Forty-two students representing 31 undergraduate departmental and interdisciplinary honors programs were recently honored for outstanding research theses and creative arts projects. These students were awarded the 2025 Firestone and Golden medals, and four of these students also received the Kennedy Honors Thesis prize. The winners were honored at a luncheon on June 14 at the Stanford Faculty Club.
The Firestone and Golden Medals are awarded to the top 10 percent 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 awardees each received an engraved bronze medal and a monetary award.
The David M. Kennedy Prize is awarded annually to the single best thesis in each of four academic areas: arts & humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering & applied sciences. Recipients have accomplished exceptionally advanced research in the field and have shown strong potential for publication in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. The prize was established in 2008 in recognition of history Professor David M. Kennedy’s long-standing mentoring of undergraduate writers. Winners each received an engraved plaque and a monetary award.
The projects conducted by the winners capture the breadth of the undergraduate experience at Stanford and span academic areas, from the sciences to the arts.
David M. Kennedy Honors Thesis Prizes
Engineering and Applied Sciences: Caitlin Elizabeth Ramos, Mechanical Engineering. “Concentric Push-Pull Tube Robots for Embedded 3D Printing.” Mentored by Mark Skylar-Scott and Allison Okamura
Arts & Humanities: Feiyang Kuang, English. “Between Scholarship and Fiction: Attempts at Restitution in W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz.” Mentored by Alex Woloch and Nancy Ruttenburg
Natural Sciences: Karla Perez, Psychology. “Sight in the Making: Differential Microstructural Development in Gray and White Matter of the Dorsal, Lateral, and Ventral Visual Streams in the First Year of Infant Life.” Mentored by Kalanit Grill-Spector
Social Sciences: Tiana Lakhani, International Relations. “Digital Brinkmanship: North Korea’s Cyber Evolution and the Role of AI.” Mentored by Dafna Zur
Firestone Medals for Excellence in Undergraduate Research
Alexandra Torres Arsuaga, Psychology. “‘Shame on the Family, Shame on Herself’: Understanding Community Reactions to Sexual Violence Among Latinas and White American Women in the U.S.” Mentored by Hazel Markus
Chris Badillo, Education. “School Board Politics: Portrayals of Race, Class, and Immigration in Miami-Dade School Board Member Policy Proposals.” Mentored by Francis Pearman and Ari Y. Kelman
Kenneth Duy Bui, Science, Technology & Society. “Cybernetic in Form, Conservative in Content: Technocracy and Techno-Solutionism in the Soviet Union.” Mentored by Paul Edwards.
Quanlin Chen, Mathematics. “Langlands conjugation conjecture of Shimura varieties.” Mentored by Richard Taylor.
Grace Meiwah Chow, Human Biology. “Optimization of Electrospray on Technology for Cell Therapy Delivery.” Mentored by Anthony Oro and Jill Helms.
Katherine Dong, Biology. “Endosome-associated Rab GTPases control distinct aspects of neuronal morphogenesis and circuit assembly.” Mentored by Liqun Luo
Eric Gao, Economics. “Paired Course and Dorm Allocation.” Mentored by Paul Milgrom
Diego Gutierrez, Earth System Science. “Gandules, Yuca, and Malanga: The Possibility of Backyard Agriculture and Implications for Food Sovereignty in Puerto Rico.” Mentored by Scott Fendorf and Anna Gomes
Jennifer Lauren Hamad, Biology. “Novel Discrete Immolative Guanidinium Transporters Deliver mRNA Selectively to the Spleen, Lungs, and Red Blood Cells, Reaching the Brain.” Mentored by Paul Wender
Jingyi Han, Chemical Engineering. “Experimental and Theoretical Studies of Aminosilane Molecules as Inhibitors for HfO2 Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition on SiO2.” Mentored by Stacey F. Bent
Annika Johnson, Human Biology. “The Role of Neuregulin Signaling in Nerve Regeneration After Injury.” Mentored by William Talbot, Margaret Fuller, and Dan Lysko
Rhea Rai Arora Malhotra, Computer Science. “Robust Robot Learning in Unseen and Dynamic Environments.” Mentored by Jeannette Bohg
Jaston McClure, Biology. “Calcineurin-ERK Antagonism at the Nuclear Pore Complex Regulates Bi-Directional Nuclear Transport.” Mentored by Martha Cyert
Declan Murphy Zink, Physics. “Topological Surface Waves on Low-Temperature Gaseous Magnetized Plasma: Theory, Computation, and Detection.” Mentored by Mark A. Cappelli
Laisha Ozuna, Sociology. “New Year, New School: A Comparative Study Examining Choice Enrollment Policies in the San Diego Unified School District.” Mentored by Sarah Levine
Ashwin Prabu, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. “Freedom or Control? Expanding a Relational Understanding of ICE’s Alternatives to Detention Program.” Mentored by Asad Asad
Jefferson Pruett, Economics. “Assessing Accuracy of Matched Sample Surveys: Evidence from the Cooperative Election Study.” Mentored by Jon Krosnick and Hunt Allcott
Anushka Sanyal, Human Biology. “RNAs act as chaperones to protect against cellular stress.” Mentored by Aaron Gitler and Eunice Rodriguez
Charles Sheiner, Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law. “The Limits of Payout Politics: How Biden-Harris Federal Spending Shaped (and Didn’t Shape) the 2024 Presidential Vote.” Mentored by Jonathan Rodden and Larry Diamond
Sruthi Subramanian, Bioengineering. “Ephrin-A Mediated Axonogenesis in Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma Microenvironment.” Mentored by Michelle Monje
Raina Talwar Bhatia, Center for International Security and Cooperation. “Pave, Rain, Leptospira Gain – Impact of Climate and Land-Use Change on Leptospirosis in Brazil, 2007-2023.” Mentored by Erin Mordecai
Nicole Elizete Theberath, Chemistry. “Clonal Behavior of Engineered CAR T Cells.” Mentored by Ansuman Satpathy and Theodore Roth
Helena Gurgel Vasconcelos, Symbolic Systems. “Understanding and Acting on Algorithmic Recommendations.” Mentored by Michael Bernstein and Tobias Gerstenberg
Johnathan Xie, Computer Science. “Autoregressive Rectified Flow for Motion Prediction.” Mentored by Jiajun Wu
Maya Emily Xu, Biology. “On leaden wings: Tracking heavy metal contamination in Pacific Coast raptors.” Mentored by Rodolfo Dirzo
Nika Zahedi, Electrical Engineering. “Practical Design of Mode-Division Multiplexing Systems with Group-Delay Compensation Guided by Closed-Form Statistics.” Mentored by Joseph M. Kahn
Robert M. Golden Medals for Excellence in the Humanities and Creative Arts
Cyrus D’Arcy, Music. “Organ Recital.” Mentored by Robert Huw Morgan and Jesse Rodin.
Zelig Dov, History. “In the Shadow of Memory: The Long Road to a Berlin Museum about the German Expellees.” Mentored by Norman Naimark and James Campbell
Alice Grace, Art & Art History. “Grounda.” Mentored by Paul DeMarinis and Terry Berlier
Junah Jang, Stanford Arts Institute. “ALL MY BASKETS ARE IN ONE EGG, a stage play.” Mentored by Michael Rau
Sandi Win Khine, Science, Technology & Society. “Silicon Valley Dreaming: Regressive Fantasies in an Age of Automation.” Mentored by Aileen Robinson
Jane Lord-Krause, American Studies. “Linguistic Representations of Native Americans in Early Dime Novels.” Mentored by Jennifer Johnson and Judith Richardson
Lyn Lee Loth, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. “Eating Taro.” Mentored by Aracelis Girmay
Camille Luong, Urban Studies. “City of Yearning: Space, Time, and Movement in Tsai Ming-liang’s Turn of the 21st Century Taipei.” Mentored by Ban Wang and Ato Quayson
Shaye Story, Ethics in Society. “Politics of the Plate: Culinary Colonialism and Hawaiian Food Sovereignty.” Mentored by Vena A-dae Romero-Briones and Ben Mylius
Isabella Terrazas, Stanford Arts Institute. “Archival Orchesis.” Mentored by amara tabor-smith
Vernita Zhai, Symbolic Systems. “Eternalising the Apocalypse: Blake’s Cartography of (Bio/Onto)logical Becoming.” Mentored by Denise Gigante and Alexander Nemerov
Anna Zheng, Theater & Performance Studies. “Three States of Matter.” Mentored by Becky Bodurtha
