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June 26, 2015

Degrees and awards presented at Commencement 2015

Alan AldaAlan Alda, an acclaimed actor, writer and director who has a passion for science and technology, was the keynote speaker at Carnegie Mellon University’s 118th Commencement at 11 a.m., Sunday, May 17 in Gesling Stadium on the Pittsburgh campus. Alda, who exemplifies Carnegie Mellon’s interdisciplinary strengths in the arts and sciences, also received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.  Joining Alda on the commencement platform were student speaker Brooke Kuei, who graduated with University Honors with a bachelor’s degree in physics and a minor in professional writing, and the following honorary degree recipients:

  • Joyce Kozloff, a major American visual artist whose work fuses pattern and movement with social engagement, will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree. Kozloff, who earned her bachelor’s degree at CMU in 1964, has described her art as blending “a love for widespread artistic traditions with an activist temperament.”
  • Kai-Fu Lee, a prominent computer scientist, venture capitalist, corporate leader, writer and former CMU faculty member, will receive a Doctor of Business Practice degree. He earned his Ph.D. from CMU in 1988, when he developed Sphinx, the first large-vocabulary, speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition system for his doctoral thesis.
  • Stephen Schwartz, one of the most successful songwriters in the history of musical theater with three Academy awards, four Grammy awards and four Drama Desk awards, will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree. He graduated from CMU in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in drama. As a student he wrote “Pippin,” which opened on Broadway in 1974.
  • Carl Wieman, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, will be awarded a Doctor of Science and Technology degree. While his research continues, his main pursuit in recent years has been on improving undergraduate physics and science education. He is a member of the Global Learning Council, which is chaired by CMU President Subra Suresh.

More than 3,000 bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees were conferred at the main commencement ceremony.

The hooding ceremony for Doctor of Philosophy in Physics occurred during the evening of Saturday, May 16.  The distribution of diplomas took place in Wean Hall 7500 during the afternoon of Sunday, May 17.   The degrees in physics conferred during the ceremony are listed below.

PhD
Ph.D. recipient Yutaro Iiyama (center) receives diploma from Prof. Steve Garoff (left) and Prof Manfred Paulini (right).

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics

Kiyotaka Akabori
Thesis title: Structure determination of HIV-1 Tat/fluid phase membranes and DMPC ripple phase using X-ray scattering
Advisor: Stephanie Tristram-Nagle and John Nagle

David W. Bauer
Thesis title: Influence of internal genome and pressure on viral particle infectivity and stability
Advisor: Alex Evilevitch

Aristotle M. Calamba
Thesis title: Search for New Physics in Events with a High Energy Photon, Electro and Large Missing Transverse Energy in pp Collisions at √s = 8 TeV
Advisor: Manfred Paulini

Benjamin Taylor Carlson
Thesis title: Probing the standard model: a search for supersymmetry in events with leptons, jets, and no missing transverse energy and a production study of Υ(1S), Y(2S), Y(3S) states at high transverse momentum
Advisor: James Russ

Brendan Michael Fahy
Thesis title: Properties of the ρ Resonance from ππ Elastic Scattering and the Spectrum of Excited ρ Mesons Using the Stochastic LapH Method in Lattice QCD
Advisor: Colin Morningstar

Yu Feng
Thesis title: Petascale Cosmological Hydrodynamic Simulation of Quasars
Advisor: Rupert Croft

Guowei He 
Thesis title: Graphene Formation on the Carbon Face of Silicon Carbide
Advisor: Randall Feenstra

Yutaro Iiyama
Thesis title: Search for Supersymmetry in pp Collisions at √s=8 TeV with Photon, Lepton, and Missing Transverse Energy
Advisor: Manfred Paulini

Udom Sae-Ueng
Thesis title: Physical Mechanisms of Viral Life Cycle
Advisor: Alex Evilevitch

Daniel Lee Stahlke
Thesis title: Entanglement and interference resources in quantum computation and communication
Advisor: Robert Griffiths

Tabitha Christine Voytek
Thesis title: Studying the History of the Intergalactic Medium with the SCI-HI Experiment
Advisor: Jeff Peterson

Huizhong Xu
Thesis title: Single-Molecule Study of RNA Hairpin and Pseudoknot Folding
Advisor: Maumita Mandel

Master of Science in Physics

Michael Benjamin Andrews
Mukund Bapna
Jacob Fallica
Devashish Prakash Gopalan
Alexa Noelle Johnson
Hsiu-Hsien Lin
Zongge Liu
Zhonghao Luo
Michael Alan Malus
Victoria Merten
Tanmay Kamalakar Mudholkar
Siddharth Satpathy
Prashant Shrivastava
Vikesh Siddhu
Bijit Singha
Mustafa (Mert) Terzi
Evan Corey Tucker
Hongyu Zhu

Beck
Kathryn McKeough (center) receives her Bachelors diploma from
Prof. Steve Garoff (left) and Prof. Kunal Ghosh (right).

Bachelor of Science in Physics

Christopher A. Addiego  
Laura E. Carroll  (Applied Physics Track)
Stephanie A. Cheung  (with BA in Art)
Ryan J. Davis  (Applied Physics Track)
John A. Dieser  
Veronica R. Ebert  (with Minor in Mathematics)
Steven P. Harris  
Arjun Kar  (with BS in Computer Science, Minor in Philosophy)
Brooke Kuei  (with Minor in Professional Writing)
Benjamin J. Marinoff  (with Minor in Computer Science)
Philip T. Massey  (with BS in Computer Science)
Michael F. Matty  (with Minor in Computer Science)
Kathryn E. McKeough  (with Major in Statistics)
Grace L. Moraca  
Sonal Nanda  (Applied Physics Track)
Nir Neerman  (with BS in Mathematics, Minor in Computer Science)
Lauren P. O'Neil  (with BS in Chemistry, Minor in History)
Keisuke T. Osumi  (with BS in Mathematics)
Francis A. Ray  
Catherine Schwartz  (with BA in Drama)
Isaac M.W. Shelby  (with Minor in Mathematics)
Samuel L. Simon  (with BS in Mathematics)
Sam A. Smith  (with BA in Musical Performance)
Garrett D. Zinke  (Applied Physis Track, with Minor in Robotics)

Bachelor of Arts in Physics

Phineas Taylor-Webb  (with Minor in Architecture)

Minor in Physics

Brendan A. Barwick
Evan Cavello
Peter L. Chiappa
Benjamin Chung
Zachary A. Cohen
John H. Cole
Jonathan Dunstan
David G. Franklin
Jordan M. Harry
Kevin H. Hunter
Brian C. Ip
David K. Isenberg
Madhav Iyengar
Thomas W. Klein
Ozichukwu M. Konkwo
Rhiannon M. Malia
Peter J. McHale
David F. Mehrle
Jeremy D. Meza
Jennine M. Nash
Annika L. Peterson
Raphael J. Segal
Sharman Shukla
David Y. Zhou 

Brown
Philip Massey (center) receives his Bachelors diploma from
Prof. Steve Garoff (left) and Prof. Kunal Ghosh (right).

Honors and Awards

Christopher A. Addiego
    University Honors
    College Honors

Stephanie Cheung
    University Honors
    College Honors

Steven P. Harris
    University Honors
    College Honors

Arjun Kar
    University Honors
    College Honors
    Phi Beta Kappa

Brooke Kuei
    University Honors
    College Honors

Benjamin J. Marinoff
    University Honors
    Phi Kappa Phi
    Phi Beta Kappa

Philip T. Massey
    University Honors

Michael Matty
    University Honors
    College Honors
    Phi Kappa Phi
    Phi Beta Kappa
    Andrew Carnegie Society Scholar

Kathryn McKeough
    University Honors
    College Honors
    Phi Kappa Phi
    Phi Beta Kappa
    Andrew Carnegie Society Scholar

Grace Moraca
    University Honors
    College Honors

Sonal Nanda
    College Honors

Lauren O'Neil
    University Honors
    College Honors
    Phi Beta Kappa

Keisuke Osumi
    University Honors

Isaac Shelby
    University Honors
    Phi Beta Kappa

Samuel L. Simon
    University Honors
    College Honors

Sam A. Smith
    College Honors

Richard E. Cutkosky Award

     Michael Matty

Grads
Degree recipients pose for a group photograph.