2024 Physics Undergraduate Prize Winners

Happy people
May 21, 2024

Annually, the Physics Department selects students based on faculty nominations and academic achievement for the Howard L. Schultz, Sr. Prize, awarded by the Physics Department, and the DeForest Pioneers Prize, awarded by the Yale Office of the Secretary. Congratulations to the prize winners for the class of 2024!

HOWARD L. SCHULTZ (1977). Howard L. Schultz, Ph.D. 1937. Awarded to outstanding seniors in the Physics department.

  • Jessie Chen. B.S., Physics (Int.) with Distinction in the Major  / Computer Science. Advisor: Meng Cheng. Senior Project, “Lindbladian Dynamics in Open–System Phase Transitions with Strong-to-Weak SSB”. A member of Sigma Pi Sigma.
  • Elsa Durcan. B.S., Physics (Int.) / History of Science, Medicine and Public Health; member of Yale’s Wright Lab. Advisor: Reina Maruyama. Senior Project, “Superconducting Nanowire Electron Detectors for the RAY Experiment”. A member of Sigma Pi Sigma.
  • Sophia Getz. B.S., Economics / Physics with Distinction in the Major. Advisor: Juan Lora. Senior Project: “Modeling Climate Impacts of Deforestation in the Amazon”. A Member of Sigma Pi Sigma.
  • Argyris Giannisis Manes. B.S., Physics (Int.) with Distinction in the Major / Mathematics. Advisor: Shruti Puri. Senior Project, “Distance-preserving stabilizer measurements in hypergraph product codes”.
  • Luke Mozarsky. B.S., Physics (Int.) with Distinction in the Major / Statistics and Data Science; member of Yale’s Wright Lab. Advisor: Helen Caines. Senior Project, “Tuning the Herwig 7.2 Monte Carlo Event Generator using Professor 2.0”. A member of Sigma Pi Sigma.
  • Rose Powers. B.S., Physics (Int.) with Distinction in the Major; member of Yale’s Wright Lab. Advisor: Sarah Demers. Senior Project: “Photon Energy Resolution Studies for a 10TeV Muon Collider”. A member of Sigma Pi Sigma.
  • Barkotel Zemenu. B.S., Physics (Int.) with Distinction in the Major; member of Yale’s Wright Lab. Advisor: David Moore. Senior Project: “Characterizing the Outgassing of Electronegative Impurities in nEXO”. A member os Sigma Pi Sigma.

DEFOREST PIONEERS (1960). Board of Directors of DeForest Pioneers, Inc., in honor of the outstanding scientific achievements of Lee DeForest, Ph.B. 1896. For a senior physics major for distinguished creative achievement in physics.

  • Ben McDonough. B.S., Physics (Int.) with Distinction in the Major / Mathematics (Int.). Advisor: Steven Girvin. Senior Project: “Tensor-network perspectives on gauging SPT phases”. A member of Sigma Pi Sigma.
  • Rachel Merrill. B.S., Physics with Distinction in the Major. Advisor: Stephen Irons and Alison  Sweeney. Senior Project: “Investigating the Impact of Introductory Lab Experiments on Students’ Physics Self-Efficacy”. A member of Sigma Pi Sigma.