Twenty-seven sophomores and juniors have been selected as Burchard Scholars in the School of Humanities and Social Science for 1999.
The awards, named after the School's first dean, John Ely Burchard, are given to students who demonstrate unusual abilities and academic excellence in the areas embraced by the School. According to Dean Philip S. Khoury, co-founder of the Burchard Program and chair of the selection committee, the students selected in the thirteenth year of competition for the awards "are from exciting and diverse backgrounds and are a remarkable group of gifted young scholars."
The Burchard Scholars and a rotating group of faculty will be invited to a series of dinners beginning in February, at which an MIT faculty member or visiting scholar will present work in progress, followed by a discussion. This will allow students and faculty members to mix and will give students an opportunity to engage in the kind of intellectual exchange that characterizes scholarship in the humanities, arts and social sciences. The emphasis throughout the program will be interdisciplinary.
In addition to Dean Khoury, the selection committee consisted of Professors Margery Resnick of foreign languages and literatures, John Hildebidle and Mary C. Fuller of literature, Daniel T. Kryder of political science and Lowell Lindgren of music and theater arts.
The Burchard Scholars are as follows.
Juniors: Jonna Anderson, urban studies and planning and writing and humanistic studies; Kelly Brogan, brain and cognitive sciences (BCS); Jasper Chen, philosophy and cognitive science; Jason Chicola, electrical engineering and computer science (EECS); Benjamin Chun, EECS and materials science and engineering; Sharmin Ghaznavi, BCS and biology; Eric Gunther, EECS; Madhulika Jain, computer science and biology; Risat Jannat, biology; Jason Krug, music; Berta Liao, political science and chemical engineering; Katherine Cherry Liu, urban studies and planning; David Matsa, economics and mathematics; Martin Mbaya, mechanical engineering; Xiaomin Mou, electrical engineering; Sripriya Natarajan, computer science and engineering; Janelle Prevost, computer science; Millie Roy, biology; Krzysztof Rybak, chemisty; Rachel Stanley, chemistry; Gaurav Tewari, EECS; Jonathan Woon, political science; and David Zych, EECS.
Sophomores: Marie Kosley, political science and chemistry; Richard Possemato, chemistry and biology; Andreas Sundquist, EECS and physics; and Jason Wasfy, chemical engineering and biology.������
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 3, 1999.
