2010 Recipients of The Deans' Award for Academic Accomplishment

Anya Bershad is honored for her brilliant and

original research in Comparative Literature and her academic accomplishments in both Comparative Literature and Biochemistry/Biophysics. 

Written under the guidance of Professor Joshua Landy, Anya’s honors thesis in Comparative Literature, “Trainable Judgment: Montaigne, Kafka, and the Honing of a Faculty,” was nominated for a Golden Medal for Excellence in Humanities Research in 2009. Professor Landy describes Anya’s arguments as “brilliant,” “original,” and “bold” and her thesis as “that rare thing: a genuine work of original scholarship which manages, at the same time, to be a contribution to the way in which we think about our life.”

Anya has the distinction of having written a second thesis in Biochemistry/Biophysics: “Differential responses to TGF-beta signaling in aging hematopoietic stem cells,” sponsored by Professor Irving Weisman. She has also published an article in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

Anya has been active in community work at Stanford, co-founding and serving as director the Stanford Education for Parolees program, an effort to help convicted criminals think differently about their lives through exposure to classic writings. 

Morgan Freret was awarded her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with

Honors and Distinction in January of 2010. She is honored for her phenomenal achievements in biological research.

Morgan’s biology research has been described by her faculty as “nothing less than phenomenal” in the area of stem cell research. Working closely with Developmental Biology Professor Philip Beachy and Neurology and Pediatrics Professor Paul Fisher, Morgan characterized the spatial and temporal distribution of immunophenotypic stem and precursor cells in the human postnatal brainstem, and discovered a new precursor cell in the postnatal ventral pons. Professor Fisher notes that Morgan’s work has been in the “vanguard for what will be groundbreaking research in a deadly childhood brain cancer.” Professor Fisher writes that “Morgan’s work could help provide a basis for novel therapeutic approaches to this deadly cancer, for which no effective treatment currently exists.” Morgan will present her work at the next meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

Morgan is a dedicated volunteer, currently managing the Pacific Free Clinic; she also serves as chair of the Women’s Free Clinic, which she founded.

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Patrick Gallagher is a senior completing a degree in Physics and is honored for his extraordinary academic achievements in physics research.

Physics Professor David Goldhaber-Gordon describes Patrick as “a rare young scientist who will make a major impact on his field and who is already functioning at the level of a strong third-year graduate student.” Professor Aharon Kapitulnik adds that Patrick has “golden hands and is very resourceful, two traits that are crucially important for experimental physics.”

Patrick has mastered techniques of nanofabrication, precision electrical measurement, and cryogenics while developing a sophisticated under-standing of electrons in semiconductor nanostructures. He is cited for producing results and insights that his mentors are sure will make a big impact in graphene electronics. Professor Goldhaber-Gordon writes that it is “remarkable that an undergraduate has made a major contribution to the field.” Patrick’s paper has been accepted to Physical Review B as an “Editor’s Choice”; only five percent of articles are so designated.

With a UAR Major Grant, Patrick worked with a postdoctoral student on other types of atomically-thin layered material resulting in a prestigious Keck Foundation grant and an article in Nano Letters, a prestigious journal.

Maria Gudmundsdottir is a senior pursuing honors in both Geological and Environmental Sciences and German Studies.

Maria is recognized for her “uncanny intuition, impressive critical skills, and unparalleled motivation to explore topics in depth out of her own personal curiosity.” According to her faculty nominators, Maria’s “true abilities and impacts are much deeper than even her transcript suggests – it is her academic performance, drive, and passion for intellectual study, and, additionally, her incredible aptitude for both languages and music” that distinguish her from her peers.

Maria’s extraordinary academic accomplishments include the American Geophysical Union “Outstanding Student Paper Award” in 2008, more commonly awarded to graduate students as a culmination of a doctoral thesis. She has extensive research experience in both her fields and was awarded a UAR Major Grant for her study of topography and tectonics in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the basis of her honors thesis.

An accomplished musician and member of the Stanford University Orchestra, Maria is a native speaker of Icelandic and English, fluent in German, and proficient in French, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, and has just begun her study of Hindi.

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Theresa Hoberg is a senior completing her degree in Mechanical Engineering and is honored for her extraordinary achievements in mechanical engineering research. 

Terri joined the laboratory of Mechanical Engineering Professor John Eaton during her sophomore year, and by her junior year, she was working completely independently on examining how a certain type of cooling system performed as it was scaled down to successively smaller sizes. As part of her research, Terri designed a hybrid sterolithography/computer-numerically-controlled matching method to build the smallest scale test article. The final test model was completely successful, a tribute to both her capabilities and her persistence. Terri’s work on this project resulted in a first-authored paper to the International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, one of the top two journals in the field of heat transfer.

Professor Eaton writes that “Terri’s stature in our group has grown so that she is now treated like a Ph.D. student. . .” and notes that when prospective Ph.D. students and a visiting professor came to Stanford, Terri presented her research results as the only undergraduate among a group of post-doctoral students.

Nicholas Josten is a senior completing a degree in Human Biology, with honors, who is recognized for his brilliant research in neurobiology.

Nicko’s research is conducted in the neurobiology laboratory of Professor and Chair of Neurobiology Ben A. Barres, where he is focused on the development of synaptic specificity in the mammalian visual system. Professor Barres writes that Nicko is “not only brilliant and motivated but he also has an extremely rare talent for identifying critical, uncharted questions in developmental neurobiology and for designing and carrying out experiments to evaluate those questions.” Nicko is the first author on a review due for publication in Current Topics in Developmental Biology, an exceedingly rare honor for an undergraduate student.

Nicko made a major discovery in identifying a gene called placental cadherin that is expressed by a specific class of luminance-detecting cells in the retina. This discovery of a novel neural circuit in the mammalian visual system is described by Professor Barres as “a truly exceptional discovery for someone at any stage of their career,” and Nicko will also be first author of an article describing the results. Nicko earned a UAR Major Grant for his study of the role of the cell adhesion molecule Neph2 in the developing mouse retina in 2009.

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Thomas Tobin, a senior double majoring in History and International Relations, is honored for his extraordinary academic accomplishments in research in multiple disciplines.

One investigation, for which Tommy is lead author, documents the often-hidden connections between the American presidency and tobacco and its influence on shaping policy initiatives. He also authored an article describing a model for writing centers in secondary schools which is about to be published in The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas.

Another of Tommy’s research projects analyzes previously unreleased documents regarding the medical history of Lyndon B. Johnson. According to nominator Albert Bandura, professor of Psychology, this work has been described as a “new revelation … a seminal contribution to the field” by Tommy’s advisors, History Professor David Kennedy and UCLA History Professor Robert Dallek.

Tommy is lauded as one of the most exceptional students with whom Professor Bandura has worked in his 57 years at Stanford. He cites Tommy’s passion for research as embedded in “exceptional talent, intrinsic motivation, extraordinary resourcefulness, and self-reliant dedication.”

Anand Venkatkrishnan is a senior in Classics, with equal focus in both Greek and Latin. He is honored for his extraordinary intellectual dedication to mastering the languages, literatures, and philosophical principles of the western and eastern worlds, with a commitment to actualizing their most profound and universal ideals. Anand has mastered Greek, Latin, Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit and Spanish, and begun study in German and Farsi. In 2009, the Department of Classics awarded Anand the Junior Prize in appreciation of his excellence in ancient Indo-European languages.

Anand’s professors describe his academic work as “dazzling,” marked by “his consuming passion for the text,” “always prepared absolutely, faultlessly,”  and “a joy to behold” in the classroom. 

Anand has put equal energy into understanding the array of spiritual traditions presenting themselves on the Stanford campus. He co-created, and is president of, Stanford Faiths Act in Togetherness and Hope (F.A.I.T.H.). Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann writes: “The University hopes that individual students develop intellectual lives through which the understanding in a particular field is advanced and as a result the world is improved. In the careful, calm scholarship, convictions, and activism of Anand Venkatkrishnan, these hopes are achieved.”

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Jee Soo Yoo is a junior in Materials Science and Engineering who is honored for her exceptional research ability in the area of nanostructured materials.

Working closely with Materials Science and Engineering Professor Yi Cui since the summer of 2008, Jee Soo has studied nanostructured materials for energy storage. Jee Soo has been an important designer and contributor to the effort to answer the key question as to whether there is nanopore formation in silicon nanowires. Together with her collaborators, Jee Soo found that nanopores can be created inside nanowires and their size can be controlled from 1 to 100 nanometers by the frequency of lithium ion insertion/extraction. Her work utilizing these nanoporous nanowires to fabricate high energy and high power supercapacitors has been accepted for publication in the prestigious journal Nano Letters, and Jee Soo has co-authored  a second article, currently under review by a leading interna-tional chemistry journal.

Professor Cui notes that it is rare to find a junior with the exceptional skills, work ethic, and superior ability in designing experiments, analyzing data, and generating and testing hypotheses, and predicts that Jee Soo will be a leader in her chosen field.

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