Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Degrees and awards presented at Commencement 2012

The 115th commencement at Carnegie Mellon University took place May 19-20, 2012. Patrick Wilson, a 1995 graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama and a widely talented and successful performer, delivered the keynote address at the main ceremony on the morning of Sunday, May 20 in Gesling Stadium.  Watch Wilson's speech on Youtube.  His work as a stage, film and television actor, as well as a singer-songwriter, has brought him critical acclaim, as well as numerous awards and nominations. Wilson has deep roots at Carnegie Mellon and has remained generously supportive and active with the university in many ways, including his participation in well-received student workshops.

The hooding ceremony for Doctor of Philosophy in Physics occurred during the evening of Saturday, May 19.  The distribution of diplomas took place in Wean Hall 7500 during the afternoon of Sunday, May 20.   The degrees in physics conferred during the ceremony are listed below.

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics

Bora Akgun
Thesis title:  Υ(nS)Cross Section Measurements in pp collisions
         at 7 TeV with the CMS Detector
Advisor: Thomas Ferguson

Biplab Dey
Thesis title:  Differential cross section and polarization extractions for γp→K⁺Σ⁰ and γp→φp
         using CLAS at Jefferson Lab, towards a partial wave analysis in search
         of missing baryon resonances
Advisor: Curtis Meyer

Eric Evarts
Thesis title:  Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy Analysis of Sub-30 nm
         Magnetic Tunnel Junction Nanopillars
Advisor: Sara A. Majetich

Megan Lynn Friend
Thesis title:  A Precision Measurement of the Proton Strange-Quark
        Form Factors at Q²=0.624 GeV²
Advisor: Brian Quinn

Chang-You Lin
Thesis title:  Mean-field Density functional theory of a Three-phase Contact Line
Advisor: Robert Sekerka

Benjamin Adair Sauerwine
Thesis title:  Secondary Structure Models of Nucleic Acid Folding Kinetics
Advisor: Michael Widom

Prabhanshu Shekhar
Thesis title:  Neutron Reflectometry from Interfacial Molecular Architectures:
       Structural Modeling and Application to Sparsely Tethered Bilayer Lipid
       Membranes Diffraction Microscopy
Advisor: Mathias Loesche

Siddharth Subhash Shenoy
Thesis title:  Structure and Kinetics of the PTEN Tumor Suppressor:
        Investigation of Solution and Membrane-Associated States
Advisor: Mathias Loesche

Nishtha Srivastava
Thesis title:  Interface Structure of Graphene on SiC for Various Preparation Conditions
Advisor: Randall Feenstra

James Charles Thome
Thesis title:  A Measurement of Υ(nS) Polarization
Advisor: James Russ

Chik Him Ricky Wong
Thesis title:  The Stochastic Laplacian Heaviside Method in Lattice QCD
        and its First Applications to Hadron Spectroscopy
Advisor: Colin Morningstar

Li Yu
Thesis title:  Nonlocal Quantum Gates, Graph Codes and Information Splitting
Advisor: Robert B. Griffiths

Master of Science in Physics

Bachelor of Science in Physics

Michael Jordan Alexovich (with BS in Computer Science)
Dimitry Ayzenberg (Astrophysics Track, Minor in Philosophy)
Conroy Baltzell (with BS in Mathematical Sciences)
Anthony Leo Bartlotta (with BS in Mathematical Sciences)
Brian Austin Beck  (Minor in Business Administration)
Sarah Denise Benjamin (Astrophysics Track, Minor in Economics)
Luke Anthony Ceurvorst (with BS in Mathematical Sciences, Minor in Computer Science)
Jennifer Yuenjane Chu
Matthew Jacob Dailey (with BS in Computer Science)
Alexander Orson Edelman
Emily Williams Gehrels
Yelena Goryunova (Astrophysics Track, Minor in Philosophy)
Samarth Kakria (Applied Physics Track)
Peter William Krengel (Computational Physics Track, Minor in Computational Finance)
Dara Jennifer Krute
Richard Howell Kucera (with BS in Business Administration)
Andrew David McKinnie (Astrophysics Track with BS in Computer Science)
Taylor Ryan Merritt
Jonathan Andrew Michel
Natalie Ann Morris (with BS in Computer Science)
Alisa A. Rachubo (Astrophysics Track, Minor in Russian Studies)
Svetlana Romanova (Minor in Computer Science)
Edward R. Sharick (Computational Physics Track)
Nicholas James Steele (with BS in Mathematical Sciences)
Charles Pendleton Stuntz Swanson
Joseph John Vukovich
Nanfei Yan (Astrophysics Track with Major in Japanese Studies)
Brian Matthew Zakrzewski

Bachelor of Science in Physics

Lauren E. McQuaide

Minor in Physics

Caroline Buckey
Keshav Budwal
Pablo Chavez
Kapil Easwar
Patrick Kane
Andrew Keeton
Jesse Lawrence
Rafee Memon
Amanbir Singh
Dhruv Swaroop
Winny Tan

Honors and Awards

Conroy P. Baltzell
    College Honors

Anthony L. Bartolotta
    University Honors
    Phi Kappa Phi

Sarah D. Benjamin
    University Honors

Luke A. Ceurvorst
    University Honors
   
Jennifer Y. Chu
    University Honors
    College Honors
    Phi Beta Kappa
    Phi Kappa Phi
   
Matthew J. Dailey
    University Honors
    Phi Kappa Phi

Alexander O. Edelman
    University Honors
    College Honors
    Phi Beta Kappa
    Phi Kappa Phi

Emily Gehrels
    University Honors
    College Honors
    Phi Beta Kappa
    Phi Kappa Phi

Yelena Goryunova
    College Honors

Dara J. Krute
    University Honors
    College Honors

Alisa A. Rachubo
    University Honors

Svetlana L. Romanova
    University Honors
   
Charles P. Swanson
    University Honors
    Phi Beta Kappa

Joseph J. Vukovich
    University Honors
    College Honors
   
Nanfei Yan
    College Honors

Brian M. Zakrzewski
    University Honors

Richard E. Cutkosky Award