Thirty-one sophomores and juniors have been selected as Burchard Scholars in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (SHASS) for 2006.
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 Kenan Sahin Dean Philip S. Khoury, co-founder of the Burchard Program and chair of the selection committee, the students selected in the 20th 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 this month, at which an MIT faculty member or visiting scholar will present work in progress, followed by a discussion.
In addition to Khoury, the selection committee consisted of Professors Margery Resnick of foreign languages and literatures and the new director of the Burchard Scholars Program; Deborah Fitzgerald of science, technology and society and associate dean of SHASS; John Hildebidle of literature; Thomas Levenson of writing and humanistic studies; Lowell Lindgren of music and theater arts; Roger Petersen of political science; and Janet Sonenberg of music and theater arts.
The Burchard Scholars are:
Juniors: Dhruvatej Boddupalli, Kimberly K. Boddy, Tabitha F. Bonilla, Waseem S. Daher, Jacqueline J. Greene, Daphne Hao, Lori B. Huberman, Minyoung Jang, Silpa Kaza, Sophie F. Rapoport, Lyel L. Resner, Earl Taylor Roan, Shyamli Sinha, Gerardo Trejo, Xiaolu (Erin) Wei, Stella D. Young.
Sophomores: Jean Chang, Gayle J. Denman, Irene Fan, Michael S. Fleder, Molly M. Jabas, Itamar Kimchi, Erqi Liu, Sean C. Morton, Caroline E. Rubin, Ellen E. Sojka, Marie Y. Thibault, Samantha F. Weiss, Ali S. Wyne, George S. Zaidan, Elizabeth R. Zhang.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 8, 2006 (download PDF).