2004 Recipients of The Deans' Award for Academic Accomplishment

Anna Cueni is honored for her careful and insightful study of factors influencing word-order choice, particularly in English dative alternation. She assembled a comprehensive database that allowed the multifactorial and multilevel analyses needed to decide competing claims regarding this construction.

Working with Linguistics Professor Joan Bresnan, Anna performed extensive statistical analyses of the data utilizing advanced analogical classification software. She also developed a quantitative measure of lexical variation called the Differentiation Index. This original contribution to the field informs her current study on the database idioms.

Anna presented her work to the Paraphrase Link project sponsored by Stanford and Edinburgh Universities. She will coauthor a paper with Professor Bresnan and a graduate student. Anna’s work was presented to the Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics Conference (Norway) and the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics (Netherlands).

Professor Bresnan wrote: “In over 30 years of teaching and research, I have had the pleasure of teaching many outstanding students at all levels, both here at Stanford and at MIT. In her accomplishments, talent at research, and passion for discovery, Anna stands out as one of a handful of the very best.”

Co-nominator Tom Wasow, Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy, writes of Anna’s research: “It is just the sort of work I had in mind when I established the Dean’s Award for Academic Accomplishment in 1988.”

Nathalie Pulmones de Leon is honored for her work on the detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs, one of the EPA’s priority pollutants, are among the most abundant extraterrestrial compounds. Distribution of PAHs and related molecules in meteorites and simulated extraterrestrial environments can enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of organic compounds in the universe.

Nathalie’s virtuosity in devising instrumentation permitted her analysis of PAHs in water samples from volcanic sources. This expertise allowed her to critique existing methods of detection and devise techniques for studying fullerenes, another important group of organic compounds. With nominator Professor Richard Zare, she coauthored a paper describing her work on PAHs that is submitted for publication in Analytical Chemistry. Her work during the summer of 2003 expanded PAH detection capabilities by adding new sample preparation techniques.

“This investigation was performed at a skill level normally reserved for graduate students,” said Professor Zare.

Nathalie is currently working with Professor Graham Hancock at Oxford on using infrared sources to detect methane molecules and determine their behavior under various conditions.

Nathalie is also honored for outstanding contributions as a teaching assistant, a rare position for an undergraduate. This attests to her expertise and commitment to furthering scientific knowledge.

Vinita Kailasanath is honored for her discovery of three estrogen receptors in the same species. This is an achievement only previously accomplished in three other research groups in the world. Her work enhances the understanding of estrogen influence on the brain and behavior and has further implications for our knowledge of how genes multiply through evolution.

Vinita began working in Professor Russell Fernald’s lab during her sophomore year. Prior to Vinita’s work, only one estrogen receptor had been cloned. Her exhaustive research enabled her to predict the existence of additional estrogen receptors. Vinita identified and cloned a second receptor and established its unique function in the brain. Vinita enhanced the likelihood of identifying a third receptor by writing a program for the polymerase chain reaction machine, fine-tuning it to estrogen receptor amino acid sequences. Her identification of the third receptor allowed her to extend her work on the evolution and function of receptors in the species.

Vinita, who will be first-author of resulting publications, presented her results at the National Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in January 2004. She will deliver a complete characterization of estrogen receptor types to the Society for Neurosciences.

According to Professor Fernald, “The work she has done is important in its own right but also sets the stage for many more experiments.”

Vinita was also nominated by Sabrina Burmeister, a postdoctoral researcher in the Fernald Lab.

Meredith Lee is honored for her contributions to the use of semiconductor lasers in biological measurement. This requires a grasp of a wide range of concepts, including semiconductor technology, laser physics, fluorescence and their applications in biology and medicine.

Meredith’s research is essential to an interdisciplinary study by nominator Professor James Harris of the School of Engineering and the Solid State and Photonics Laboratory. It is also essential to W. E. Moerner’s group in Chemistry doing single molecule spectroscopy and Stephen Smith’s group in Molecular and Cellular Physiology.

Meredith presented her work with great success at a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) review. This task was previously accomplished by only the most advanced graduate students in Professor Harris’ research group.

Professor Harris writes: “Meredith is one of the brightest and most enthusiastic students that I have had the pleasure to work with in my 22 years at Stanford.”

Meredith, a Stanford President’s Scholar, earned the 2003 Electronic materials Symposium Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award and the 2002 Stanford School of Engineering Society of Women Engineers Award. Her article on the project appears in The Stanford Bioscience Quarterly. Meredith is honored for contributions to the Stanford University community, including participation in the Society of Women Engineers outreach and Peer Academic Advisor programs. Meredith is also nominated by Olav Solgaard, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering.

Jason Ross is honored for his studies of how bacterial pathogens infect agricultural plants. In Biology Sciences Professor Mary Beth Mudgett’s lab, he quickly learned the research techniques necessary to complete several different forms of protein and DNA analysis.

Jason worked with Professor Mudgett and graduate researcher Julie Roden on the tomato pathogen, Xanthomonas campestris, which injects proteins into plant cells by the type III protein secretion system. The identity and function of the proteins injected into plant cells were unknown. Jason used a bacterial genetic screen to identify the proteins in the secretion system, leading to his isolating and identifying a novel type III protein.

Jason began a second project using recombinant DNA technology to study proteins in Xanthomonas. Jason learned how to clone and sequence a gene, transform bacteria, amplify specific sequences through PCR analysis, perform restriction analysis and conjugate plasmids into bacteria. He is currently using a sucrose sensor to study the means by which pathogens thrive in extracellular space.

Of her decision to include Jason in her research group, Professor Mudgett states: “I made an excellent decision choosing Jason. Jason has all of the qualities that I value for a young aspiring scientist: a curiosity for research, a strong commitment to work, and a passion to answer biological questions.”

Jim Van Deventer is honored for his work manipulating properties of semiconductor surfaces for possible applications in lithography, low temperature dielectric materials, sensors and molecular electronics.

Jim works in the laboratory of nominator Stacey Bent, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering. As the first undergraduate admitted to Professor Bent’s PhD-level course in applied spectroscopy, he excelled despite the need to teach himself the necessary quantum mechanics. Jim began an independent project on the organic reactivity at the silicon surface early in his junior year. He excelled in developing future experiments complimentary to the research aims of Professor Bent’s group. Jim developed a series of studies on adsorption of acetic acid on silicon. He also developed the method of isotopic labeling and spectroscopy that would allow him to identify the products formed.

According to Professor Bent, “this level of research independence is rare for undergraduates in my laboratory given the nature of the experiments, but in Jim’s case seems perfectly natural.”

Jim earned an Undergraduate Research Award from the American Vacuum Society’s Science and Technology Society. He delivered a very well-received talk entitled “Investigation of the Reaction of Acetic Acid on Ge(100)-2x1” to the AVS International Symposium. One of the few undergraduates present, Jim was the only undergraduate speaker. Several attendees called his the best talk of the session. Jim’s work will be published in a technical journal.

Yue Yang is honored for his advanced experimental work in electrophysiology which will be submitted for first-author publication by the end of this year.

Yue joined Professor Merritt Maduke’s laboratory in Molecular and Cellular Physiology in January 2002. He worked on several projects targeting cellular channel selection as the lead and sole experimentalist.

His first project required him to learn laboratory techniques “with lightening speed.” Pursuing interests in neurosciences, Yue devised a method for identifying potential mechanisms that produce mutations involved in dominantly inherited forms of disease.

Yue detected the presence of a “startling phenotype:” a mutant that caused cellular channels to open in the presence of negative rather than positive charges. Yue overcame substantial difficulties in order to devise a method for detecting individual charges. The only lab member to perform work of this kind, he optimized the recording setup for the low-noise experiments with little guidance. Yue was the first undergraduate to present his work at a Departmental Retreat.

“The talk was spectacular,” said W. James Nelson, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. He also delivered his results to a national meeting of General Physiologists.

Yue was also nominated by Rick Aldrich, Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. Professor Aldrich wrote that Yue is “. . . by far the very best undergraduate researcher I have known in 28 years at Stanford

Back to Top