2011 Senior Dinner & Awards Ceremony

Photo: (left-right) Daniel Cosson, Daniel Gledhill, Prof. Irving Herman, Michael Wang, and Kyler Siegel

The 2011 APAM Senior Dinner and Awards Ceremony took place on May 6 at LeMonde.

Prof. Herman recognized the SEAS Class Salutatorian, Michael Wang, and presented three Departmental awards to Daniel Cosson (AP), Kyler Siegel (AM), and Daniel Gledhill (MSE). APAM award winners received a plaque and a check for $500, have their names inscribed on plaques in the department, and are listed on the APAM web site.

Daniel Cosson, Applied Physics Faculty Award Winner

Daniel has done exceptionally well at Columbia. Pursuing a rigorous academic program, he maintained a 3.9 GPA and completed a total of 147.5 points. He gave an excellent talk on quantum computing in the Applied Physics seminar. He also worked on several research projects in the CNT lab, most recently on a project with graduate student Xabi Sarasola where he helped build and operate an array of capacitive probes that enabled detailed measurements of the spatial structure of oscillations in non-neutral plasmas. The results of these measurements show surprising new physics and are now being written up for publication.

Daniel Gledhill, Materials Science and Engineering Francis B. F. Rhodes Prize Winner

Daniel came to Columbia as part of the 3-2 program after spending his first three years at Colgate in Physics. He has maintained a 3.88 GPA and was involved with research in Prof. Im’s group, where he worked on laser processing of Si. His project was to develop a process to monitor the time evolution of the Si melt at 1000C when irradiated by a excimer laser pulse.

Kyler Siegel, Applied Mathematics Faculty Award Winner

Kyler started as a double major in Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics and has taken numerous difficult classes. After this semester, he will have completed a toal of 179.5 points and maintained at 4.0 GPA. In addition to being a mathematician and physicist, Kyler is also a jazz musician who has played guitar with the Columbia Jazz Ensemble.

Michael Hao Wang, SEAS Class Salutatorian

Michael Hao Wang, an Applied Mathematics Senior in the APAM Department, has been named the 2011 SEAS class salutatorian. Michael has a GPA of 4.098 and has earned 149 points. He was a National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist and a USA Biology and Physics Olympiad semi-finalist. He also earned the Valley Hospital Junior Volunteer Award for Exemplary Volunteer Commitment. Michael has worked with Prof. Zhishun Wang at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where he statistically analyzed fMRI images using MATLAB. He has tutored math and science to middle and high school students with Columbia’s Double Discovery Center and the Let’s Get Ready program. He has worked as a GED Specialist at Columbia’s Community Impact Program and volunteered at the Lenox Hill Hospital’s Emergency Room. Michael is also a member of Columbia University’s Badminton Club. After graduation, he will be taking some time off before applying to medical school.

Michael follows in the footsteps of other APAM alumni; Seth Davidovits, the 2010 class valedictorian, Stanley Snelson, the 2009 class salutatorian, and Isaac Greenbaum, the 2006 class valedictorian.