Congratulations Graduates!

Dr. Shaowen Chen, 2021 Simon Prize Winner

Dr. Shaowen Chen is the winner of the 2021 Robert Simon Memorial Prize for the best dissertation in the APAM Department. Dr. Chen received his PhD in Applied Physics from Columbia University in Oct 2020, advised by Prof. Cory Dean. His thesis, “Transport measurements of correlated states in Graphene flat bands”, explores the phenomena when electrons “cooperate” through Coulomb interactions to form various states of matter, where the electronic response ranges from insulating to superconducting. One guiding experimental focus of his work has been to maintain extremely low disorder in the material of study. Shaowen’s works with Prof. Dean, in collaboration with Prof. James Hone’s group of Mechanical Engineering, and others around the world, were published in Science (2016, 2019), Nature Physics (2020), Physical Review Letters (2019), Nano Letters (2019) and so on. Shaowen received his B.S. in Physics from Peking University in 2014. After graduating from Columbia, Shaowen was selected as Harvard Quantum Initiative (HQI) fellow in 2020, where he is now working as a postdoc fellow to investigate electron correlation with emerging quantum sensors such as nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond.

Alex Paskov - 2021 Salutatorian

Alex Paskov (BS ‘21, Applied Mathematics) was named the 2021 Columbia Engineering Salutatorian. The following interview was originally published by Columbia Engineering. "Initially, what drew me to Columbia was the fact that it’s a world-class educational and research institution embedded within the most vibrant city in the world. But after attending the Days on Campus orientation, I realized that what truly made Columbia unique was the incredible density of hyper-talented people on campus. Almost every situation, whether it’s grabbing a cup of coffee, going to class or doing something as mundane as laundry, has been an opportunity to have an amazing conversation, many of which I still think about years later. And it’s from among this set of people that I’ve had the privilege of making incredible lifelong friends."

Next year, "I’ll be heading to MIT to pursue a PhD in optimization, machine learning, and statistics with MIT Prof. Dimitris Bertsimas. My Columbia education has provided me with an incredible background, which I am now excited to leverage to tackle important and meaningful real-world problems."

Joseph Lee - Applied Physics Faculty Award Winner

Joseph Lee (BS ‘21, Applied Physics) is the recipient of the 2021 Applied Physics Faculty Award. He took numerous graduate level courses, maintained a 4.03 GPA, and received second place at the 2019 Columbia Fast Pitch Competition. He was heavily involved in research with Prof. Sebastian Will, focusing on experimental AMO work and also on a theoretical/computational project in Condensed Matter and AMO. In the summers, he also worked with Dr. Jim Freericks at Georgetown University on quantum computing and its applications to condensed matter. Their work has led to a publication, and they are currently finishing their second. After graduation, Joseph will pursue a PhD at Columbia and work with Prof. Ana Asenjo-Garcia on quantum optics theory. 

Junhui Zhang - Applied Math Faculty Award Winner

Junhui Zhang is the recipient of the 2021 Applied Math Faculty Award. She is an outstanding student who took many challenging courses while maintaining a 4.07 GPA. She also performed research with Professor Henry Lam in the IEOR Department on distributionally robust optimization, and with Professor John Wright in the EE Department on robust Principal Component Analysis. In addition, she was a TA in the Math Department for Modern Analysis I and PDE. After graduation, Junhui will begin pursuing a PhD at MIT, studying Operations Research. 

Ruby Aidun - Materials Science Rhodes Prize

Ruby Aidun (BS ‘21, Materials Science) is the winner of the Frances B.F. Rhodes Prize for materials science. She took a series of challenging courses, maintained a 3.95 GPA, was on the Dean’s List each semester, and was elected to Tau Beta Pi.  She participated in materials research in several groups at Columbia, as well as at Sandia National Labs, where she became a coauthor on four scientific publications in the area of energy-related materials. She served on Columbia’s Undergraduate Integrity Advisory Board, led trips with the Urban New York program, and was a teaching assistant and camp counselor for high-school summer STEM programs. After graduation, Ruby will serve as an Americorps VISTA volunteer.

Anjali Verma - King’s Crown Leadership and Excellence Award for Inclusion and Advocacy / Class of 2021 Senior Marshal

Anjali Verma (BS ‘21, Applied Physics) is the winner of the 2021 King’s Crown Leadership and Excellence Award for Inclusion and Advocacy and was named a Class of 2021 Senior Marshal. She is a powerful advocate in Applied Physics, Columbia Engineering, and across Columbia University. As president of Columbia Spectra and through the Society for Women in Physics, she pushed for the discipline to be more socially and culturally responsible. She also successfully campaigned to rename a classroom after C.S. Wu, one of the only women in the Manhattan Project. Additionally, Anjali created critical spaces for Black students as co-chair of the Columbia Mentoring Initiative’s Black Family Tree and through her work with Mobilized African Diaspora in challenging public safety practices/structures. After graduation, she plans to continue her research in the lab of Dr. Ruben Gonzalez and will apply to graduate school.

Samantha Mayers - Wendell Prize Nominee

APAM nominated Samantha “Sam” Mayers (BS ‘21, Applied Mathematics) for the 2021 George Wendell Memorial Medal in recognition of her exceptional aptitude in leadership, service, and scholarly activities. Her senior presentation for Columbia’s Applied Mathematics Seminar was on “Understanding Pregnancy Prediction from a Self-Reporting Women’s Health Mobile Application” and she also worked on an international research project at Imperial College, London, on “When Will We Know Global CO2 Storage Capacity?”. Next year, Sam will start a Master’s degree at Columbia in Computer Science.