Student Awards

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.

2026 - Judy Liu

2025 - Tuan Anh Quang Nguyen

2024 - Jean-Michel Borit

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

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.

2026 - Meimei Liu, Sam Prausnitz-Weinbaum

2025 - Angela Jia, Ezra Steinberg, Mark Zhu

2024 - Daniel Sun, Andrii Torchylo, Declan Murphy Zink

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

effrey 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.

2026 - Angela Jia, Claire Monting, Mark Zhu

2025 - Daniel Changxiao Sun, Andrii Torchylo

2024 - Alex Sun, Julia Zhu

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, 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

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.

2026 -  Sauviz Alaei, Shayarneel Kundu, Sophia Morton, Marta Nowotka, Pamela Stark

2025 - Ben Foutty

2024 - Anthony Morales, Mark Zic

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