To all members of the Northeastern community:

Please join me in celebrating our students and faculty who have achieved the highest levels of distinction in scholarship, teaching, and service over the past academic year. At this unprecedented moment in world history, their commitment to the transformative impact of global learning and discovery has never been more essential.

Beyond the breadth and depth of their knowledge and skill, they bring a full measure of the human qualities vital to overcoming every global challenge—resilience, empathy, teamwork, and creativity.

And while we would prefer to celebrate this moment of fulfillment face to face, our shared dedication to extend the arc of humanity’s progress constitutes our deepest source of connection.

The following are just some of the many Northeastern students and faculty who have earned recognition for their outstanding achievements this year.

Kritika Singh, one of just 32 U.S. students to win the coveted Rhodes Scholarship this year, is driven by a passion to improve global health. The Rhodes will enable her to pursue that goal through a doctorate in biomedical sciences at Oxford University. She then plans to earn a public health-focused medical degree in the U.S.

A highly selective Marshall Scholarship has been awarded to Michael Tormey. With his stellar record of academic excellence, community service, and research in the U.S. and globally, Michael is well prepared to achieve his goal of leadership in urban transportation planning.

Northeastern’s five Fulbright award winners—Jacob Potts, Madeline DuBois, Maxim Petrovsky, Tim Fraser, and Sharon Kim—will immerse themselves in challenging global experiences; they will be teaching, studying, or conducting research in countries ranging from Spain to Japan.

Shellaina Gordon and Max Daniels are winners of the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship, recognizing undergraduate students for outstanding achievement in research. Shellaina intends to earn an MD/PhD in biochemistry or molecular biology, while Max aims to enroll in a doctorate in applied mathematics and teach at the university level.

Kerry Eller, winner of the prized Harry S. Truman Scholarship, plans to pursue a doctorate in bioengineering, with the goal of creating medical devices accessible to low-resource communities globally.

Kritika SinghKathryn Garcia, and Chantel Riendeau, winners of the Harold D. Hodgkinson Award—Northeastern’s top undergraduate honor—have excelled inside and outside the classroom, demonstrating a deep commitment to the welfare of all humankind through study and service.

Northeastern’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award winners—Jessica Faust, Matthew Hitchcock, Maura Eaton, Aparna Alavilli, and Molly Nebiolo—have displayed superior capacity in the varied demands of graduate study, from high-level academic research to the effective integration of technological, data, and human literacies.

And Northeastern’s Presidential Global Fellows—Kritika Singh, Vidhan Bhaiya, and Connor Holmes—have built impressive records of global study and experience on four continents.

Our faculty honorees are shaping the future and setting new standards of excellence through interdisciplinary, use-inspired research, and mentoring and teaching that prepares learners to be tomorrow’s change-makers.

Northeastern’s newly named University Distinguished Professors, Akram Alshawabkeh and Martha Davis, have created new paradigms in their respective fields. Akram is a globally recognized leader in electrokinetic pollutant remediation, while Martha is among the foremost human-rights scholars and policy influencers in the world.

Sonia Rolland and Olga Vitek are the winners of Northeastern’s Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Award. Sonia is a leading scholar on the legal framework for sustainable and socioeconomic development in international economic law. Olga is a renowned leader in the development of data tools to help identify and quantify proteins in complex biological samples. Our Excellence in Teaching Award winners, Sagar Kamarthi and Oyindasola Oyelaran, inspire their students through their delivery of rigorous and illuminating course content; Sagar in mechanical and industrial engineering, and Oyindasola in chemistry and chemical biology.

Jessica Silbey was chosen to deliver this year’s celebrated Klein Lecture. Her lecture, “Against Progress: Intellectual Property and Fundamental Values in the Internet Age,” illustrated why she is considered one of the world’s leading scholars on intellectual property law.

All of these honorees represent the best of Northeastern. They are creators and innovators, culturally agile, connecting across disciplines and cultures to change the world. Please join me in congratulating them.

 

Sincerely,

Joseph E. Aoun

President