fellowships this on Friday, April 13, more than any other institution this year. Literature Humanities chair Christia Mercer and Contemporary Civilization chair Matthew Jones were among the professors to win the prestigious fellowships. Also hailing from Columbia are School of the Arts professors Timothy Donnelly and Benjamin Taylor, Mailman School of Public Health professor Jennifer Hirsch, music professors Alex Mincek and Kate Soper, and Journalism School professor Stephen Hall.

During the Guggenheim Fellowship, Professor Mercer will work on a book project, Platonisms in Early Modern Thought.  She will also continue to oversee a new book series, Oxford Philosophical Concepts. The main goal of the series is to offer accounts of key concepts in the history of philosophy (for example, matter, soul, evil, space, health, consciousness, sympathy, and self-knowledge). Professor Jones will use his fellowship to study the history of data mining, a technique for summarizing large sets of data via computer software. Both professors will be replaced by interim chairs next year.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded 181 fellowships this year to scholars, artists, and scientists in the United States and Canada. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed based on distinguished achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. The purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is to help provide fellows with 6–12 months to work with as much creative freedom as possible. For more information, click here for the article in the Spectator.

The Columbia College Student Council's Academic Awards Committee announced this year's winners of the Mark Van Doren and Lionel Trilling awards.

The 51th annual Mark Van Doren Award, which honors a Columbia professor for his/her commitment to undergraduate instruction as well as for “humanity, devotion to truth and inspiring leadership,” will being presented to Christia Mercer, Gustave M. Berne Professor. Mercer earned a Ph.D. from the Princeton University in 1989 and specializes in Early Modern Philosophy, History of Platonism and History of Feminism. The award is named for Mark Van Doren '21 GSAS, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, novelist, literary critic and longtime Columbia faculty member with a reputation for pedagogical greatness.

The 37th annual Lionel Trilling Award will be presented to David B. Lurie '01 GSAS, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, for his book Realms of Literacy: Early Japan and the History of Writing. Lurie earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2001 and has been teaching at Columbia since 2009. The Trilling Award honors a book from the past year by a Columbia professor that best exhibits the standards of intellect and scholarship found in the work of longtime Columbia faculty member Lionel Trilling ’25, ’26 GSAS, ’38 GSAS, an author and renowned literary critic.