Student, alumni award winners

From left, Jacobus winner Noam Lupu, Pyne Prize winners Alex Rosen ’11 and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux ’11, and Jacobus winners Giada Damen, Marcus Hultmark, and Silviu Pufu ’07 with President Tilghman, third from right, and dean of the graduate school William Russel, at back, prior to the luncheon in Jadwin Gymnasium.

Denise Applewhite/Office of Communications

Published in the March 23, 2011, Issue

Sharing the Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general honor awarded to undergraduates, were:

ALEX ROSEN ’11, economics Rosen, who is earning a certificate in global health and health policy, has combined his interests in economics and health care in his independent work. His thesis investigates how patient outcomes are affected by hospital ownership. His many activities outside the classroom include four years as class president.

A MELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX ’11, religion Thomson-DeVeaux is well known on campus as a student activist, particularly in groups focused on gender and socioeconomic issues. Her thesis examines the work of the French philosopher and writer Simone Weil, incorporating analysis of feminist theory, Christian theology, and disability studies.

Winners of Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowships, which support the final year of graduate study, were:

GIADA DAMEN, art and archaeology Damen is exploring the trade in antiquities between Italy and the eastern Mediterranean during the 15th and 16th centuries, part of an “examination of the Mediterranean as a place of cultural, economic, and artistic exchange between different groups and cultures,” she said.

MARCUS HULTMARK, mechanical and aerospace engineering Hultmark said he’d like
“to make an important contribution to the basic understanding of turbulence and to the design of energy-efficient vehicles and improved climate- and weather-prediction methods.”

NOAM LUPU, politics Lupu is examining the role of partisanship and inequality in Latin American politics over the past two decades. He hopes his dissertation “improves our understanding of intraparty interactions in developing democracies and the political calculations of party elites.”

SILVIU PUFU ’07, physics Pufu’s work focuses on string theory, the branch of physics that seeks to describe all the forces of nature in one unifying theory. In his research, he has “had to use concepts and methods from several building blocks of physics such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, electrodynamics, the theory of phase transitions, and fluid mechanics,” he said.

The CLASS OF 1970 received the Class of 1926 Trophy for raising $5,271,970 in celebration of its 40th reunion. VAN ZANDT WILLIAMS JR. ’65 received the Harold H. Helm Award for sustained service to Annual Giving. The Jerry Horton Award was presented to the ANNUAL GIVING COMMITTEE OF MISSISSIPPI, chaired by DAVID H. HOSTER II ’67, for increasing dollar and participation totals. The PRINCETON ASSOCIATION OF NEW ENGLAND, the PRINCETON CLUB OF AUSTIN, and the PRINCETON CLUB OF INDIA shared the S. Barksdale Penick Jr. ’25 Award for local Schools Committee efforts.