Student Awards

Award for Excellence in Honors Thesis Presentation

The Award for Excellence in Honors Thesis Presentation is granted by departments and programs to students whose honors presentations exemplify the highest standards. Honors programs are capstone programs, usually completed by students in their senior year, offered by certain departments and interdisciplinary programs. They offer students the opportunity to do advanced research and analysis with faculty guidance. Typically honors requires in-depth research, field work or laboratory work culminating in a substantial written thesis. It may also require an oral presentation of the research.

2023 – Alex Boulton McKeehan
2022 – Elizabeth Tabor

2021 - Danial Shadmany
2020 - Nicole Ticea
2019 - Chi-Fang Chen
2018 - Connor Holland
2017 - Noah Toyonaga
2016 - Andrey Sushko
2015 - Alexander Kinsella, David Lam
2014 - Zoe Yan
2013 - Bo Dwyer
2012 - Andrea Klein

David S. Levine Award

The Levine Award is presented annually to the member of the junior class who is judged to be the most outstanding physics student on the basis of academic breadth in addition to demonstrated abilities in experimental physics.

The award was established in memory of David S. Levine, a brilliant 19 year old physics major who was murdered in the fall of 1973. Levine was an exceptionally capable researcher who was already skilled in many practical aspects of experimental physics. In addition to being the top Physics major, Levine was also an outstanding History major; therefore the award is based on both academic breadth and abilities in physics.

2023 – Dylan Mahoney, Tirth Surti, Julia Zhu
2022 -  Daniel Newton, David Wendt

2021 - Nazli Koyluoglu, Jinhui Wang
2020 - Alan Lee, Kenneth Wang
2019 - Zhengyan Shi, Sandip Roy
2018 - Josephine Meyer, Mika Jain
2017 - Ethan Sussman
2016 - Qingyang Xu, Albert Wandui
2015 - Erica McDowell, Andrey Sushko
2014 - Gabriel Ehrlich, Alfred Zong
2013 - Andre Menck, Saranapob Thavapatikom
2012 - Ian Tenney
2011 - Ronnachi Jaroensri, Byungwoo Kang
2010 - Temple He, Yu Xian Lim
2009 - Brian Padden, Patrick Gallagher
2008 - Jessica Lee, Douglas Stanford
2007 - Erica Cherry, George Margulis
2006 - Ariel Sommer
2005 - Andrea Burbank
2004 - Robert McConnell
2003 - Colin Connolly, Evan Kirby
2002 - Joel Hartman, Ee Hou Yong
2001 - Etan Ilfeld, Brian Vancil
2000 - Andrei Bernevig, Klara Elteto

Jeffrey Alan Willick Award

Jeffrey Alan Willick, Assistant Professor of Physics, was killed in a tragic accident on June 18th, 2000 at the age of 40. He had been a faculty member at Stanford since 1995.  Jeff was a renowned observational cosmologist who was carrying out groundbreaking work in measuring the large-scale structure of the universe. Jeff was a caring and conscientious classroom teacher and the leader of a vibrant group of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. This award is given to an outstanding physics major. Preference is given to undergraduates studying astrophysics.

2023 – Celia Tandon, David Wendt
2022 – Avi Kaplan-Lipkin, Jensen Wang

2021 - Yu-Tse Lee, Christian Nunez
2020 - Antonio Rodriguez
2019 - Sungyeon Yang, Josephine Meyer
2018 - Arthur Tsang
2017 - Nicolas Sanchez, Albert Wandui
2016 - Zhiming Wang
2015 - Adam Levine
2015 - Idel Waisberg
2014 - Sasha Brownsberger
2013 - Anand Natarajan
2012 - Gregory Peairs
2011 - Yu Xian Lim
2010 - Aaron Meisner
2009 - Joshua Dillon
2008 - Shih-Arng Pan
2007 - Ed Schlafly
2006 - Jennifer Meyer
2005 - Tess Williams
2004 - Evan Kirby
2003 - Joel Hartman
2002 - Colin Bischoff
2001 - Klara Elteto

Paul H. Kirkpatrick Award

The Stanford Physics Department awards excellence among our graduate teaching assistants with the Paul H. Kirkpatrick award.  This Award was established to recognize those graduate students who have demonstrated a talent for and commitment to the teaching of physics to undergraduates, thereby exemplifying the dual commitment to teaching and research characteristic of Paul Kirkpatrick's own scientific life. Paul H. Kirkpatrick was a distinguished member of the Stanford Physics Department for 28 years before retiring in 1960.  He died in December 1992 at the age of 98.  Although well known for his 40 years of x-ray research, for the invention of the x-ray microscope, and for his pioneering work in scientific holography (long before the invention of the laser), he is at least as famous for his spirited championship of the importance of furthering excellence in the teaching of physics.  Paul Kirkpatrick's strength of character, integrity and compassion were much admired by colleagues, family and friends.

Many of our Kirkpatrick awardees have gone on to distinguished teaching careers in Physics. We are grateful to the original donors for establishing this endowed fund that will allow us to continue to award excellence in teaching.

2023 - Sanyum Channa, Benjamin Safvati
2022 - Sanha Cheong, Anthony Flores, Nicholas O’Dea, Yunchong Wang
2021 - Emily Been, Andrea Gaspert, Hunter Swan, Laura Domine, Yuri Lensky, Milind Shyani, Evan Coleman, Olivia Ghosh, Ryan Linehan
2020 - William Derocco, Tina Narong, Dylan Rueter
2019 - Chelsea Liekus-Schmaltz, John Dodaro, Varun Harbola
2018 - Katherine Coppess, Ilya Esterlis, Kathryn Ledbetter, Christopher Overstreet, Eli Fox
2018 - Shenglan Qiao, Quinn Macpherson
2017 - Nora Brackbill, Anna Ogorzalek
2016 - Luca Delacretaz, Daniel Bulmash, Yijun Tang, Ruizhu Chen, Andrei Kamalov
2015 - Saptarshi Chaudhuri, Ying Zhao, Toni Li, Ruby Lai
2014 - Scott Kravitz, Alice Allafort, Lampros Lamprou, Harry Desmond, Tim Kovachy
2013 - George Coss, Ken Van Tilburg
2013 - Akash Maharaj, Kassahun Betre
2012 - Susannah Dickerson, Nicole Ackerman, Timothy Wiser, Kurt Barry
2011 - Andrew Larkoski, Kiel Howe, Caitlin Malone
2010 - Ahmed Ismail, Nathaniel Craig, Paul Simeon, Josh Cogan
2009 - Michael Shaw, George Karakonstantakis, Dmitri Pavlichin
2008 - Mariangela Lisanti, Benjamin Shank, Keith Bechtol, Douglas Applegate, Keith Bechtol
2007 - Elizabeth Schemm, Jaehee Kim, Philip Van Stockum, Julie Bert
2006 - Erez Berg, Eran Mukamel
2005 - David Starr, Wells Wulsin, Mustafa Amin
2004 - Jason Hogan, Ben Frievogel
2003 - Lynford Goddard, Martin Mueller, Paul San Giorgio
2002 - Stirling Churchman, Jamie McGuire
2001 - Puneet Batra, George Marcus