Joseph Karaganis CC’26, Theo Taplitz CC’25 and Brianna Przywozny SEAS’25 have been named 2026 Marshall Scholars. It is the first time that three Columbians have been selected for this prestigious award in a single year.
“Congratulations to Columbia’s three newly minted Marshall Scholars! Joseph, Theo and Brianna are terrific candidates; they are part of an inspiring group of nominees and finalists” says Ariella Lang, associate dean of academic affairs and director of undergraduate research and fellowships. “I want to recognize as well the many members of the Columbia community — faculty, alumni, advisers and others — who gave unstintingly of their time to support them.”
Established in 1953 to help strengthen ties between the U.S. and the U.K., the Marshall Scholarship provides for two years of postgraduate study in the U.K. Marshall candidates must be nominated by their university before going through an intensive application process. Selection criteria include academic merit, leadership potential and ambassadorial potential. To learn more about the Marshall Scholarship, please visit the Undergraduate Research and Fellowships website.
Joseph Karaganis CC’26
A native New Yorker, Karaganis is majoring in philosophy and political science and minoring in history. He is interested in the ethics of artificial intelligence, the philosophy of mind and the political economy of information.
Karaganis conducted research at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory and University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Information Law. As a research assistant for Columbia’s Incite Institute, he supported the Obama Presidency Oral History and the Obama Scholars Global Leadership Study, where he helped map and analyze the trajectories of emerging civil society leaders from around the world. As a Laidlaw Scholar, Karaganis has been involved in research and on-campus leadership since his first year at Columbia. Now, as a Rose Research Ambassador, he supports younger students as they explore research and fellowship opportunities and writes regularly for the College’s Rose Research Ambassadors blog.
On campus, Karaganis has been managing editor of the Columbia Political Review and is currently co-chair of the Academic Awards Committee. He was previously the co-director of the Columbia Political Union’s Reachout initiative. Last summer, Karaganis taught political philosophy to high schoolers through Columbia’s Freedom and Citizenship program, and to incarcerated students on Rikers Island with the Justice-in-Education Initiative. During the Spring semester, he was a visiting student at St. Edmund Hall of the University of Oxford. In Spring 2026, he will be a political affairs intern for the United Nations Integrated Operational Team for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In his free time, Karaganis likes to go on long runs, travel to new places and read old books.
As a Marshall Scholar at the University of Oxford, he will pursue a B.Phil in philosophy.
Theo Taplitz CC’25
Hailing from Los Angeles, Taplitz is a director and writer working across film and theater. A John Jay Scholar, he majored in English and creative writing, graduated summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received the Robert W. Goldsby prize for theater and the Ellis Avery Prize for Creative Writing, directed main-stage productions including Equus and Henry IV, and co-led the Writers House, where he organized readings, facilitated workshops and edited a collaborative anthology bridging student work across disciplines.
Taplitz’s creative research focuses on rehearsal-led, access-first methods that make film and theater production more inclusive and sustainable. His recent short film, Tenderness — a hybrid project developed through a YoungArts grant and starring Emmy nominee Susan Ruttan — premiered at the Ojai Film Festival. His other directing credits include a staged reading of Caryl Churchill’s Bluebeard’s Friends at L.A.’s Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater and the short film Gable, which premiered at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival. He assisted director Ira Sachs on the upcoming film The Man I Love, and worked with the Lincoln Center video team documenting public and inclusion-oriented performances.
Through the Marshall Scholarship, Taplitz intends to pursue an M.A. in scriptwriting at the University of East Anglia and an M.A. in filmmaking (Directing Fiction) at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Brianna Przywozny SEAS’25
Raised in Freehold, N.J., Przywozny earned her B.S. in biomedical engineering in May and will graduate with her M.S. in the same field, also from Columbia Engineering, in December.
As an undergraduate, Brianna was co-director of the Columbia Space Initiative’s Astrobiology Mission, where she led students in investigating the effects of simulated microgravity on biological systems. As a member of the Prives Lab, she developed algorithms for mutual exclusivity analysis to determine the role of alternate mutated genes in “TP53 wild-type” cancers, and as a member of the Biomaterials and Interface Tissue Engineering Lab, she developed scaffolds for articular cartilage regeneration in osteoarthritis, as well as characterized the intervertebral disc and its tissue interfaces. In addition to research, Brianna was a peer tutor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and an Urban New York trip leader. She was named the 2025 recipient of the Richard Skalak Memorial Prize.
Through the Marshall Scholarship, Brianna seeks to pursue the D.Phil in engineering science at the University of Oxford.