At it’s annual dinner, the Yale Science and Engineering Association announced its Seniors of Distinction awards. The award recognizes Yale College seniors who demonstrate excellence in academics, service, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities in Science, Applied Science, and Engineering majors. This year four physics majors received the honor: Simon Britton, Jeb Cui, Nina Liu, and Noah Silverberg.
Four physics students awarded the YSEA’s Seniors of Distinction Award for 2025-2026
Simon Britton
Simon Britton (DC ‘26) majored in Chemistry (Int.) and Physics with broad research interests in electronic structure theory and condensed matter theory. For his senior chemistry requirement supervised by Professor Tianyu Zhu, he implemented a selected configuration interaction code to iteratively construct compact representations of the electronic many-body wavefunction in terms of a small number of Slater determinants. For his senior physics requirement supervised by Professor Nir Navon, he developed an analytical framework for modeling dephasing in magnetically levitated noninteracting 1D Fermi gases due to the interplay between the applied magnetic field gradient and atomic motion. He intends to further his studies in theoretical and computational chemical physics next year at Oxford. He is a member of Sigma Pi Sigma and received the Howard L. Schultz Prize from the Physics Department.
Britton commented, “I’m honored to be recognized by YSEA alongside my chemistry and physics peers. I would like to thank Professors Zhu and Navon for their patience and help in focusing my research goals, Professor Scott J. Miller for supporting my curiosity in organic chemistry and beyond, Dr. Paul Cooper and Dr. Jonathan Parr for crucial advising in challenging semesters, and the countless faculty, staff, teaching fellows, friends, and YCFSC teammates who gave me the support needed to navigate my time here at Yale. My progress as a researcher was very nonlinear, but I was eventually able to find my way with the assistance extended by others.”
Jeb Cui
Jeb Cui (SM 26) majored in Physics (Int.) and Computer Science and is a member of Sigma Pi Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa. For his thesis, he investigated the distribution of dense core vesicles in fruit fly neurons in Professor Damon Clark’s lab. Additionally, for the Quantum Laser Across the Sound (Q-LATS) project under Professor Hong Tang, he designed a control loop system to align the telescope link between Yale and Stony Brook University. Beyond research, he served on the board of the Yale Undergraduate Quantum Computing (YUQC) club for two years, managing its social media and organizing talks.
Cui commented, “I’m deeply honored to receive the YSEA Senior of Distinction Award. I want to thank my advisors, professors, TAs, friends, and parents for their support and care during my time at Yale. I’m very grateful that the physics community provided a wonderful environment for me to learn, grow, and thrive.”
Nina Liu
Yurou Nina Liu majored in Physics (Int.) and Computer Science and is from Beijing, China. She worked with Professor Malena Rice in the Astronomy department on exoplanet dynamics. Her research focused on high eccentricity tidal migration of hot Jupiters. During the 2023 fall semester and the 2024 spring semester, she worked as a ULA for PHYS 260/261. After Yale, she will be joining the Princeton Astrophysics department as a graduate student. She is a member of Sigma Pi Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa and was also awarded the Howard L. Schultz Prize from the Physics Department.
Liu commented: “I’m deeply honored to have been awarded the YSEA Senior of Distinction Award. I am grateful to my friends and Professors in the Physics department for all the support I’ve received over the years. I am especially grateful to Professor Malena Rice for helping me grow as a scientist and a person. I owe the majority of my achievements to her.”
Noah Silverberg
Noah Silverberg (YC 2026) majored in Physics (Int.) and Mathematics (Int.) and is a member of Sigma Pi Sigma. His research interests span medical physics, imaging, and computation. At the Yale Magnetic Resonance Research Center, he worked on improving cardiac MRI techniques. More recently he conducted medical physics research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Yale New Haven Hospital, where he worked on projects related to cancer imaging and treatment.
Silverberg commented, “I’m honored to be recognized by the YSEA. I’m beyond grateful I had the opportunity to learn physics from such accomplished and experienced professors, and owe special thanks to Dr. Emily Draeger for her mentorship this year. I’d also like to thank my family, friends, and peers for all of their help and support throughout these four years, which were both incredibly challenging and rewarding.”