Student Awards and Honors for 2015
The following is a partial list of departmental, university and national awards won by members of the Class of 2015 and other Duke students during the year.
Jay Ruckelshaus and Lindsey Brown will do post graduate study through the Truman and Goldwater Scholarships.
National Awards
Truman Scholars
Duke junior Jay Ruckelshaus is among 58 students selected as 2015 Truman Scholars.
Ruckelshaus plans to use his Truman funding to study a combination of political theory, law and public policy. As part of the Truman 2015 Washington Summer Institute, he plans to intern either at a think tank or as a policy analyst for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). Eventually, he would like to work as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and then obtain a research fellowship position at a policy think tank in Washington, D.C.
Students are selected based on their records of leadership, public service and academic achievement, and their likelihood of becoming public service leaders.
Dominique Beaudry and Jamie Bergstrom, both members of the Class of 2015, were selected as Truman Scholars in 2014.
Goldwater Scholars
Lindsey Brown, a Duke University junior, has been named a 2015 scholar by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program. The scholarship program was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.
Brown is currently conducting research under the direction of mathematics professors Michael Reed and William Pardon. Her independent study on neural coding theory looks at patterns of neural activity as a binary code.
Eugene Rabinovich, a member of the class of 2015, was named a Goldwater Scholar in 2014.
Luce Scholars
Duke senior Charlotte Lee received a Luce Scholarship for 2015-16. The award provides stipends for living and professional placement in Asia. Established in 1974 by the Henry Luce Foundation of New York City, the fellowship program’s goal is to enhance the understanding of Asia among potential leaders of American society.
University Awards
African and African-American Studies
Destiny Love Hemphill won the John Hope Franklin Award for Academic Excellence. She also received the Karla F. C. Holloway Award for University Service.
Stephanie Nwanne Ogwo received the Walter C. Burford Award forCommunity Service
Art, Art History and Visual Studies
Katie Taylor Simmons and Tara Moran Trahey won the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation Visual Arts Award
Megan Camille Friedman and Tara Moran Trahey won the Nancy Kaneb Art History Award
Lauren Rose Henschel won the Sue and Lee Noel Prize in Visual Arts
Sujata Vijay Mahtaney and Nicole Clair Rudden won the Visual Studies & Media Award
Art of the Moving Image
King King Lu won the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Filmmaker of the Year award
Asian and Pacific Studies
Bryan Heejeh Kim and Sungmin Sohn received Sirena WuDunn Memorial Scholarships, given in memory of a Duke student to honor Asian-American students
Asian & Middle Eastern Studies
Alexis Shamal Morton and Courtney Aleai Murray earned the Outstanding AMES Honors Thesis award
Athletics
David Hennen Helton and Elizabeth Olatayo Williams received the ACC Plaque for Excellence
Biology
Cassidy Amber Pomeroy-Carter won the James B. Rast Memorial Award in Comparative Organismal Biology
Matthew Julian Pun received the Edward C. Horn Memorial Prize for Excellence in Biology
Sarah Ann Garland received the Excellence in Plant Science Prize
Samantha Anne Emmert earned the Maggie Schneider Award in Marine Biology
Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Aaron Douglas Jones received the Overall Academic Excellence Award
Theodore Samuel Zimmerman Berkowitz won the Student Initiative Award
Ryan Simmons earned the Student Leadership Award
Chemistry
Christopher John Podracky received the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry
Rachel Ellen Bangle won the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award in Inorganic Chemistry
Barbara Blachut won the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry
David Carlton Jones and Jiayu Yang earned the Merck Index Award
Christopher John Podracky won the Department of Chemistry Award
Jung Min Lee won the Hypercube Scholar Award
Classical Studies
Sonora A. Williams won the David Taggart Clark Prize in Classical Studies
Computer Science
Michael Joseph Gloudemans received the Alex Vasilos Award
Lalita Devi Maraj won the DeNardis Award
Cultural Anthropology
Christine Rose Costello and Nadia-Estelle Papit Fiat won the Judith McDade Prize
Leena Samir El-Sadek and Brendane Arrica Tynes won the Paul Farmer Award for Justice and Social Responsibility
Dance
Ellen Dorothea Brown and Jennifer Nathalie Margono received the Julia Wray Dance Award
Alexis Ann Stanley and Erin Elizabeth Leyson won the Dance Writing Award
Maurice Dowell won the Clay Taliaferro Dance Award
Divinity
Todd M. Lovell won the Hoyt Hickman Award for Excellence in Liturgics
McMurry Richey Awards went to Kristin Marie Dollar for Outstanding Student in Field Education; Lars Andrew Jacob Åkerson for Outstanding Student in Missions; and Joshua David Kurtz for Outstanding Student Pastor.
Thomas James Breedlove won the Frederick Buechner Writing Award
Center for Documentary Studies
Lauren Rose Henschel won the Julia Harper Day Award
Christine Delp and Charles Nucci won Research in Practice Program Fellowships in the Documentary Arts
Reem Alfahad, Mariana Calvo, Brenna Cukier, Christine Delp, Grace Farson and Amirah Jiwa received John Hope Franklin Student Documentary Awards
Duke Global Health Institute
Anthony Thomas Fuller received the Outstanding Master of Science in Global Health Award.
Duke Human Rights Center at FHI
Jaclyn Marie Grace received the Oliver W. Koonz Human Rights Prize
Duke Service Learning
Trish Ifeatu Ike and Laxmi Rajak won the Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning Award
Earth and Ocean Sciences
Virginia Isava received the Thomas V. Laska Award
Economics
Winnie Jebet Biwott won the Class of 2015 Award for Exceptional Growth in the Master of Economics
Yifan Ye won the faculty vote for Outstanding Honors Poster; Shulei Shelley Chen won the student vote.
Nicholas Eli Becker earned the Outstanding Symposium Presentation Award
Yunshan Gao received the Allen Starling Johnson Jr. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for Best Honor Thesis; Nicholas Eli Becker, Max Ferris Lipscomb, Daniel Eller Roeder and Yifan Ye were finalists.
Education
Ngozi Marcia Max-Macarthy and Nadia Nicole Viscuso won the D.T. Stallings Award
Allison Sarah Eisen and Chandler Lara Thomas earned the Holton Prize for Education Research. Laxmi Rajak earned distinction honors.
Engineering
James Thomas Flynn and Zachary Samuel Wiener won the American Society of Civil Engineering Prize for Outstanding Senior
Samantha Melinda Perez received the Helmholtz Award
Isa Louise Ferrall and Benjamin French Spilsbury received the Otto Meier Jr., Tau Beta Pi Award
Katherine Elizabeth Brock and Zhiyu Jiang won the Aubrey E. Palmer Award
Stephanie Nicole Laughton won the Eric I. Pas Award
Natalie S. Fahey earned the Theo Pilkington Award
Yaqi Zhang earned the Charles Seager Memorial Award
Kevin J Liang and Logan Wang Su earned the George Sherrerd III Memorial Award in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Katherine Elizabeth Brock earned the William Brewster Snow Environmental Engineering Award
Sarah Madeline Eade and Tory Alena Lang received the Charles Rowe Vail Memorial Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award
Ryan Elliott Fishel and Alex Cameron Morrill received the David Randall Fuller Prize
Anna Elizabeth Knight earned the Pratt School Student Service Award
English
Bailey Elizabeth Sincox received the Award for the Most Original Honors Thesis
Roshni D. Jain earned the Barbara Herrnstein Smith Award for Outstanding Work in Literary Criticism or Theory
Meredith Stabel won the award for Best Critical Essay
Mary Kathryn Hoch received the Anne Flexner Fiction Award. Second place went to Laurel Kaye.
Tiffany Jia-Huey Lieu and Chris Stephen Williams won the Stanley Fish Award for Outstanding Work in British Literature
Sofia Manfredi and Chris Williams earned the Lucaci Award for Creative Non-Fiction
Yae Jee Bae won the Academic Of American Poets Award. Gabriela Gomez received second place
Environment
Patrick Lee Hunnicutt earned the Sara LaBoskey Award
Faculty Scholars
Juniors Connor Hann and Jay Ruckelshaus received the Faculty Scholars Award, the highest student honor presented by the university faculty. Rachel Hennein and Stephen Ghazikhanian received honorable mention.
In 2014, current seniors Eugene Simon Rabinovich and Tara Moran Trahey received the award. Gift Nyikayaramba won honorable mention.
Faculty Scholars, from left: Connor Hann, Rachel Hennein, Stephen Ghazikhanian and Jay Ruckelshaus.
Fuqua School
Christine Harley McEnery won the Alan D. Schwartz Award for Mentorship
Julie Marie Ryan received the Asa T. Spaulding, Sr. Award for Leadership
Dean’s Leadership Awards went to Carter Hamilton Boyle, Aparna Rao and Tara Anne Schwitter
Deans’ Recognition Awards went to Dana Elizabeth Cogdell, Paul A. Escajadillo, Kathryn Stewart Grissom, Adam Jake Kornblit, Peter John Lockinger, John David Peretti, Maria Elizabeth McLemore, Elisabeth Ashley Meinert, Sean Gordon Monahan Gal Alfred Mordechai, Jeffrey M. Ritter, Bering Tsang and Diana Olivia Vining
Distinguished Service Awards went to Jennifer Thayer Rosene and Jorge Armando Soriano
Kate Cannon Luce and Paul Andrew Rademacher received the Keohane Leadership Award
Patricio Mackenna Ureta won The Breeden Award in Finance
History
Michael Peter Kaelin Jr. won the William T. Laprade Prize
International Comparative Studies
Sung Bae Park received the Capstone Research Prize
Alexandra Lynn Schwartz earned the Distinguished Thesis Award
Medicine
Jesse Keiser Fitzpatrick, Yiannis Koullias, Whitney O’Neill Lane, Irene J. Pien and Sarah Jo Stephens earned Academic Awards
Jon Stephen Andrews, Nicole Leigh Helmke and Nicholas Elias Tsipis received the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship
Erik Henry Knelson received the Andrew Puckett Essay Contest Award
Nicholas Elias Tsipis won the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award
Betty Si-Yuan Jiang received the Clinical and Translational Science Award
Davison Scholarships went to Jean Marie Chavez, Nerlyne Desravines, Elizabeth Daly Hicks, Ayomo Gina Oben, Laura Rachel Platt, Sendhilnathan Ramalingham, Bharath Gopal Rathakrishnan, Shakira LaRose Sanchez-Collins and Xiaowen Wang
Dean’s Merit Scholarship went to Elizabeth Daly Hicks, Ethan Bernard Ludmir, Benjamin Radcliff Macadangdang, Jonathan David O’Donnell, James Thomas Paliga, Matthew Karl Robinson, Adam Louis Rothman and Benjamin D. Streufert
Dean’s Recognition Awards went to Jon Stephen Andrews, Nerlyne Desravines, Nina Anne Fainberg, Duriel Isaiah Hardy, Betty Si-Yuan Jiang, Ethan Bernard Ludmir, Robin George Mansour, Jasmine Michele Weiss, Xiaowen Wang and Haijing Zhang
Gustavo Gazcon Chagoya, Marcelo Figueiredo Fernandes and Robin George Mansour received Dean’s Tuition Scholarships
Karissa Leigh Heck won the Donald B. Hackle Scholarship
Robin George Mansour and Omobolawa Kukoyi received Doris Duke International Clinic Research Fellowships in Global Health
Angela Liou and Duriel Isaiah Hardy earned the Doris Parrish Cardiology Award
Jacqueline Marie Zillioux won the Duke Translational Medicine Institute Award
Alan Lee Chang, Duriel Isaiah Hardy, Ayamo Gina Oben, Irene J. Pien, Vijay Krishna Prabhakar, Sarah Jo Stephens, Sky Breeden Vanderburg and Xiaowen Wang received Eugene A. Stead Student Research Scholarships
Sky Breeden Vanderburg earned the Fogerty Research Scholarship
Diana Catherine Norton won the Fullerton Scholarship
Ethan Bernard Ludmir, Sendhilnathan Ramalingam and Haijing Zhang received Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Training Fellowships
Allison Margaret Brown Webb won the Ideal Physician Award
Jon Stephen Andrews received the Interdisciplinary Research in Medicine –Hyperbaric Medicine Scholarship
Nicole Leigh Helmke and Sky Breeden Vanderburg earned Joseph Collins Fellowships
Chinazo O. Nwankwo was named to the National Institutes of Health Research Scholar Program
Chioma O. Erondu received the Ovarian Cancer Scholarship
Jon Stephen Andrews won the Palmer Award
Jesse Keiser Fitzpatrick earned the Palumbo Family Award
Laura Rachel Platt and Maya Nicole White were named to the Primary Care Leadership Track
Qinyun Wang received the Research to Prevent Blindness Scholarship
Bharath Gopal Rathakrishnan was named the Ruth K. Broad Foundation Medical Fellow in the Neurosciences
Taylor Y. Lu received a Sarnoff Fellowship
Senior Scholarships went to Joanna Leigh Perez Evans, Nina Anne Fainberg, Jesse Keiser Fitzpatrick, Rikesh Anil Gandhi, Duriel Isaiah Hardy, Nicole Leigh Helmke, Yiannis Koullias, Whitney O’Neill Lane, Taylor Y. Lu, Michael Joseph McNeil, Irene J. Pien, Bharath Gopal Rathakrishnan, Sarah Jo Stephens and Qinyun Wang
Diana Catherine Norton earned the Singapore Fellowship
Jesse Keiser Fitzpatrick won the Thomas Jefferson Award
Jonathan David O’Donnell and Vijay Krishna Prabhakar earned the Vice Dean’s Research Award
Military Science Army ROTC
James Francis Maffey was named the Distinguished Military Graduate.
Jeanny Hualing Wang received the USAA Spirit Award
Music
Darren Mueller received the Anne Marie Parsons Memorial Prize
Harish Eswaran won the Henry Schuman Music Prize
Jingxing Gan and Paul Hyung Suk Kim earned the Julia Wilkinson Mueller Prize for Excellence in Music
Melissa Diane Klein and Kenneth Andrew Cutshaw Jr. earned the Paul R. Bryan Award
Naval Science
Maddison Michele Larson won the American Veterans Award
John Thomas Hosey Jr. was named the CNO Distinguished MIDN Graduate
Mackenzie X Tunick received the Colonel Frederick Knops Leadership Award
Matthew Zhao Hendricks earned the USAA Spirit Award
Nursing
Tara Keaveny Hart received the Annie Beery Bieber Award for Outstanding Leadership Award
Allyson Grace Fredrickson and Danielle M. Pipher won the Ruby L. Wilson Excellence in Clinical Practice Award
Karl Cristie F. Figuracion received the Bonnie Jones Friedman Humanitarian Award
Office of Health Professions Advising
Lillian Kang won the Raymond Lublin Award
Physical Therapy
Natasha Roxane Kopecky won the Duke Doctor of Physical Therapy Diversity Award
Claire Elizabeth McCormick earned the Helen Kaiser Duke Physical Therapy Alumni Association Award
Jeffrey Daniel Chellette, Devin Marie DeGrief, Laura Elaine Good, Natasha Roxane Kopecky, Claire Elizabeth McCormick, Monica Jenkins Pamer and Katrina M. Schenck earned Helen Kaiser Scholarship Awards
Justin Andrew Zych won a Student Recognition Award
Political Science
Emma Mary Campbell-Mohn, Andrew Woodall Kragie, Theodore Lawrence Leonhardt, Anand Krishna Raghuraman and Jason Dean Singh received Alona E. Evans Prizes in International Law
Jacob Elisha Sarick Zionce won the Elizabeth G. Verville Award
Julia Ann Janco earned the Ole R. Holsti Award in American Foreign Policy and International Relations
William Fredrick Giles won the Robert S. Rankin Award in American Government and Constitutional Law
Alex Victor Gersovitz won the Robert S. Rankin Award in American, National, State, and Local Governments
Ray Ming Li, Elizabeth Landes Schaack and Jacob Elisha Sarick Zionce received the Robert S. Rankin Award for Leadership and Academic Achievement
Psychology
Zoe Maxfield Bulger won the Karl E. Zener Award for Outstanding Performance of an Undergraduate Major in Psychology
Public Policy
Reed Adam McGinley-Stempel received the Joel Fleishman Distinguished Scholar Award
David Gregor Robertson and Ishan Yatin Thakore earned the Terry Sanford Leadership Award
Romance Studies
Mary Elizabeth D’Amico earned the Guido Mazzoni Prize in Italian
Alexis Marie Pearce received the Richard L. Predmore Award in Spanish
Alexis Ann Stanley won the Robert J. Niess/Alexander Hull Award in French
Sociology
Trenita Brookshire Childers won the Katherine Goodman Stern Fellowship
Brad Fulton won the Fellowship from the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism. He also won the Graduate Student Teaching Award and the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for humanitarian service
Robert Reece won the Otis Green Fellowship Race and Gender Research Award
Carlos Tavares received a Duke Service Learning Faculty Fellowship, a Graduate School Domestic Dissertation Travel Award and a Graduate School Summer Research Fellowship
Andrew Miles and Mary Beth Fallin Hunzaker received fellowships in the Program for Advanced Research in the Social Sciences.
Student Affairs
Lizete Silvana Dos Santos, Jaclyn Marie Grace, Daniel Nathan Kort, Yun Bo Tian and Karina Santellano received the Student Affairs Distinguished Leadership and Service Award
Catherine Anne Blebea, Jonathan M. Hill-Rorie, Cecilia Gene Mercer, Lucas Thomas Metropulos, Jennifer Priscilla Moreno, Lauren Marleen Reuter and Titilayo Oyinkan Shodiya won the William J. Griffith University Service Award
Theater Studies
Jamie Walker Bell and Michael Frederick Myers Jr. won the Dale B.J. Randall Award in Dramatic Literature
Thomas M Kavanagh received the Dana Marks Award for Outstanding Acting
Elena Paula Lagon earned the Harold Brody Award for Excellence in Musical Theater
Michael Frederick Myers Jr. won the Jody McAuliffe Award for Excellence in Directing
Austin Finn Powers received the Kenneth J. Reardon Award for Theater Design, Management or Production
Kelly Brice McCrum won the John M. Clum Distinguished Drama Award
Jamie Walker Bell won the Reynolds Price Award for Best Original Script for Stage, Screen or Television
Hunter Stark and Harmony Zhang won the Alex Cohen Award for Summer Initiatives in Theater
Jamie Bell won the Reynolds Price Award for Best Original Script
Andrew Jacobs won the Forlines Award
Cullen Burling won the Duke University/Lambert Family Theatre Aspen Award
Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
Bailey Elizabeth Sincox won the Bascom Headen Palmer Literary Prize.
Yara Badii Alemi, Ella Michelle Ba´nka, Jamie Walker Bell, Maria Helena Deane, Christine Alexander Delp, Cassandra Florin Goldring, Lauren Rose Henschel, Thomas M Kavanagh, Meaghan Li, King King Lu, Jennifer Nathalie Margono, Kelly Brice McCrum, Michael Frederick Myers Jr., Austin Finn Powers, Alexis Ann Stanley and Yi Archer Wang received Edward H. Benenson Awards in the Arts
Alexis Ann Stanley received the James Rolleston Prize for Best Honors Thesis Written in a Foreign Language
Lauren Rose Henschel won the Louis B. Sudler Prize in the Creative and Performing Arts
Women's Studies
Caralena Christina Peterson earned the Dora Ann Little Award