Twenty-six sophomores and juniors have been selected as Burchard Scholars in the School of Humanities and Social Science (SHASS) for 2007.
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 SHASS Dean Deborah Fitzgerald, overseer of the Burchard Program, the students selected in the 21st 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, especially, 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.
Aside from Fitzgerald, the selection committee consisted of Margery Resnick, professor of literature; Rebecca Faery, director, first-year writing, writing and humanistic studies; Wyn Kelley, senior lecturer, literature; Thomas Levenson, associate professor, writing and humanistic studies; Anthony Lioi, assistant professor, writing and humanistic studies; Michael Ouellette, senior lecturer, music and theater arts; and Janet Sonenberg, professor of theater arts.
The Burchard Scholars are as follows: Allison Berke '08, biology, mathematics; Raja Bobbili '08, electrical engineering and computer science, economics; Gabriel Cira '08, architecture; Daniel Denis '08, nuclear science and engineering; Ross Goodwin '09, economics, political science; Ruijie He '08, aeronautics and astronautics, political science; Reshmaan Hussam '09, economics; Anthony Jones '08, mechanical engineering; Ellis Kim '09, management; Gloria Lee '09, brain and cognitive sciences, literature; Noel Lee '08, chemistry; Richard Lin '09, materials science and engineering, biology; Matthew Lord '09, mathematics; Lauren McLendon '08, biology; Mahalia Miller '09, civil engineering; Navine Nasser-Ghodsi '09, brain and cognitive sciences; Juan Prajogo '08, economics and management science; Thaned Pruttivarasin '08, physics, music; Tala Qusous '08, biological engineering; Jugal Shah '08, nuclear science and engineering, biology; Lisa Song '08, environmental science; Lucia Tian '08, electrical engineering, economics; Jiao Wang '08, biological engineering; Angelica Weiner '09, urban studies and planning; Rany Woo '08, brain and cognitive sciences; Yi Zhou '09, economics and mathematics.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 28, 2007 (download PDF).
