Phi Beta Kappa
Northern California Association, Inc.
The 2011 Scholarship recipients
The 2010 Scholarship Recipients Shah Ali, Stanford, Medicine Shah Ali (Medicine, Stanford) is in his second year of graduate study, working toward a career in academic medicine. He is studying coronary artery disease and the cellular loss that results following acute myocardial injury. Some of his research will look at the possibilities of cell transplantation therapy. Chantal Frankenbach (Music, UC Davis) is examining the dislocation of dance from Western art music. In her dissertation, "Disdain for Dance, Disdain for France: Choreophobia in German Music Criticism," she shows that German music critics characterized dance as "feminine and French," and therefore not "pure" music. She herself is a professional dancer. Harold (Hal) Haggard (Physics, UC Berkeley) is studying the implications of quantum mechanics and its relation to the theory of relativity. The heart of his thesis is "a description of the geometry arising out of the spin network that involves nine spinning particles." In addition to his Ph.D. from Berkeley, he will be receiving an international Ph.D. through the Universita degli Studi de Pavia, Italy. William Love Anderegg (Biology, Stanford) is testing the physiological mechanisms of climate-induced forest mortality. He is studying the sudden aspen decline (SAD) that has swept across Colorado, several other western states, and parts of Canada. Through his research he seeks to "demonstrate the direct link between climate change and tree mortality . . . and make strides toward predictive models of forest mortality." Bill has a website that discusses his projects, which currently (November 2010) are: Read more here Margaret Peters (Political Science, Stanford) is studying the politics of globalization, with a special focus on the politics of immigration. She is looking at the two periods of globalization in the modern era (1820-1914 and the post-World War II era) and the immigration policies during those periods. Specifically, she is examining the "continued relative closure of the U.S. border to immigrants after World War II." Her goal is to contribute fact-based research instead of research with a policy agenda to policy makers and the general public. Lilliana Radoshevich (Biomedical Sciences, UCSF) is studying the role of autophagy in cancer. A driving force in her research is the potential that what she finds could solve serious human health problems. She is also committed to bridging the gap in understanding between the scientific community and the general public. Johnny Tam (Bioengineering, UCSF) is investigating retinal capillaries in early-stage diabetes, using noninvasive techniques that he invented. His study opens up the patient pool that can be potentially investigated for both clinical practice and basic research in disease mechanisms. He is interested in directing the development of applications for medical imaging. He is licensed as an Engineer-in-Training and has received his Certificate in Management of Technology from the Haas School of Business and Engineering at UC Berkeley. Joanne Sandstrom, Second Vice President, Scholarship The 2009 Scholarship Recipients Esther Cole, Ecology, UC Davis Esther is studying how changing climate may be affecting disease dynamics as snowmelt comes earlier and minimum temperatures rise. She has done extensive work in Ecuador, where her work generated several important discoveries, including the discovery of a new species of frog, genus Cochranella. She will complete her fieldwork in the Trinity Alps here in California. As she writes, "This research will generate novel insights into how changing climate will influence natural disease regimes, potentially resulting in the extinction of native species." Her professors called her "smart, articulate, self-confident," "a wonderful field biologist, incredibly well-organized," "intellectually nimble," and a woman with "a sense of humor and irony." Jordan Gans-Morse, Political Science, UC Berkeley "The collapse of the Soviet Union presented social scientists with a daunting set of challenges. . . . Comparativists . . . sought to develop theories capable of explaining transitions from tradition to modernity, underdevelopment to development, and authoritarianism to democracy." Jordan's dissertation research analyzes why institutions that protect property develop in some countries but not others, why some laws and regulations remain mere scraps of paper. He focuses on the interest-group politics underlying institutional formation. He hopes to uncover valuable insights into the institutional foundations of economic prosperity. He was in Russia at the time of the Awards Banquet, testing the preliminary predictions of his model. His professors noted his "extraordinary potential" and his "quiet determination and commitment" and they think that "his research holds the promise of improving the foundations on which policy prescriptions can be made." "He is a rising star in the field." Emily Jacobs, Neuroscience, UC Berkeley Emily is determined to pursue science in combination with humanitarian values. Her research centers on how dopamine functions in the prefrontal cortex. As she put it, it's a Goldilocks and the three bears scenario: you don't want too much or too little dopamine – just enough. The key goal of her project is to understand how individual differences in baseline dopamine levels in adolescents lead to greater susceptibility to depression, early-onset schizophrenia, and ADHD. Being committed to sharing her work with the public ("secret knowledge . . . is less than science"), she helped found S.E.E. (Science Everyone Everywhere), a nonprofit organization aimed at bringing science and the public a step closer together. She also works with a "brain fitness" campaign in San Francisco geared toward raising awareness about the health benefits of staying mentally and physically active as we age. Her professors commended her "maturity and curiosity," "dedication to service," and "boundless energy" ("bottle it and we could solve the worldwide energy crisis!"). Everyone noted that she is more like a colleague than a student. Mariangela Lisanti, Physics, Stanford (Norall Family Scholarship) As Mariangela noted in her application, the Standard Model of particle physics cannot explain dark matter and dark energy in the universe, and says nothing about the gravitational force or how elementary particles obtain their mass. She works on building and studying extensions of the Standard Model that address these fundamental issues. "Whether scientists explore the unimaginably large or the inconceivably small, they strive to comprehend some aspect of the unknown. The fact that the same fundamental laws of physics can explain dramatically different scenarios is nothing short of amazing; for instance, the same forces that explain how an ant is able to lift a crumb off the ground can also explain the interactions of particles a few seconds after the Big Bang." Mariangela worked at the Tevatron collider at Fermilab, outside Chicago. That work resulted in "a sea change in how to design searches for new physics." She is "a role model for women students," "an effective mentor," and "a clear and organized speaker who can lay out the most complex arguments in a way her audience can grasp." Laurel Seely, Literature, UC Santa Cruz (Elizabeth B. Reed Scholarship) Laurel's title is standard academese. The first paragraph of her application is not. "In winter 2008, the city of Sarajevo coated its sidewalks with a substance designed to prevent people from slipping on ice, an event that provoked outrage among some of Bosnia's Serb and Croat politicians. The problem: the coating was green, a color associated with Islam." In her work, Laurel uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine the intersection of culture and politics in transformations of identity in postsocialist Bosnia. Her dissertation examines transformations of Bosnian identity effected through key cultural products. By presenting and analyzing materials that are lesser known or difficult to access (she has also translated Bosnian literary works into English), she aims to make a variety of texts available for the first time to English-speaking scholars. Her letters of recommendation cite her "personal independence, perseverance, originality of thought, and her no-nonsense hard work." She is "critically innovative," "a model of the best kind of contemporary literary and cultural studies." Amelia Wolf, Biology, Stanford "Can a tree emulate James Dean, or bear a resemblance to George Burns? . . . James Dean famously lived fast and died young; Burns persisted in the limelight for years and years. Different trees, too, follow these divergent life trajectories," burning out after a short and productive life or fading away after persisting and reproducing for many years. Amelia works on ant-plant mutualisms that occur in tropical regions worldwide, including the neotropics. Her work in Costa Rica is yielding information similar to what she found in Kenya. Such cross-continental comparisons are rare and valuable, because they can help determine the degree to which ecological processes are generalizable. She is also an avid photographer and last year had a photograph (of giraffes in Kenya) published on the cover of Science (11 January 2008). She was recommended for her "endurance, creativity, and imagination, and a willingness to take risks." She is a "broad, creative, synthetic thinker, and highly motivated." Her "wholly original research has already yielded amazing results." The 2008 Scholarship Recipients This year, PBKNCA awarded nine $5,000 scholarships out of twenty-three applicants from the nine northern California schools. My thanks to the scholarship committee: Jeff Fenton, Lynne Fovinci, Jean James, Gerry Richards Joanne Sandstrom Manisha Bahl (Elizabeth Buttler Reed Scholarship), UC
San Francisco (Medicine), is working on a new, non-invasive method of
diagnosing non-alcoholic fatty-liver disease, a common cause of chronic liver
disease in North America. A goal of future work is to lead efforts in
immunology and to shape policy related to biomedical research. Manisha also has
a passion for patient care, especially in providing care to the medically
underserved (exhibited in her work in free clinics) and for teaching (exhibited
in her development of an interactive learning module for teaching anatomy and
radiology in the first-year medical school curriculum). Her letters of
recommendation cite her humility and kindness, creativity, originality,
dedication, and initiative.
Matthew Fujita, UC Berkeley
(Integrative Biology), is studying asexual Australian geckos, whose existence
represents a major conundrum in evolutionary biology. Such research can provide
critical insight on the origin and evolution of many genetic mutations that
induce pathological disease. Outreach is also important to Matthew: he
developed lessons for a seventh-grade biology curriculum at Adams Middle School
in Richmond, a school serving a largely Hispanic and disadvantaged population.
His letters of recommendation cite his dedication, deep motivation, rigor and passion
about communicating science to multiple audiences.
Lauren McGeoch, UC Davis (Ecology), is focusing on
habitat edges, on understanding the nature, causes, and consequences of edge
interactions, especially important as habitats worldwide become more
fragmented. Results of her study in Kenya have important, non-intuitive
implications for plant community ecology, livestock productivity, and
biodiversity conservation. Lauren was on the Collegiate Water Polo
Association's Women's All-American Team; she hiked the entire Pacific Crest
Trail in 2005. Her letters of
recommen-dation cite her focus, efficiency, curiosity, computer sophistication,
talent – and guts.
Elizabeth McGuire, UC Berkeley
(History), is exploring the relationship between the Russian and Chinese
revolutions through the experiences of individual Chinese Communists in the
Soviet Union. Her study shows the mismatched assumptions between the two
revolutions. It is based on archival research and interviews with children of
famous international revolutionaries who were sent to school at the Interdom –
opened in 1933 and still operating. Her work renders "the Sino-Soviet
romance" useful to international, cross-cultural, or comparative scholars
seeking to conceptualize this relationship. Letters of recommendation cite her diligence, conceptual acuity,
creativity, resourceful-ness, fearless enthusiasm, and tact.
Victor Menaldo,Stanford (Political
Science), is conducting research that challenges the Tocquevillean thesis that
extending the franchise in unequal societies shifts the decisive voter to the
left, causing redistribution of wealth. His study also overturns conventional
wisdom: in the long run, he has found, there is no relationship between natural
resource reliance and authoritarianism. "Democracy in and of itself may
not be the panacea for remedying inequality that it has been purported to
be." Instead, populist politicians, unable to raise taxes on the wealthy,
raise revenue by expanding the money supply, thereby causing inflation.
"The ultimate result is a cruel irony: democratization trends to worsen
income inequality." Letters of
recommendation cite his creativity, energy, enthusiasm, and sense of humor.
Joanna Nelson, UC Santa Cruz
(Environmental Studies), is studying the interactions of nitrogen pollution and
sea-level rise in salt marsh habitats, investigating the multiple drivers of
ecological change, and incorporating different knowledge systems to shed light
on the changes. Joanne examines the linked roles of biological diversity and
cultural diversity, connecting scientific knowledge with local knowledge. In
her teaching role, she designed and taught “Pathways from Research to
Conservation” at the Hopkins Marine Station. Letters of recommendation cite her remarkable research intuition,
adeptness at spotting flaws in thinking (including that of her professors),
energy, creativity, and patience.
Veena Singla, UC San Francisco (Cell
Biology), is studying stem cell models of disease to uncover the molecular
bases by which mutations result in disease, thereby – it is hoped – providing
insight into the development of novel treatments. As a teaching assistant for
UCSF biochemistry classes, she designed interactive and engaging lessons – for
example, having students pretend to be base pairs of DNA undergoing a repair
mechanism. For such ingenuity, she was awarded the UCSF Richard Fineberg
Memorial Teaching Award. Letters of
recommendation cite her exceptional talent, initiative, and tenacity, and her
quirky, outside-the-box way of looking at problems.
Jessica Walter, UC Berkeley (Physics),
is studying cellular metabolism and the balance of energy in living cells. At
the beginning of her studies at Berkeley, she had to set up her own lab on
campus, where her advisor wasn't yet a faculty member. As a result of this
early research, scientists can now directly influence the organisms they wish
to study in order to test their hypotheses. Jessica is co-inventor of
(patented) biologically derived nanorobots and their use. She is the recipient
of several teaching awards. Letters of
recom-mendation cite her intelligence, independence, creativity, and
willingness to take risks.
Leslie Wang, UC Berkeley (Sociology), is studying the
"missing children" in China in an era of "high quality"
citizens. As a result of the state's population policies, healthy
"excess" daughters and disabled or special-needs children (mostly
boys) have been abandoned. Whereas the healthy girls have been adopted by
affluent Westerners, the vast majority of special-needs children will remain in
orphanages - some run by the state, some by Western evangelical Christian NGOs.
The study analyzes the issues that emerge when processes of globalization
enable Westerners to become embedded in the local dynamics and politics of
developing countries. Letters of recommendation cite her depth of sociological
insight, analytical intelligence, thorough empirical work, and strong
motivation.
The 2007 Scholarship Recipients In fulfillment of its mission to encourage scholarship and research, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association is honoring the following ten outstanding Phi Beta Kappa graduate students with $5000 scholarship awards to assist them in completing their educational objectives: Tasha Fairfield (UC Berkeley; political science) graduated from Harvard with a degree in physics. She went to Stanford to study high-energy physics but decided she wanted to do less theoretical work, so she changed focus and got an M.A. degree in Latin American studies. Her dissertation project focuses on the political and economic problems of taxation in Latin America (specifically in the ABCs--Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile). From her recommendations come these comments: Tasha is an intellectual powerhouse who has identified a research topic that is particularly critical and woefully understudied. The stakes are enormous. Ryan Gold (UC Davis; geology) graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Even early in his studies, he "played a central role in helping craft an NSF proposal strong enough to be successful in its first submission." For his dissertation he'll be measuring the slip rate at which the most important fault system in the interior of the India-Asia collision zone has moved over the past 10,000 years. Different measures have come up with wildly varying answers. From his recommendations come these comments: Ryan has a rare talent for doing really great science. He is able to combine knowledge from various subdisciplines to make new discoveries. And he's an excellent teacher. Natasha Hausmann (UC Berkeley; integrative biology and ecology) was elected to PBK at Wellesley. She has conducted studies in Arctic Alaska and, closer to home, at Point Reyes. Her dissertation focuses on how invasive grasses have altered the soil fungal communities in California and aims to identify the factors that affect diversity so that we can better manage our grasslands. Sarah Little (UCSF; medicine) was a Harvard economics major. At UCSF she is studying the intersection of economics and clinical medicine--"cost-effectiveness research." She has done much work in ob/gyn and hopes to become an academic perinatologist with a research focus on the economic issues concerning high-risk obstetrical care. From her recommendations come these comments: Sarah is the single best medical student I have ever worked with at Harvard or UCSF. Without hyperbole, she has been the most productive medical student or resident I have ever mentored. She is also humble. Glen Michael (UCSF; medicine), Norall Family Scholarship, comes to California from the University of Virginia. He has worked as an EMT with the Department of Homeland Security and the Primal Quest Expedition-length Adventure Race in the Sierra Nevada. His focus is on finding--and creating--opportunities to unite academic inquiry with community service. In Virginia, he helped to establish a local free clinic for the underserved, and at UCSF he helped create fitKids, a local organization devoted to providing outdoor excursions for at-risk youth. From his recommendations come these comments: Glen has great professionalism and empathy and is truly exceptional at the bedside. During a leave of absence [to care for a terminally ill family member] he also spent time tutoring disadvantaged high school students, took up carpentry, and constructed a small cabin. Robert Pringle (Stanford; biological sciences), Elizabeth B. Reed Scholarship , was elected to PBK at the University of Pennsylvania, then took a few years off to earn two MSc degrees (with distinction) from Oxford. As he noted in his application, "My career is dedicated to the following proposition: academic theory has an essential role to play in mediating conflict and engineering harmony between nature and society, but those solutions must marry sound, generalized science with place-based socio-cultural understanding. This is a philosophy that demands to be taken out of abstraction and applied." With these principles in mind, Rob will continue to work on implementing the kinds of changes necessary to improve the efficacy and equity of biological conservation. For current info about Rob, please see Shumin Tan (Stanford: microbiology and immunology) came to the United States from Singapore and did her undergraduate work at Washington University, St. Louis. She is using live-cell, time-lapse imaging to focus on H. pylori, which colonizes the stomachs of more than half of all humans worldwide. Chronic infection by H. pylori is a major cause of gastric and duodenal ulcer disease and an early risk factor for gastric cancer. From her recommendations come these comments: Shumin has exceptional talent and productivity, tremendous dedication and discipline. Her work is original and innovative, and she has all the makings of a great researcher and teacher. Heather Swanson (UC Santa Cruz; cultural anthropology) did her undergraduate work at Princeton. Even then she was working on the salmon-human relationship and developed a comprehensive science education program for preK-12 students in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington (her home grounds). For her dissertation she will go farther afield in her examination of the salmon-human-environment interaction, comparing and contrasting salmon management practices in northern Japan and the U.S. Pacific Northwest, looking at the social ecologies within which management decisions are made. From her recommendations come these comments: Heather is dedicated, original, and inventive, brilliant and knowledgeable. She is an unusually talented scholar who writes with clarity, precision, and grace. Christopher Weinberger (UC Berkeley; English and Japanese) was elected to PBK at Williams College. He is the only student ever permitted to work on two simultaneous Ph.D.s in the humanities at UC Berkeley. In 2005 he was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor award and currently holds the record for the highest student evaluations ever in the English department. He hopes to pioneer a comparative history of literary theory in the United States and Japan. From his recommendations come these comments: Chris's presentations and seminar papers have ranged from merely very smart to truly brilliant. He is a sophisticated conceptual thinker, and he truly believes that teaching literature and culture can have humane, ethical consequences, and can make us better human beings. From her recommendations come these comments: Janet is a brilliant woman, likely to have a huge impact on scientific research and education. In less than two years in this lab, she has provided the first mechanistic explanation for a process that has been a mystery for ten years. The 2006 Scholarship Recipients Arthur William Bahr (Norall Family Scholarship) English UC Berkeley Brooke Erin Crowley Earth Sciences UC Santa Cruz Talissa Jane Ford English UC Berkeley Eleanor Bayne Johnson English and Medieval StudiesUC Berkeley Andrew J. Koontz-Garboden Linguistics Stanford Darius Parke Ornston Political Science UC Berkeley Brian J. Schulman Medicine UC Med School Todd Stephen Sechser Political Science Stanford Jessica Lea Weeks Political Science Stanford THE 2005 SCHOLARSHIP Recipients At our Annual Meeting at the Berkeley Faculty Club, PBK NCA awarded nine $4000 scholarships to the outstanding graduate students listed below: Catherine Becker Art History UC Berkeley Ayelet Ben-Yishai Comparative Literature UC Berkeley Michael Cohen Chemistry and Chemical Biology UC SF Sarah Eyerly (Elizabeth Reed Awardee) Musicology and Criticism UC Davis Laura Hubbard Anthropology UC Berkeley Ray Nigatani, Jr. Pharmaceutical UC SF Science Mary Elizabeth Paster Linguistics UC Berkeley Matthew Schlesinger Ecology UC Davis Laura Steele Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology UC Berkeley THE 2004 SCHOLARSHIP Recipients In fulfillment of its mission to encourage scholarship and research, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association is honoring the following outstanding Phi Beta Kappa graduate students with $4000 scholarship awards to assist them in completing their educational objectives. All are enrolled in Northern California colleges and universities. Jeremy Cholfin
|
THE 2003 SCHOLARSHIP Recipients
In fulfillment of its mission to encourage scholarship and research, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association is honoring the following outstanding Phi Beta Kappa graduate students with $4000 scholarship awards to assist them in completing their educational objectives. All are enrolled in Northern California colleges and universities.
Jorge Jose Bravo III
History and Archaeology
UC Berkeley
Arianne J. Chernock
History
UC Berkeley
Hsuan Lin Hsu
English
UC Berkeley
Elaine K. Musgrave
(Norall Family Scholarship)
English
UC Davis
Eric Schnell
Neuroscience
UC San Francisco
Shelby Wynn Schwartz
Comparative Literature
UC Berkeley
Kevin Chun-Kai Wang
Neurobiology
UC San Francisco
Boris Yanislav Wolfson
(Elizabeth Reed Award)
Slavic Languages and Literature
UC Berkeley
THE 2002 SCHOLARSHIP Recipients
In fulfillment of its mission to encourage scholarship and research, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association is honoring the following outstanding Phi Beta Kappa graduate students with $3700 scholarship awards to assist them in completing their educational objectives. All are enrolled in Northern California colleges and universities.
Sarah Benor
Linguistics
Stanford
Elena Berg
Animal Behavior
UC Davis
Karen Carney
Biogeochemistry
Stanford
Amy Freund
Art History
UC Berkeley
Susanna Paltz
Psychology
UC Berkeley
Roopali Phadke (Elizabeth
Reed Award)
Asian and Environmental Studies
UC Santa Cruz
Maximilian Viatori
Anthropology
UC Davis
Deborah Weiss
Anthropology
UC Davis
Timothy Yu
English
Stanford
In fulfillment of its mission to encourage scholarship and research, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association is honoring the following outstanding Phi Beta Kappa graduate students with $3600 scholarship awards to assist them in completing their educational objectives. All are enrolled in Northern California colleges and universities.
Daniel Imara Bolnick
Population Biology
UC Davis
Stephen Y. Chan
MD-PhD Program
UCSF
J. Winston Chiong ( Elizabeth
Reed Award )
Medicine
UCSF
Dawn Davina Coleman
English and American Literature
Stanford
Jill Letitia Grenier
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
UC Berkeley
Vikram K. Jaswal
Psychology
Stanford
Andrew Leslie Jenks
Russian History
Stanford
Benjamin B. Kerr
Biological Sciences
Stanford
Brett H. Rushforth
American History
UC Davis
Julie graduated from Brown, magna
cum laude, in 1989 with a major in classics. She
is currently enrolled in doctoral studies at UC
Berkeley in the field of comparative literature.
Julie is exploring the genre of lyric poetry and
how different forms of writing influence the development
of the lyric voice. Interestingly, the work has
crossover implications in the study of dyslexia.
This developed from her work in teaching children
in Taiwan and China. Julie notes that "Literacy
does not necessarily mean sound-letter association,
as written Chinese demonstrates."
Yee-Ming Chan (Glatze
Award) UCSF
Biochemistry
Yee-Ming graduated summa cum laude from Yale in 1993 with a degree in biology. He is currently enrolled in the MD-PhD program at UCSF. His thesis work focuses on the genetic structure of fruit flies and the process by which cells are transformed into neurons. He has also been active with the UCSF AIDS Forum. Yee-Ming states, "I have become convinced that knowledge exists to be shared with others, and I have become devoted to various activities that have in common the communication of biological and medical knowledge."
Albert and Grace Glatze Scholarship We are pleased to acknowledge a most generous gift by Albert and Grace Glatze of Oakland. Mr. and Mrs. Glatze have donated funds to underwrite a full graduate student scholarship in the year 2000. |
Jessica Green UCBerkeley
Nuclear Engineering
Jessica graduated magna cum laude from UCLA in 1992 with a degree in civil and environmental engineering. She is currently enrolled at UC Berkeley and is pursuing a PhD in nuclear engineering. Her work centers on using the techniques of risk analysis from that field and applying them to environmental risks. Jessica notes, "My goal is to bridge the gap between the principles of theoretical ecology and the practical methodology of risk analysis." While Jessica did not attend the dinner, her excuse was reasonable. She became a mother for the first time a week before, so congratulations on two counts are in order.
Jeffrey Karlsen UCBerkeley
Slavic Languages
Jeffrey graduated magna cum laude from UC Berkeley in 1992 with a major in Slavic Languages. He is currently a candidate for a PhD at the same institution in that field. Jeffrey is studying the view of America in early Soviet culture. He is using film as one way of gaining this perspective. In Jeffrey's words, "The Soviet fascination with America illuminates the debates about post-Revolutionary reconceptualizations of literature and culture."
Natasha Schull UCBerkeley
Anthropology
Natasha graduated summa cum laude from UC Berkeley in 1993 with a major in anthropology. She is currently completing doctoral studies in that field at Berkeley. Her work explores the area of pathological gambling and follows other work she has done on the gambling industry. She describes the gambling experience from the viewpoint of the addict, an experience which is "characterized by social isolation and even self-abandonment in which sense of body, self, place and time dissolves."
Dylan Schwilk Stanford
Biological Sciences
Dylan graduated summa cum laude
from Occidental College in 1996 with majors in
biology and English. He is currently pursuing doctoral
studies in biology at Stanford. Dylan is studying
wildfires and the adaptation of plant materials
to those conditions. "Considering the environment
a product of organisms' phenotypes as much as their
cause is a novel approach to evolution, but one
that is unavoidable when investigating plants and
fire."
Rachel Sturman UCDavis
History
Rachel graduated from the University
of Chicago in 1991 with a degree in history. She
is currently a PhD candidate at UC Davis in that
field. Her studies center on Colonial India and
the ways in which concepts of property and "rights" were
affected by that experience. As she says, "My
dissertation puts such terms into question by exploring
how the transformations in property relations wrought
by colonialism impacted indigenous people at the
most intimate levels."
Anna Wertz UCBerkeley
History
Anna graduated from Washington
University (St. Louis) in 1992 summa cum laude
in history. Following that, she obtained a master's
degree from Brown and is currently a PhD candidate
in history at UC Berkeley. Anna's dissertation
is an intellectual biography of Hans Blumenberg.
She observes that "Blumenberg's works make
significant contributions to the field of philosophy,
but beyond this lies his inquisitiveness about
the nature of inquisitiveness itself."
Veronica Yank UCSF
Medicine
Veronica graduated with honors from Harvard in 1994 with majors in history and literature, while also lettering in varsity soccer. She is currently a medical student as UCSF. Her interests lie in both public health research and clinical medicine. She intends to obtain a master's in public health after medical school. Much of her research in that area "may be grouped under the rubric of efforts to protect and improve the integrity of biomedical publications, which are the basis of evidence-based patient care."
THE 1999 SCHOLARSHIP Recipients
From UC Berkeley:
Helen Fox
Eric Klinenberg
Scott Tang
Tony Wong
From San Francisco State:
Lucille Kwak
From Stanford:
William Oliver
David Sherman
Vikaas Sohal
Hilary Teplitz
Miriam Ticktin
From UC Santa Cruz:
Henry Goldschmidt
From UC San Francisco:
Michael Penn, Jr.
Helen Fox - The
Elizabeth B. Reed Award
Helen received her BA with distinction in Biology
from Swarthmore College in 1994 After spending
a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the University
of Queensland, she is now pursuing a PhD in Integrative
Biology at UC Berkeley. Her primary area of interest
is in coral reefs, specifically their management
and regeneration. Her dissertation will focus upon
the disturbance caused by dynamite fishing in Indonesia.
In her words, "Repeated blasting transforms
the reef into a shifting, unstable rubble field
that rarely returns to a healthy reef community."
Henry Goldschmidt
Henry received his BA degree in Anthropology
from Wesleyan University in 1991. He is currently
pursuing his PhD in Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz,
where he has been awarded a Regents fellowship and
an outstanding teaching assistant award. Henry's
dissertation will study relations between the African-American
and Jewish communities in the Crown Heights neighborhood
of Brooklyn. Henry states that "More than
seven years after the riots, the racial and religious
identities that divide Crown Heights are still
largely misunderstood."
Eric Klinenberg
Eric received his AB degree from Brown University
in 1993 with a double major in Philosophy and History.
He is currently engaged in doctoral studies in
Anthropology at UC Berkeley. Eric is studying the
1995 Chicago heat wave in which more than seven
hundred people died and what it says about the
structure of society. Specifically, "The research
delves deeply into the historical and current structures
of Chicago's social and political life and shows
that the social autopsy of the heat wave serves
as a revelator of urban conditions that are present
but more difficult to see in normal times."
Lucille Kwak
Lucille received
her AB degree in Psychology from UCLA in 1990.
She is currently pursuing a MFA in Cinema at San
Francisco State University. Her Master's thesis
will study the experiences of Asian-American actors
in San Francisco in the forties and fifties. She
has won several awards for her film, "Return
to Grace", which analyzes the "reconciliation
of Jae, a Korean-American painter with his older,
schizophrenic sister, Grace."
William Oliver
William earned his BS degree in Electrical Engineering
as well as a BA in Japanese from the University
of Rochester in 1995. If this wasn't enough to
occupy his undergraduate years, he worked his way
through college playing with a band and volunteering
as an Emergency Medical Technician. After receiving
his MS in Electrical Engineering at MIT, he enrolled
in the PhD program in Electrical Engineering at
Stanford. His dissertation will focus on the area
of quantum electron optics which he states "is
a new field merging quantum optics and mesoscopic
condensed matter physics."
Michael Penn, Jr.
Michael received his BS
in Biology from Morehouse College in 1994. He is
currently enrolled in the Medical Scientist Training
Program at UCSF with a specialty in Immunology.
In his PhD program, he is currently studying the
mechanisms by which the HIV virus deteriorates
the human immune system. Michael says, "My
ultimate goal is two-fold: to increase the quality
of life in our society through community involvement
and scientific discovery."
David Sherman
David earned his BA in Psychology
from Cornell in 1995. He received a MA in Psychology
at Stanford in 1996 where he is currently enrolled
in the PhD program in that field. David is the
recipient of a National Science Foundation fellowship.
His dissertation will focus upon the study of poverty
within social psychology, with a particular emphasis
on welfare women. He notes that, "In contrast
to the stereotype of welfare women as extremely
dependent, our research has found that they are
extremely independent."
Vikaas Sohal
Vikaas received his AB degree in Applied Mathematics
from Harvard in 1997. He is currently enrolled
in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stanford.
Vikaas seeks to combine his understanding of mathematics
with his science training in order to gain insight
into how the mind functions. As he puts it, "My
love of mathematics has proved indispensable, because
to understand 'how the mind works', it's not enough
to characterize the physical substrate of the brain.
As with a computer, one could understand all the
circuitry but still not understand how Windows
95 works."
Scott Tang
Scott earned his BA in History and
Political Science summa cum laude from the University
of Arizona in 1992. He is currently enrolled in
the PhD program in History at UC Berkeley. Scott
has received several awards as a Graduate Student
Instructor and a Mellon grant. His dissertation
will focus on the changing relationships among
white and non-white San Franciscans during World
War II and in the period immediately following
it. Scott notes that "The ultimate
goal is an integrated multicultural history that
allows one to access sites of interracial interaction."
Hilary Teplitz
Hilary was granted her
BA degree in Russian Literature and Russian Area
Studies from Wellesley in 1994. She is currently
working toward her PhD in Slavic Literature at
Stanford. In her teaching role at Stanford she
was awarded a Centennial Teaching Assistant certificate.
Hilary's dissertation will focus upon Russian views
of America over the past thirty years. As she says, "America
does not simply come to represent a series of qualities
or elements that may be delineated neatly but rather,
in myth, it evokes emotion and inspires action."
Miriam Ticktin
Miriam received her AB in Anthropology
from Princeton in 1993, where she was awarded the
Pyne Prize, the University's highest award for
undergraduates. She then studied at Oxford as a
Rhodes scholar and is currently enrolled in the
PhD program at Stanford in Cultural Anthropology.
Her dissertation will study feminist activism in
France. More specifically, it "will examine
two types of feminist activism, one initiated by
those of immigrant origin and the other by white
activists."
Tony Wong
Tony received his AB degree cum laude from Harvard
in 1994 with a major in Physics and Astronomy.
He is currently in the PhD program in Astronomy
at UC Berkeley. While in the program, Tony has
sought out teaching opportunities and currently
has full responsibility for a course in Astrobiology.
His dissertation will analyze the relationship
between interstellar gas and star formation. In
his words, "Studying the present day gas content
in galaxies not only tells us about the future
possibilities for star formation but provides information
on formation in the past as well."
THE 1998 SCHOLARSHIP Recipients
Laurie Schaffner is the 1998 recipient of the prestigious Elizabeth B. Reed award. She received her BA degree in Sociology from Smith College and was elected to PBK in 1995. She is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Sociology at UC Berkeley. Her dissertation research is focused on female juvenile delinquency. She states that "there is not much work that focuses on teenaged girls and their offending behaviors". She holds that research about juvenile delinquency begins with males and then is generalized to include females. Ms. Schaffner maintains that juvenile delinquency needs to be retrieved from its male's eye view. She plans to remedy this problem in part by interviewing fifty girls in detention facilities and fifty case files of girls on probation. David B. Barkin
David Barkin received his BS degree in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University and was elected to PBK in 1997. He is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He is doing research on some of the most advanced needs and developments in the fields of computer and communications technology. such as the development of integrated circuitry for private and commercial use. After his PhD, he plans to move "into research and development of custom designed integrated circuitry for communication specific tasks". Faith P. Barrett
Faith Barrett received her BA degree in Comparative Literature from Swarthmore College and was elected to PBK in 1987. She is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley. Her research is centered on the works of Emily Dickinson. In her dissertation she addresses theological and ethical questions contained in Dickinson's poems. Specifically she examines Dickinson's question "how is it possible for a human being to address God?" and "is it possible for one human being to address another?" Jennifer A. Brown
Jennifer Brown received her bachelor's degree in Biology at UCLA and was elected to PBK in 1995. She is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Biology at UC Santa Cruz. She is doing valuable research on conserving biodiversity in the terrestrial environment with focus on the marine environment. She is seeking to identify the movement of fish populations, to determine dispersal patterns of certain species, and to evaluate development of a harvest reserve to supplement harvested populations. Keith M. Chapin
Keith Chapin received his BA degree in Music at Yale University in 1992. He was elected to PBK in 1991. He is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Musicology at Stanford University. He is an accomplished performer on the viola and in chamber music. He indicates that his dissertation work on the metaphysics of counterpoint will demonstrate some of the aesthetic foundations of music theory. Karen D. Chapple
Karen Chapple graduated from Columbia University and was elected to PBK in May 1989 with a major in Urban Studies. She is now a candidate for the PhD degree in City and Regional Planning. Her dissertation is entitled "Paths to employment: the role of social networks in the job search for poor urban women". Carolyn E. Chen
Carolyn Chen received her BA degree in Sociology from Brown University and was initiated into PBK in 1992. She is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Sociology and is working on her dissertation which in her own words "examines the high rates of conversion to evangelical Protestantism among Asian American immigrants in contemporary America". Murray L. Eiland III
Dr. Murray Eiland received his BA degree in Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and Art History and was initiated into PBK at UC Berkeley in 1990. He received his PhD in Oriental Archaeology from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He is now pursuing an MS degree in Earth Sciences at UC Santa Cruz where he is working on applying modern methods of analysis such as infra-red spectroscopy to archaeological ceramics. His objective is to unite science with archaeology to facilitate the analysis and evaluation of ceramic samples. Eric S. Gawiser
Eric Gawiser received his bachelor's degree in Physics and Public Policy from Princeton University and was elected to PBK in 1994. He is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Physics at UC Berkeley. He is performing research in cosmology and astrophysics with a specialization in investigating the history of structure formation in the universe. Deborah G. Goldman
Deborah Goldman received her BA degree in mathematics from MIT and was elected to PBK in 1991. She is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Mathematics at UC Berkeley, but her dissertation will explore a field of theoretical computer science known as approximation. This is the process of finding approximate answers to intractable problems that cannot be solved in a reasonable amount of time.
Ryan A. Harris received his BA degree in Psychology at Stanford University and was initiated into PBK in 1993. He is now a candidate for the M.D. degree at UC San Francisco. His faculty have highest praise for his abilities as a creative and innovative researcher and analyst. In the past five years he has done extensive research in areas such as women's health issues, outpatient gastroenterology, the HIV virus, including the screening of health professionals for presence of the disease, and cardiology. He has published numerous articles and papers. According to his faculty he seems destined to be a "productive, independent investigator and a leader in his chosen field". Meredyth A. Krych
Meredyth Krych received her BA degree in Linguistics and Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and was elected to PBK in 1995. She is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Cognitive Psychology at Stanford University. Her research area involves "the influence of word choice in biasing human memory for observed events... Her interest is to "identify particular representations and processes which are influenced by language... this has implications for understanding the relationship between the way concepts are encoded in language and people's subsequent cognition". Peter L. Mallios
Peter Mallios received his BA degree in English and Economics at UC Berkeley and was elected to in 1990. He is now a candidate for the PhD degree in English and American literature at Stanford University. His dissertation studies Peter Conrad and James Faulkner as the two fiction writers who most adventurously carried the genre of romance fiction into the modernist period. Julie B. Morrison
Julie Morrison received her BA degree in Psychology from Texas Christian University and was elected to PBK in 1994. She is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Cognitive Psychology at Stanford University. Her primary research investigates what she refers to as "the human body scheme", namely our own "mental representation of our bodies (as we use them) in perception and action". She indicates that "It has been proposed that the concept of the body scheme serves important functions for perception and action." She is studying what kinds of ideas this concept might convey in differing kinds of situations. Qi Wang
Qi Wang received her bachelor's degree in Biology from Amherst College in 1994. She was elected to PBK in 1993. She is now a candidate for the PhD degree in Immunology at UC San Francisco. Her research has centered on study of the mechanisms by which one family of factors from the nervous system alter the functions of the major cells of immunity (T cells). She has developed a genetic procedure for studying the roles of certain T cells in protective and disease-producing immune reactions that is attracting national attention.
THE 1997 SCHOLARSHIP Recipients
In June, 1997, we were pleased to award 15 scholarships of $3,000 each to the following outstanding students. A brief discussion of their outstanding research is linked to each name.
From UC Berkeley:
Matthew Baerman (Slavic Studies)
Danielle Lussier (Music)
John Randolph (European History)
Linda Sawyer (Civil Environmental Engineering)
Daniel Rolde (History)
From Stanford:
Sean Connolly (Biological Sciences)
Mizuko Ito (Anthropology/Education)
Kenneth Shotts (Political Science)
Jeffrey Zacks (Psychology)
From UC Santa Cruz:
Linda Tropp (Social Psychology)
James Bullock (Astronomy/Physics)
Jason Merchant (Linguistics)
From UC Davis:
Bridget Ford (History)
From UC San Francisco:
Stephen Lai (Medicine)
Serena Volpp (Medicine; Elizabeth B. Reed Scholarship)
is the 1997 winner of the prestigious Elizabeth B. Reed scholarship. She received a degree in biology and women's studies from Harvard and Radcliffe and was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa in 1992. She is now a medical student at UCSF. Serena is working "to promote equal and appropriate access to health care . . . focusing on the public health concerns of the Asian/Pacific Islander (API) community in the Bay Area". Her goal is to practice medicine in a community health clinic while performing research and teaching in a medical school. She has a deep concern for the health needs of API people and has done considerable research in Hong Kong and the USA on various facets of their health problems, physical and mental.
Matthew
Baerman
is a candidate for the PhD degree in
Slavic studies at UC Berkeley. He received his
bachelor's degree from Yale University and was
initiated into Phi Beta Kappa in 1983. He is now
a candidate for the PhD degree in Slavic Linguistics
at UC Berkeley and is presently in Macedonia. His
dissertation is entitled "Free to Fixed Stress
in Slavic". The reference here is to study
the evolution of fixed stress (accentual) systems
in the three branches of Slavic: East, West, and
South. As one of his faculty puts it "All
languages have accent. In some the place of the
accent in the word is predictable or 'fixed' in
others it is unpredictable or 'mobile' ".
Matthew is researching the question "How does
a fixed accent system develop from an originally
mobile system?". He has also been a tireless
worker in the field gathering extensive data from
village informants and making scholarly reports
on his findings.
James
Bullock
received the bachelor's degree in physics
and math from Ohio State University and was initiated
into Phi Beta Kappa in 1993. He is now a candidate
for the PhD degree in physics and astrophysics
at UC Santa Cruz. He is working with others in
his department to study the evolution of galaxy
formation in the universe. New technology and telescopes,
including the famous Hubble Space Telescope, have
provided large masses of data by looking deep into
the universe and back in time. According to James
this is a particularly good time for this research
because of the technology which is available.
Sean
Connolly
graduated from Earlham College in Indiana
with a degree in biology and was initiated into
Phi Beta Kappa in 1993. is now studying for the
PhD degree in biological sciences at Stanford University.
He describes his primary academic goal as documenting
regional patterns of abundance of intertidal invertebrates
and to determine whether physical oceanographic
processes are responsible for these patterns. He
adds that an ecological understanding of coastal
marine systems is important because of their high
productivity and proximity to land. They are heavily
harvested leading to questions of depletion. Entire
economies rely upon harvesting of fish and invertebrates
from these systems.
Bridget
Ford
graduated from Barnard College with
a degree in history. She was initiated into Phi
Beta Kappa in 1991. She is now a doctoral candidate
in history at UC Davis. Her dissertation is entitled "At
Slavery's Edge: Religion, Race, and Society in
the Urban West 1820 - 1860". She is studying
the status and role of "African-Americans
and white women . . . who worked towards emancipation" in
two cities, Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky.
She explicitly reviews the role of religion in
this process and uses a "community study" of
both cities as a research tool.
Mizuko
Ito
received her BA degree in East Asian studies
from Harvard and was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa
in 1990. She is now a candidate for a double degree
PhD in Education and Anthropology at Stanford University.
This will require the writing of two separate PhD
theses. It is a tribute to her skill and ability
that the University approved this endeavor. We
are told that she is the first and so far only
graduate student to have received permission to
do this in these departments at Stanford. Her long
term objective has been an ethnographic study of
culture with focus on cross-cultural relations
and social and cultural change. Currently she is
studying "the use and consumption of computer
games by children in several sites in the nation".
She will also examine the social, cultural, and
instrumental logic embedded in the games. She is
an outstanding teacher and productive and creative
scholar.
Stephen
Lai
graduated from Stanford University with a BS
degree in biological sciences and an AB degree
in economics. He was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa
in 1991. He is now a candidate in the joint MD
and PhD program at UC San Francisco. Stephen is
an innovative and skillful researcher. He has a
remarkable record of accomplishment in medical
research on cancer, aids, alcoholism, retinal diseases
and the impact of pediatric disease on the human
immune system — all related to some of the
most basic and widespread diseases known to man.
He has won many honors and awards and published
many articles and papers. He is an outstanding
teacher. There seems to be little doubt that he
will play an important role in understanding and
alleviating major diseases.
Danielle
Lussier
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
with a degree in music and was initiated into Phi
Beta Kappa in 1991. She is now a candidate for
the PhD degree in music at UC Berkeley. She holds
that after World War II musical aesthetics in Eastern
Europe and Western Europe turned in radically different
directions. She has studied the western and eastern
responses to music of Bela Bartok to demonstrate
this point. She describes the politics of involvement
by the state (Hungary) which brought about his
posthumous fall into disfavor. He was charged with
writing "unacceptable, formalistic music" which
he was accused of composing for “politically
suspect bourgeois audiences”. It seems for
a while he could not satisfy anyone as the French
criticized him as having been "compromised
by writing expressive, accessible music".
Danielle examines these views in her dissertation “Bartok
on Trial 1945-1955".
Jason
Merchant
received his undergraduate degree in linguistics
from Yale University. He was initiated into Phi
Beta Kappa in 1989. He is currently a candidate
for the PhD degree in linguistics at UC Santa Cruz.
We are told that “he ‘discovered’ ellipsis,
an area of syntax and semantics that is now currently
very much in vogue”. His dissertation will
deal with the syntax and semantics of ellipsis
in several languages including English, German
and Greek. He has received an impressive number
of awards and honors and has authored publications
and has given presentations. He is also an excellent
teacher. His faculty predicts that he will make
significant contributions to linguistic theory.
John
Randolph
graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota
with a bachelor's degree in history and Russian
studies and was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa in
1989. He is studying for his PhD degree in late
modern European history at UC Berkeley. His dissertation
is entitled "The Bakunins of Tver Province:
Family, Estate and Society in Imperial Russia 1780
-1870". His dissertation "provides a
unique portrait of Russian noble family life during
the last hundred years of serfdom". His interest
is in 19th century "Russian social thought".
He uses descriptions of members of this noble family
and life on their estate, Priamukhino, as a focus
of his research.
Daniel
Rolde
received his bachelor's degree in history from
Yale University. He was initiated into Phi Beta
Kappa in 1991. He is now a candidate for the PhD
degree in history at UC Berkeley. Mr. Rolde is
interested in the millions of Germans who were
expelled from their homes in the East after the
end of World War II. They were forced to flee to
West Germany as Russia and Poland moved west. He
wants to examine how these refugees originally
integrated into the new German society and the
problems associated with this process. There are
significant economic, social, and political implications
to this topic.
Linda
Sawyer
received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering
from Stanford University and was initiated into
Phi Beta Kappa in 1990. She is a candidate for
the PhD degree in civil and environmental engineering
at UC Berkeley. She plans to use her training in
engineering to assist and support her work and
inquiries in the field of ecology. She has designed
waste water treatment facilities and is now studying
biofilms, a matrix of bacterial and cellular products
attached to a surface. They are found in soils,
aquatic systems and drinking water systems where
they can cause contamination. A better understanding
of biofilms is necessary in order to control them
for beneficial use.
Kenneth
Shotts
received his BA degree in political
science from Stanford University and was initiated
into Phi Beta Kappa in 1993. He is a candidate
for the PhD degree in political economics at Stanford.
His long term interest within the field of American
politics is the study of legislative institutions,
particularly the U.S. Congress. His dissertation “examines
the effects of racial gerrymandering on national
policy”. This is a topic that has been in
the national news in recent years. He has won praise
from his faculty for his research in this field.
Linda
Tropp
received a double degree in psychology and
Spanish from Wellesley College and was elected
to Phi Beta Kappa in 1992. She is now a candidate
for the PhD degree in social psychology at UC Santa
Cruz. Linda is an experienced and capable researcher
and is highly respected by her faculty. She is
working on projects and subjects in the field of
social psychology. She has a history of directing
or working with others in projects such as "the
effect of identification with the college community
on white females and on women of color". She
is very interested in questions of self-identity
and self-esteem.
Jeffrey
Zacks
received his bachelor's degree in psychology
at Yale University and was initiated into Phi Beta
Kappa in 1992. He is now a candidate for the PhD
degree in cognitive psychology at Stanford University.
He has an "ongoing interest in the intersection
of cognition and technology". He is researching
event perception and cognition, for example, the
threshold between experiencing something and turning
it into a memory.
*The Phi Beta Kappa Society maintains a Membership Info Page which may be consulted for further information about election to Phi Beta Kappa.
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