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Student Laurels and Honors 2011

Schools, departments announce student awards for academics and service

National Awards

Rhodes
Scholarship

Duke University
senior Jared Dunnmon
of Cincinnati was among
the 32 recipients selected this year for prestigious Rhodes Scholarships.

Dunnmon, an A.B.
Duke Scholar and past recipient of Goldwater Scholarships in Science,
Mathematics and Engineering, was chosen from among 837 applicants at 309 colleges
and universities throughout the country. He is the 43rd student in Duke's
history to receive a Rhodes Scholarship.

Dunnmon is a
mechanical engineering and economics major whose research has focused on novel
and renewable energy sources. Working with Duke engineering professors Earl
Dowell and Jonathan Protz, Dunnmon designed and tested clusters of
micro-turbine devices in a wind tunnel to determine how much power they could
produce from unusual wind flows, such as those between tall urban buildings.

 

Marshall
Scholarship

Three Duke
University seniors -- Nicolas Altemose,
Katherine Buse
and Alessondra
(Allie) Speidel
-- have been awarded Marshall Scholarships to continue in their respective fields of study after
graduation.

Altemose, a
biology major from Temecula, Calif., has been engaged in research in genomics
since his first year at Duke under the mentorship of Huntington Willard,
director of the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy. He intends to
continue research in this area at the University of Oxford.

Buse, from
Chapel Hill, is an English major studying the role of catastrophe in
contemporary fiction. She will pursue a degree in science fiction and
contemporary literature at the University of Liverpool.

Speidel, a
biomedical engineering major from Manlius, N.Y., plans to study biomedical
research and translational medicine at Imperial College London.

 

Beinecke
Scholarship

James Gerienchen, a graduating senior with a major in
history and Asian and Middle Eastern studies, won a Beinecke Scholarship in
2010 to pursue graduate study following his undergraduate degree.

The award honors
students who have shown outstanding intellectual ability and curiosity and who
plan to enter a master's or doctoral program in the arts, humanities or social
sciences.

 

Truman
Scholarship

Lindsey
Marie Wallace
, a
graduating political science and psychology major whose extracurricular
activities include working with recovering addicts in Durham and animal welfare
causes, received a Truman Scholarship in 2010.

Truman Scholars
are chosen based on their academic success, leadership potential and commitment
to a career in public service.

 

University

Faculty Scholars

Three Duke
undergraduates who have compiled an exception record of undergraduate research
and scholarship have received the Faculty Scholar's award, the highest award
given to students by the faculty.

The winners and
their nominating department are: Katherine
Buse
(English), Alan Guo
(Mathematics), and Maria Huang
(Biology).  Honorable mention went
to Caitlin Drescher (Neuroscience
& Chemistry) and Jared Dunnmon (Mechanical
Engineering & Economics)

 

Art, Art History
and Visual Studies

Justine Robyn Tiu and Nina
L. Wu
earned the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation Visual Arts Award

Jennifer Sydney Burka and Anna
Haldeman Ruddle
received the Nancy Kaneb Art History Award

Sarah Victoria Goetz won the Sue and Lee Noel Prize in the
Visual Arts Award

Lucas Caldwell Best and Christine
Rose DiNicola
received the Visual Studies Initiative Award

 

Arts of the
Moving Image

Kevin Hao Wu and Melanie
Plageman
earned the Outstanding Undergraduate Filmmaker Award

 

Athletics

Dorian Alexander Cohen and Reka
Zsilinszka
earned the ACC Plaque for Excellence, Scholarship and Athletics

 

Biology

Jeff J. Shi received the James B. Rast Memorial
Award in Comparative Organismal Biology

Nicolas Frank Altemose earned the Edward C. Horn Memorial Prize
for Excellence in Biology

Amanda Yuan Sun won the Excellence in Plant Science
Prize

Molly Elizabeth Walsh won the Maggie Schneider Award in Marine
Biology

 

Business

Matthew Brandon Lehigh earned the Asa T. Spaulding, Sr. Award
for Leadership           

Jin Huang won the Breeden Award in Finance

Brian Seth Alvo and Yu
Chi
took Distinguished Service Awards

Dean's
Recognition Awards went to Nadia Lucia
Berrio Roa, Spencer Catherine Busby, Lucas Andrew Chapin, Shal Uddin Chowdhury,
Rhianon Tara Deleeuw, Kevin Andrew Henze, Erin Conaty Kruse

Gloria Kar-Yee Lee, Allison Diane Mooney,
Mallory Dupree Mooser, Andres Moreno, Jill Janaína Otto, Garner Lowell Rivard,
Brandon A. Rodriguez, Katherine Marie Scearce, Meredith Ann Seurkamp
and Hitoshi
Takamoto

Dean's
Leadership Awards went to Joyce J. He,
Gregory Lee Keeney, Nora Matossian
Saunders
and Jorge Luis Vela

Jonathan Barr Blanton and Rexford
Lee Morey
won the Keohane Leadership Award

David Harriman Phillips received the Alan D. Schwartz Award for
Mentorship

 

Chemistry

Lucy Boyce Kennedy earned the American Chemical Society
Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry

Rui Jiang, Vijay Krishna Prabhakar and William
Paul Skelton IV
won the Merck Index Award

Ashton Chuck-Wing Lai earned the Department of Chemistry Award

Zachary Andrew Hing received the Hypercube Scholar Award

 

Classical
Studies

Amol Ashwin Sura took the David Taggart Clark Prize in
Classical Studies

 

Cultural
Anthropology

Michelle Hyun Choi and Christen
Marie Tricoli
received the Judith E. McDade Prize in Cultural Anthropology           

Leah Madeline McCrary won the Paul Farmer Award for Justice
and Social Responsibility

 

Dance

Noel Susberry earned the Julia Wray Dance Award

Kadeisha Kilgore received the Dance Writing Award.

Monica Hogan won the Clay Taliaferro Dance Award.

 

Divinity

Jennifer Lynn Benedict and Ryan Greasor Spurrier received the top GPA Award, with each earning a perfect 4.0 grade point average for their entire academic careers at the school.

Jack Curtis Lowndes and Andrea
Nicole Pippins
received the Award for Excellence in Bible

Paul Sellars Atlas and Mark
Christopher Gorman
won the Seminarian Award of the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts

Laura Michelle Beach earned the Hoyt Hickman Award for
Excellence in Liturgics

Bonnie
Elisabeth Scott
won
the Jameson Jones Preaching Award

McMurry Richey
Awards went to Paul Sellars Atlas
for Outstanding Student Pastor; Gerard
Nsabimana
for Outstanding Student in Field Education; and Darriel Bobby Harris for Outstanding
Student in Missions

 

Documentary
Studies

Sarah Victoria
Goetz
received the Julia
Harper Day Award for Documentary Studies

Jonathan Pattishall,
Dorje Dondrub, Shining Li
and Eddie Wu
received John Hope Franklin Awards

 

Duke Union

Melanie
Plageman
received the Hal Kammerer Memorial Prize for Film and Video
Production.           

 

Economics

Shih-Kai (Jeffrey) Shen won the Allen Starling Johnson
Jr. Best Thesis Prize

Kaylyn Swankowski won the Allen Starling
Johnson Jr. Outstanding Honors Symposium Presentation

Caitlin Gorback won the faculty vote for Allen Starling
Johnson Jr. Outstanding Honors Posters. The student vote resulted in a tie
between Karna Mital, Steven
Seidel/Josh Silverman Amy Zhang

Rebecca Agostino, Caitlin
Gorback, Kunal Jain, Kevin Kupiec, Richard Li, Haiying Li, Karna Mital,
Johnathan Pryor, Steven Seidel, Shih-Kai (Jeffrey) Shen, Joshua Silverman and
Yiwen Zhu
won for High Distinction
in Economics and Distinction in Research

William Benesh, Rachel
Blum, Joanna Bromley, Celeste Clipp, Yang Ding, Jared Goodman, Chengyu Li,
Yamini Misra, Chen Ni, Robert Nowak, Suanna Oh, Alexandra Oprea, Angela Minwood
Ryu, Rollin Say, Andrew Schwert, Maxim Sirenko, Xiaoyue Zhang, Rujia Zhou and
Jason Wong
(Spring 2012 graduate) won the Distinction in Economics and Distinction in
Research

Anna Burke, Sarah Freitas and won for Distinction in
Research

 

Education

Jenessa Laura Malin and Nina
L. Wu
won the Winfred Quinton Holton Prize in Education. Honorable Mention
went to Andrew Timothy Pettit and Heather Darling Wiese.

 

Engineering

Trishna Kathryn Lowe and Anna
Katherine Sleeter
won the American Society of Civil Engineers Prize

Steven Joseph Bolger earned The Helmholtz Award

Justin Mark Haseltine and Niruban
Maheswaranathan
received the Otto Meier Jr., Tau Beta Pi Award

Andrew Joseph Wood earned the Aubrey E. Palmer Award

Andrew Joseph Harris and Matthew
Marsh Wander
won the Eric I. Pas Award

Kathleen C Apibunyopas took the Theo Pilkington Award

Sabrina Grace Liao and Eric
Niles Liberty Thorne
won the Charles Seager Memorial Award

Corinne Elizabeth Horn received the George Sherrerd III
Memorial Award in Electrical and Computer Engineering           

Trisha Kathryn Lowe and Andrew
Joseph Wood
won the William Brewster Snow Environmental Engineering Award

Trisha Kathryn Lowe and Maura
Hannan Mulroy
received the Student Service Award

Corinne Elizabeth Horn earned the Charles Rowe Vail Memorial
Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award

Ralph Nathan won the David Randall Fuller Prize           

 

English

Ashley Chang received the Academy of American Poets
Prize and the Louis J. Budd American Literature Award

Julia Marie Love and
Staci Jon'A Miller
earned the Margaret Rose Knight Sanford Scholarship 

Shining Li, Connor Southard and
Thomas Gebremedhin
received the Anne Flexner Award for Creative Writing in
Fiction

Yujin Chun and
Elizabeth Beam
received the Anne Flexner Award in Poetry

Patrick Allen Baker earned the Critical Essay Contest prize

Katherine Elizabeth Buse was honored for the Most Original
English Department Honors Thesis and received the Schutte Senior Award

Rachel Michelle Stern earned the Stanley Fish British
Literature Award

Lydia Rappaport-Hankins received the Francis K. Pemberton Award

Sarah Bartleson received the Terry Welby Tyler Jr. Award
for Creative Writing

The William M.
Blackburn Scholarship went to Hillary
Martinez, Abram Smith
and Vivian Zou

 

Environment

Sarah Elizabeth Safley earned the Sara LaBoskey Award

 

History

Ryan Lenora Brown received the William T. Laprade Prize in
History

 

Mathematics

Alan Xinyu Guo and
Mikhail Petrovich Lavrov
won the Julia Dale Prize in Mathematics. Lavrov also won the Karl Menger Award
for Superior Performance in the 71st William Lowell Putnam Competition

 

Military Science

Kase William Diehl and
Wesley Charles Norris
were Distinguished Military Graduates

 

Music

George Tsz-Kwan Lam won the William Klenz Prize in
Composition

Tiffany Yun Pao won the Julia Wilkinson Mueller Prize
for Excellence in Music

Anthony Vito Alberti earned the Henry Schuman Music Prize

Christopher Vernon Sikes-Keilp received the Ann Marie Parsons Award

 

Nasher Museum

Andrew Huff, Kara Li and
Rebecca Stone
earned Mary Duke Biddle Foundation Summer Internship Awards
in Museum Studies

Kristin Oakley received the Trent A. and Susan L.
Carmichael Internship

 

Naval Science

Zachary Adam Chapla won the American Veterans Award           

Travis Joseph Rapp earned the CNO Distinguished Midshipman
Graduate Award           

Kaitlin Ashleigh Smith received the Daughters of the American
Revolution Award           

Travis Joseph Rapp received the Fred Knops Leadership Award           

Blair Bryant Woolheater earned the Naval Submarine League
Outstanding Achievement Award

 

Nursing

Maria Dawn Johnson earned the Agatha Hodgins Award for
Outstanding Student Performance           

Edwin Ngomueh Aroke won the Annie Beery Bieber Award for
Outstanding Leadership

Dayna Amanda Seguin received the Nurse Anesthesia Program
Faculty Excellence Award

Matthew Jamison Stampler received the Nurse Anesthesia Program
Leadership in Action Award

Emma Rose Barnett and
Stephanie June Whitlark
won the Ruby L. Wilson Excellence in Clinical
Practice Award           

Edwin Ngomueh Aroke earned the Thelma Ingles Excellence in
Clinical Expertise and Scholarly Activities Award

Steven Ray Wooden received the Outstanding DNP Capstone
Project Award           

Mark Pottis Toles earned the The Distinguished
Dissertation Award

 

Political
Science

The Alona E. Evans
Prize in International Law went to Joseph
Patrick Catapano, Erin Anne Cloninger
and Maxwell Phillip Kligerman

Kenneth Stewart Day earned the Robert S. Rankin Award in
American Government and Constitutional Law           

Andrew Tyler Ognibene won the Robert S. Rankin Award in
American, National, State, and Local Governments

Michael Hudson Krekel and
Michael E. Warady
received the Robert S. Rankin American Government Award
for Leadership and Academic Achievement

Dustin Mitchell Gamza and
Alexandra Oprea
won the Elizabeth G. Verville Award. Honorable Mention went
to Benjamin Zoltan Bergmann and Matthew Henry Graham

Jennifer Erin Rowland and
Jiakun Jack Zhang
earned the Ole R. Holsti Award in American Foreign Policy
and International Relations

 

Psychology

Jenessa Laura Malin earned the Karl E. Zener Award for
Outstanding Performance of an Undergraduate Major in Psychology

 

Public Policy
Studies

Sarah A. Chapin received the Joel Fleishman Distinguished
Scholar Award for highest academic achievement in public policy studies.

Alexander J. Reese won the Terry Sanford Leadership Award.  

Megan R. Cheney was cited for the Best Honors Thesis for
"Breakfast Breakdown: Examining Systematic Differences in Compliance with
Nutrient Guidelines in the School Breakfast Program."           

 

Romance Studies

Anne Marie Gordon won the Robert J. Niess/Alexander Hull
Award in French. She also received the Richard L. Predmore Award in Spanish

Alyssa Madeline Granacki and
Mackenzie Lauren Kahnke
won the Guido Mazzoni Award in Italian

 

Theater Studies

Heather Wiese won the Harold Brody Award for
Excellence in Musical Theater. She also received the Richard E. Cytowic Award
for the Outstanding Student in Acting

Ben Bergmann received the John M. Clum Distinguished
Drama Award

Afftene Taylor earned the Alex Cohen Awards for Summer
Initiatives in Theater

Emily Gall and
Lauren Gonzalez
received the Dale B. J.  Randall Award in Dramatic Literature

Don Tucker earned the Kenneth J. Reardon Award for
Theater Design, Management or Production

Utrophia Robinson received the Jody McAuliffe Award for
Excellence in Directing

Irene Falk won the Reyonds Price Award

 

Women's Studies

Alissa Wigdor (Psychology & Neuroscience) and Leah Madeline McCrary (Cultural
Anthropology) won the Anne McDougall Memorial Award given to a female
undergraduate or graduate student who pursues areas of human service by
studying psychology and related fields.

Gender and Race
Research Awards given to undergraduate and graduate students whose projects promote
scholarly exploration and research on topics of gender and race, went to: Layla Brown (English) for "Raising Voices, Building
History: Afro-Venezuelan Women and the Bolivarian Revolution"; Yoonhyun Cho (Economics and Political
Science) for "Rebuilding Women's Rights in Haiti"; Kristen Lee  
(Sociology) "Racialized Love"; Anne
Phillips
(History) for "Adulterous Wives and Murderous Husbands:
Governance, Gendered Violence, and East Indian Indentureship in the British
Atlantic, 1858-1917"; and Georgia Paige
Welch
(History) "Right of Way: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the 1970s
Frontier"

Dora Anne Little
Awards, given to a student at the undergraduate or graduate level who has
excelled in service to the campus and community which extends beyond the
classroom, went to: Julia Finch (Women’s Studies) for "Bridging the Gap
Between Feminist Theory and Activism in the Duke and Durham Communities"; Sophie Smith (Literature) "No More
Deaths"; and Trent Serwetz (Women’s
Studies) "Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, Womens Law, and Legal Aid
Societies"

 

Trinity College
of Arts and Sciences

Kelsey Lynn Cameron earned the Bascom Headen Palmer Literary
Prize

Junève Gracieux earned the James Rolleston Prize for
Best Honors Thesis Written in a Foreign Language

The
Edward H. Benenson Awards in the Arts are given annually to undergraduate
students to broaden their educational and professional objectives in the Arts.
The awards are made on a competitive basis for the most outstanding project
proposals and are determined by a special committee appointed by the Dean of
Trinity College. This year's winners are: Violeta Foreman, Sarah
Goetz, Monica Hogan, Brooke Kingsland, Courtney Liu, Richard Paez, May
Robinson, Justine Tiu

and Da Yang.

Sarah Victoria
Goetz
received the Louis
B. Sudler Prize in the Creative and Performing Arts

 

Phi Beta Kappa

The following
students graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors:

Charles Joseph Abolt,

Eanas Fatima
Aboobakar,

Nicolas Frank
Altemose

Jonathan Elliot
Amgott

Benjamin David
Arnstein

Harold Shao Xian Au

Stephen Rodrick
Bardin

Michael David Bern

Carter Hamilton Boyle

Joanna Arline Bromley

Jonathan Michael
Bullock

Katherine Elizabeth
Buse

Joseph Patrick
Catapano

Megan R Cheney

Michelle Hyun Choi

Yang  Ding

Caitlin Stefanie Drescher

Jared Alexander
Dunnmon

Margaret Anne Fields

Jeremy Ezra Friehling

Amanda Jean Mae Gill

Lydia Kathryn Greene

Alan Xinyu Guo

Gregory Lawrence
Halperin

Elizabeth Anne Harlow

Ryan Augustus
Hennessee

Duc A Ho

Huang  Huang

Wynn Gordon Hunter

Ryan Elizabeth Ingram

Brian Gabriel Jiang

Manoj  Kannusamy

Samantha Erin Kaufman

Jenny Anne Kelemen

Brooke S Kingsland

Michael Hudson Krekel

George Christopher
Leef

Robert Seath Stark
Lehman

Lindsay Michelle
Levine

Neha Pradeep Limaye

Cassie Ann Ludwig

Natalie Arianna
Macaruso

Jessica Claire
MacFarlane

Laura Katherine
Manson

Karna  Mital

Chen  Ni

Alexandra  Oprea

Brian  Pike

Nicole Elise Queathem

Justin F. Robinette

Meghan Lorraine
Rudder

Caroline Hope Schaer

Brian Richmond
Solomon

Melanie Preethika
Subramanian

Amanda  Sun

Kathryn Lee Swails

Matthew Allen
Tesarfreund

Zachary Paul Tracer

Andrew Joseph Walker

Rachel Diane
Willcutts

Li-En Daniel Wong