Forty-three students representing 34 undergraduate departmental and interdisciplinary honors programs were recently honored for outstanding research theses and creative arts projects. These students were awarded the 2024 Firestone and Golden medals, and four of them received the Kennedy Honors Thesis prizes.

The Firestone and Golden medals are awarded to the top 10% of honors theses completed each year. The Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research recognizes theses written in the social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. The Robert M. Golden Medal for Excellence in the Humanities and Creative Arts similarly distinguishes theses in the humanities or creative projects in the arts.

The David M. Kennedy Prize is awarded annually to the single best thesis in each of four academic areas: humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering and applied sciences. Recipients of this award have accomplished exceptionally advanced research in the field and have shown strong potential for publication in peer-reviewed scholarly works. The prize was established in 2008 in recognition of history Professor David M. Kennedy’s long-standing mentoring of undergraduate writers.

The projects conducted by the winners capture the breadth of the undergraduate experience at Stanford and span diverse academic areas, from the sciences to the arts.

A full list of this year’s awardees can be found on the VPUE website.