Summer 2015
Around the Quads
Students, Faculty Recognized
As the academic year neared completion, Columbia students and faculty earned an array of honors. A selection follows:
- Brian Trippe ’16, a biochemistry and computer science major from Massachusetts, won a Goldwater Scholarship, the premier undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. Trippe’s research explored the intricacies of complex cell systems, specifically the molecular factors and processors that allow a variety of neuronal types to develop from a single fertilized cell. The federally endowed Goldwater Scholarship program provides up to $7,500 per year in scholarship support.
- Harmann Singh ’16, an economics-mathematics joint major from New York, was selected for a prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship — one of 58 recipients at U.S. colleges and universities this year and the first Columbian tapped for the award since 2008. Among other things, Singh has been an intern at the White House; was a student editor for a book on human rights violations in India that sold more than 4,500 copies worldwide; and created Project Identity, a mentorship program that connects Columbia students with youth in Harlem, in collaboration with the Department of Justice and The Children’s Village. Truman Scholars receive up to $30,000 for graduate study.
- Twelve College and Engineering students received Presidential Global Fellowships in support of plans to study abroad this summer at or near one of the Columbia Global Centers. The fellowships, funded with a seed grant from University President Lee C. Bollinger and established in 2014, cover the program fee and come with a stipend to cover round-trip airfare and living expenses. They are Kiran Aida ’18, who will study in Jordan; Hyun Joo Cho ’18, Italy; Christina Clark ’18, France; Juan Pablo Fernandez Herzberg ’18, Jordan; Veniamin Gushchin ’18, China; Amsal Lakhani ’18, Turkey; Mabel Luo SEAS’18, Brazil; Chelsea Miller ’18, Turkey; Matthew Rivera ’18, France; Talia Rubin ’18, China; Sophia Stadler SEAS’18, France; and Linh Tang ’18, France.
- Shriya Samavai ’15 and Lauren Field BC’16 won first place in the Columbia Venture Competition’s Undergraduate Challenge for their artwork-inspired clothing line, Academy Of. The award comes with $25,000 in funding.The challenge invited students to compete for cash grants by presenting a business model; seven finalists pitched to a panel of six judges, composed of faculty and alumni. The top three teams were selected based on their innovative ideas and the viability of their proposals.
- Eight Columbia faculty members were named 2015 Guggenheim Fellows by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The fellows will each receive a grant from the foundation to pursue his or her work; they are among 175 scholars, artists and scientists chosen from more than 3,100 applicants this year. The fellows include Rivka Galchen, an adjunct associate professor of writing at the School of the Arts; Meghan Daum SOA’96, an associate professor at the School of the Arts; Kristoffer Diaz, adjunct professor of theater at the School of the Arts; Brent Hayes Edwards, professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature; Carmela Vircillo Franklin, professor of classics; Cathy Park Hong, adjunct professor of writing at the School of the Arts; George E. Lewis, the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music; and Jonathan Rieder, the former chair and a current professor of sociology at Barnard.
- Five Columbia professors were elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: David Albert ’76, the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy; Jane Ginsburg, the Law School’s Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law; Philip Hamburger, the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law; George E. Lewis, the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music; and Edward Mendelson, the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities.