SPS Alum Awarded 'Junior Nobel Prize'
Northwestern alumnae Kristen Scotti has been recognized as a Regional Winner in the 2016 Undergraduate Awards (UA) for her paper Ice-Templating in Microgravity: Toward the advancement of environmentally responsible materials processing — on Earth and in space.
Scotti, a biology major who earned her bachelor’s degree in 2015 at the School of Professional Studies, submitted work that was rated highest in the US and Canada region in the Mathematics and Physics category.
Cited as the ultimate champion of high-potential undergraduates, and often referred to as a “junior Nobel Prize,” The Undergraduate Awards is the world’s largest international academic awards program, recognizing excellent research and original work across the sciences, humanities, business, and creative arts.
The Undergraduate Awards received a record number of submissions in 2016 — 5,514 papers from undergraduates in 244 institutions and 121 nationalities. The Global Winner is the highest-performing paper within its category and the Regional Winners are the highest-performing Highly Commended papers from their region within a category. The seven regions of the UA 2016 program are; the Island of Ireland, Europe, US and Canada, Latin America, Oceania, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Northwestern alum Emily Liao (Weinberg ’16) was also a Regional Winner for her paper A Nietzschean Self in Hermann Hesse’s Demian and Yu Dafu’s “Sinking.” And Northwestern undergrad Patrick Liu (Weinberg ’17) was recognized as a Highly Commended Entrant for his paper Exercise-Mediated Neurogenesis in the Hippocampus via the BDNF Pathway.
Speaking about this year’s Winners and Highly Commended Entrants, Louise Hodgson, CEO of The Undergraduate Awards said, “This is a huge achievement for Northwestern University and its students. UA received the highest number of submissions to date with only the best papers making it through the judging process — the competition was extremely tough and the Judges were astounded at the high quality of undergraduate research in the program this year. Congratulations to this year’s successful entrants.”