Stanford undergraduate Firestone and Golden Medal and Kennedy Thesis Prize recipients honored

A recent ceremony celebrated 38 prize winners representing 32 undergraduate departmental and interdisciplinary honors programs. HARRY ELAM, vice provost for undergraduate education, hosted the event for the Class of 2019 recipients of the Firestone and Robert M. Golden Medals and the David M. Kennedy Honors Thesis Prizes.

The Kennedy Prize is awarded annually to the single best thesis in each of the four areas of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering and applied sciences. Recipients of this award have accomplished exceptionally advanced research in the field and have shown strong potential for publication in peer-reviewed scholarly works. The prize was established in 2008 in recognition of history Professor DAVID M. KENNEDY’s mentoring of undergraduate writers. Winners each received an engraved plaque and a monetary award.

David M. Kennedy Honors Thesis Prizes

PHILIP CLARK, “Climbing to ‘Strategic Commanding Heights,'” Center for International Security & Cooperation (CISAC), advised by AMY ZEGART (Political Science)
DEEPTI KANNAN, “Physical Modeling of Chromatin with Heterogeneous Nucleosome Spacings,” Engineering Physics, advised by ANDREW SPAKOWITZ (Chemical Engineering) and RHIJU DAS (Biochemistry)
SANG NGO, “Tumor Establishment Requires Tumor Autonomous and Non-Autonomous Decoupling of EGF Signaling from Apoptosis,” Biology, advised by LUCY O’BRIEN (Molecular and Cellular Physiology)
ARON RAMIREZ, “There Goes the Neighborhood? Civic Identity and the Making of the Mexican Beverly Hills, 1981-1998,” History, advised by GORDON CHANG (History) and ALBERT CAMARILLO (History)
The Firestone and Golden Medals are awarded to the top 10 percent of honors theses completed in a given year. The Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research recognizes theses written in the social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. The Golden Medal for Excellence in Humanities and Creative Arts similarly distinguishes theses in the humanities or creative projects in the fine arts. The medalists each received an engraved bronze medal, citation and a monetary award.

For a full list of the winners of those awards, see the Stanford News Service article.