Skip to main content

People News, April 2018

Campus Life

Spring flowers in the snow

Published April 16, 2018

Emmely Rogers ’19 and Eve Xu ’20 received honorable mentions in the national Goldwater Scholarship competition for promising undergraduate students who want to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering. Rogers is majoring in mathematics and computer science, and Xu is majoring in chemistry and physics.

Em Tejada Jaquez ’20 and Hafsa Mire ’19 have been awarded Exceptional Research Opportunities (EXROP) summer fellowships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Jaquez will study at a bioengineering lab at Rice University, and Mire has been placed at the Niles Lab at MIT, a biological engineering lab that focuses on malaria parasites. Daniela Deny ’18 used the experience she gained last summer at an EXROP program at UCLA to secure a post-graduate research associate position in immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine.

Four Smith teams have received Entrepreneurship Awards from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation: Rachel Laflamme ’20 and Katharina Geppert ’19, Spirit Award for “Survival of the Fitted”; Kitty Chen ’21, Concept Award for “Kinsfolk”; Reem Ladadwa ’18 and Darpan Bohara ’18, Concept Award for “Baylasan”; and Farida Sabry ’18Leen Ajlouni ’18 and Neamat Sabry ’21, Concept Award for “Chic.”

Winners of this year’s Smith Prize in Entrepreneurship from the Jill Ker Conway Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship are Reem Ladadwa ’18 and Darpan Bohara ’18, Best Overall Venture and Best Trade Show Exhibit for “Baylasan”; Joanna Okondo ’18, Best Social Venture for “Borderless”; Rachel Laflamme ’20 and Katharina Geppert ’19, Best STEAM Venture for “Survival of the Fitted”; Anmei Zhi ’20Nouhaila Norredine ’20 and Elaona Lemoto ’20, Best Sustainability Venture for “ReBike”; Farida Sabry ’18Leen Ajlouni ’18 and Neamat Sabry ’21, Altrevida Prize for Best Pitch for “Chic”; Hannah Kelsey ’20Vivian Nelson ’20Haley Markos ’20 and Frances Duncan ’20, Brodsky Prize for Engineering Entrepreneurship for “The Lunch Buddy.”

Eight Smith students presented their research at the Eastern Economic Association’s March conference in Boston: Shuli Hu ’18Natalia Kreciglowa ’18Ran Tao ’18Jacy Su ’18Taré Suriel ’18, Nathalie Torres ’18, Qingyi Xie ’18and Yingqi Zheng ’18. Topics covered included migration, international finance and international trade.

Ingrid Magalhaes AC and Connie (Yiyin) Zhang’19 recently participated in a session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Magalhaes, who is working for Plan International, spoke about the organization’s work in Guatemala. Zhang, who is working for the Tokyo-based International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, submitted a statement about attacks on human rights defenders around the world.

Brenna Getzin ’18 shared her research into the moon’s ancient magnetic field at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas—a March gathering that featured sessions commemorating the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 17 space mission. For Getzin, the experience included a chance to report new results with retired NASA astronaut and geologist Jack Schmitt “sitting in the front row—who actually whacked my sample off of a boulder on the moon!”

Isidora Stankovic ’20 was one of three undergraduates who gave talks last month at the 2018 Summit for Women in STEM at Wheaton College. Stankovic’s talk, “Home Is Where the Host Is: The Way in Which Escherichia coli Uses Host Cues to Regulate Virulence,” focused on research she completed during a summer undergraduate research fellowship in Professor Christine White-Ziegler’s biology lab.

Kaila Temple ’18 presented a paper last month at the Costume Society of America’s annual meeting and symposium in Williamsburg, Va. Her topic was, “Fashioning Femininity in the Late 18th Century Popular Print: Perceptions of Women and Dress.”

Cory Albertson, a lecturer in sociology, is the author of A Perfect Union?:Television and the Winning of Same-Sex Marriage, published by Taylor & Francis as part of the Cultural Politics and Public Media series.

Ginetta Candelario ’90, professor of sociology and Latin American and Latina/o studies, was interviewed in a recent issue of the Journal of Critical Thought and Practice about her research and interests in Latinx studies. Candelario is the editor of Meridians, Smith’s pioneering journal of scholarship about women of color.

Karen Kukil, associate curator of special collections, gave an April talk at New York City’s 92nd Street Y on “Beyond Letters Home: Sylvia Plath’s Unabridged Correspondence.”

Andrew Zimbalist, Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics, delivered the Distinguished Scholar Address at the March conference of the Center for Sociocultural Sport and Olympic Research  at California State University, Fullerton. Zimbalist spoke on “The Economics of Olympic Cities.”

Jennifer Huang ’08 has joined Oh Planning and Design in Portland, Ore., as a job captain. At Smith, she majored in art, specializing in architecture and urbanism, and she earned a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Oregon.

Farah Pandith ’90 will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree in May from Tufts University. Pandith, who served as the first special representative to Muslim communities for the U.S. Department of State, is a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Scientist Erin O’Shea ’88 has been named to the board of directors of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The first woman to lead the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, O’Shea majored in biochemistry at Smith and earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.