Caltech: Caltech Recognizes 2021 Student Leadership Award Winners

Caltech held its annual Leadership Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, May 25. This year’s virtual ceremony recognized undergraduate and graduate students who have provided leadership to the student body and enrichment to the Institute.

Varun Shanker is the 2021 Frederic W. Hinrichs, Jr., Memorial Award winner. The award is given annually to the senior or seniors who have made the greatest contributions to the student body and whose qualities of character, leadership, and responsibility have been outstanding.

Arushi Gupta and Isabella Camplisson are the winners of the 2021 Mabel Beckman Prize. This award is for academic excellence and outstanding leadership skills, a commitment to personal excellence, good character, and a strong interest in the Caltech community.

Logan Apple is the 2021 winner of the Bibi Jentoft-Nilsen Memorial Award. This prize is given in memory of Bibi Jentoft-Nilsen (BS ’89), an exceptional student leader. After her untimely death in 1990, a fund was established to recognize outstanding student leaders.

Lorenzo van Munoz was chosen as the recipient of the Doris Everhart Service Award. This award is given annually to an undergraduate who has actively supported and willingly worked for organizations that enrich student life and the campus or community as a whole, and who has exhibited care and concern for the welfare of students on a personal basis.

LC Chen was awarded the Mari Peterson Ligocki ’81 Memorial Award. This award is given to one student who, through his or her personal character, has improved the quality of student life at Caltech. It recognizes the student who provides quiet support and kind encouragement to peers.

Student award winners 2021 portaits in a collage
Student award winners 2021
Credit: Photo illustration by Lance Hayadisha
Megan Wang, Jolly Patro, and Alexander Zlokapa were awarded the 2021 Deans’ Cup. Gavin McCabe and Ariel “Ari” Rosner were awarded the Residential Life Award. Yuying Lin, Mohini Misra, Rachel Sun, and Ayooluwa Odemuyiwa won the Residential Experience Leadership Award. The Residential Experience Team Award went to the Senior Class Officers, including Ashima Agarwal and Allessandra Mondello, and to the Science Olympiad team: Cindy Cao, Wesley Huang, Jenny Ji, Albert Kyi, Sherry Liang, Emily Miaou, Jolly Patro, Felianne Teng, Christopher Wang, and David Zheng. These awards are presented to undergraduates whose concern for their fellow students has been demonstrated by persistent efforts to improve the quality of undergraduate life and by effective communication with members of the faculty and administration.

Saehui Hwang and Adam Abbas are the recipients of the 2021 Donald S. Clark Memorial Prize in recognition of service to the campus community and academic excellence. Preference is given to students in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science and to those studying chemical engineering.

Kriti Devasenapathy, Paulina Ridland, Daniel Neamati, and Nicholas Currault were awarded the Robert L. Noland Leadership Award. The award is for outstanding Caltech students who have demonstrated exceptional leadership abilities and have encouraged and supported others in realizing their own leadership capabilities.

Michael Yao and Alexander Zlokapa received this year’s George W. Housner Prize for Academic Excellence and Original Research. This award is given to seniors in the upper 20 percent of their class for an outstanding piece of original scientific research.

Liana Merk and Eric Moreno were the recipients of the 2021 George W. and Bernice E. Green Prize. The Green Prize is awarded to an undergraduate in any class for original research, an original paper or essay, or other evidence of creative scholarship beyond the normal requirements of specific courses.

Jeffrey Ma and Tianyi Zhang were awarded this year’s Jack E. Froehlich Memorial Award. The award is for outstanding juniors in the top 5 percent of the class who show outstanding promise for a creative professional career.

Hannah X. Chen and Miles Cua received the 2021 Fredrick J. Zeigler Memorial Award. This award recognizes students studying pure or applied mathematics in their sophomore or junior year, who have shown excellence in scholarship as demonstrated in class activities or in preparation of an original paper or essay in any subject area.

Alex Dalzell, Elisabeth Gallmeier, and Victoria (Tori) Lee are the recipients of this year’s Lucy Guernsey Service Award. The award is given annually to students who have provided exceptional service to the Caltech Y and/or the community and exemplify a spirit of service.

Graduate leaders recognized for community service for the Student Activism Speaker Series (SASS) or for acting as RISE tutors were Michael Anaya, Karena Cai, Sarah Cohen, Bryce Edwards, Dan Johnson, Kathleen Kennedy, Alexandra Phillips, Brenden Roberts, Shyam Saladi, Daniel ‘Danny’ Sawyer, and Ellen Yan. For Graduate Student Council (GSC) and other leadership roles: Michael Anaya, Dawna Bagherian, Alexander Buser, Karena Cai, Yalu Chen, Emily de Jong, Phillip Helms, Elizabeth Holman, Dan Johnson, Tobias Koehne, Sophie Miller, Daniel Mukasa, Elena Perry, Ethan Pickering, Katherine Rinaldi, Shyam Saladi, Daniel ‘Danny’ Sawyer, Zeynep Turan, Yanjun Xu, and Ellen Yan. Sergei Posnov, Daniel ‘Danny’ Sawyet, Simon Tödtli, and Weilai Yu were recognized as Catalina Community Associates, and Dawna Bagherian, Christopher Balzer, Lilian Dove, Bryce Edwards, Heidi Klumpe, James Parkin, and Jane Haolu Zhang as Residential Associates. The Residential Experience Graduate Leadership Award was awarded to Ellen Yan.

A certificate of interest in university teaching was awarded to Sophia Charan and Dan Johnson were recognized for. A certificate of practice in university teaching was awarded to Hannah Allen, Sophia Charan, Phillip Helms, Heidi Klumpe, Valère Lambert, and Simon Tödtli.

Those recognized for international contributions included undergraduates Isabella Camplisson, Zihao Qi, and Shirley Shiyun Zhu, as well as graduate students Yalu Chen, Deepan Kishore Kumar, Joel Lawson, Jialin Song, Simon Tödtli, Zeynep Turan, Sandy Wan Rong Wong, Ellen Yan, and Jane Haolu Zhang. Peyman Ayoubi was the recipient of the ISP International Impact Award.

Mia de los Reyes was recognized for her Three Minute Thesis, “A (Galactic) Archeological Dig.” Alistair Hayden received Caltech’s 10,000th PhD award.

Dan Johnson was awarded the 2021 Graduate Dean’s Award.