Graduation Reception Caps Banner Year for EPS

2009 Graduates Sara Bosshart and Ryo Kita

Celebrating what Department Chair Brad Sageman called "a banner year for the residents of Locy Hall," EPS students, faculty and friends gathered in the Sloss Room on Friday, June 19th, to congratulate graduating students and other department members on their recent accomplishments. Following on the heels of a stellar 2007-08 academic year in which several students and faculty were awarded prestigious grants, scholarships, fellowships and other prizes for their outstanding academic achievements, the recently concluded 2008-09 academic year proved equally successful for the department.

This year's graduating class consisted of undergraduates Rene Boiteau, Sara Bosshart, Latisha Brengman, Rebecca Fischer, Stefan Jensen, Ryosuke Kita, Tim Reber, and Reid Taylor as well as graduate students Kim Adams, Carl Ebeling, Jason Flaum, and Xiaoting Lou. Though the members of this class are only beginning their professional and academic careers, they have, as Professor Sageman noted, "already compiled an impressive record of accomplishment that should only continue to grow in the future."

No one in the EPS class of 2009 better exemplifies Professor Sageman's observation than Rene Boiteau. During his four years at Northwestern, Boiteau (below, left, with Andrew Jacobson) established himself as one of the school's top undergraduates, amassing a nearly perfect grade point average and winning several of the most prominent national awards for math and science majors. Prior to his senior year, Rene won both a Goldwater Scholarship--widely regarded as the nation's top academic honor for undergraduates majoring in math or science--and a prestigious Hollings Scholarship for a research internship at NOAA. More recently, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and won both a Churchill Scholarship to complete a Master's degree at the University of Cambridge and a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. After completing his studies at Cambridge, Rene will return to the U.S. for his doctoral work in oceanography at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Ryosuke Kita's record at Northwestern was similarly impressive. Lead or co-author of several academic journal articles, Kita also graduated Phi Beta Kappa and won a Goldwater Scholarship prior to his junior year. The recipient of a National Institute for Health (NIH) Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award, Ryo will move to Washington, D.C., this fall to begin a project investigating the developmental biology of skin.

Having co-authored four academic journal articles on high pressure-temperature mineral physics while at Northwestern, Rebecca Fischer (left, with fellow graduate Stefan Jensen) was awarded the department's Seymour Schlanger Undergraduate Award for Outstanding Research Accomplishments and Potential. Like Rene Boiteau, Rebecca also won a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which she will use to continue her work in mineral physics at the University of Maryland where she will pursue a doctoral degree. Rebecca received offers of admission from all the graduate programs to which she applied, a list of institutions that features many of the country's best schools for students specializing in mineral physics.

Sara Bosshart completed an honors thesis on "The Eocene/Oligocene Boundary in Oregon: a Mysterious Even-over-Odd Predominance of n-alkanes" under the direction of Francesca McInerney. The recipient of a full fellowship for graduate study in the geosciences at the University of Edinburgh, she will work as a summer intern at the Living Oceans Foundation before moving to Scotland this fall.

A former intern at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), Stefan Jensen is the co-author of an article submitted to Nature Geoscience on evidence for prolonged medieval drought in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Stefan made the Dean's List on multiple occasions and also presented his research at several academic conferences, including the 2008 AGU Fall Meeting and the 2009 Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Tim Reber made the Dean's List for the past two years and is the recipient of several scholarships, including the J.G. Nolan Award given to outstanding Northwestern undergraduates. After completing an internship for the next several months at the Stroud Water Research Center near Philadelphia, Tim will begin investigating his options for graduate school where he plans to study aquatic ecology or resource planning.

Advised by Matthew Hurtgen, Latisha Brengman (with Matthew Hurtgen at right) completed an honors thesis on "The Sulfur Isotope Composition of Early Neoproterozoic Seawater as Recorded in the Bitter Springs Formation, Australia." Latisha plans to spend the summer researching graduate programs in the geosciences and will begin her graduate studies in the fall of 2010.

Working under Brad Sageman's supervision, Jason Flaum (with Brad Sageman at left) completed his doctoral thesis on the "Investigation of Phosphorus Cycle Dynamics Associated with Organic Carbon Burial in Modern and Ancient Marine Systems; Strengths and Limitations of Sequentially Extracted (SEDEX) Phosphorus Data." Currently living in Houston, Jason has joined a growing enclave of EPS PhDs working as exploration geologists in the energy industry. During his time at Northwestern, Jason won both departmental and WCAS teaching awards, and authored or co-authored several articles in academic journals.

Kim Adams and Carl Ebeling completed Master's degrees and will continue at Northwestern in pursuit of doctoral degrees. Kim received the department's Marion Sloss Award, which is given to the department's most outstanding research assistant. Carl, meanwhile, was recognized for winning a three-year NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. He will use this award to study an extensive archive of ambient seismic noise records with the goal of determining whether or not rising sea-surface temperatures are contributing to increasing hurricane frequency.

Not to be outdone by their students, several EPS faculty members achieved important career milestones this year. Seth Stein, who has previously been recognized as one of the world's most frequently cited scientific researches, recently received the George P. Woollard Award from the Geological Society of America for his outstanding contributions to geology through applying the techniques and principles of geophysics. A 2008 recipient of a prestigious Packard Fellowship and the Geochemical Society's F.W. Clarke Medal recognizing young geochemists demonstrating leadership potential in their chosen discipline, Andrew Jacobson was promoted to Associate Professor during spring quarter. Finally, mineral physicist Steven Jacobsen, who last year won a coveted five-year NSF CAREER Award, equalled this impressive feat by winning a five-year Packard Fellowship.

Combined with the department's growing progress in recruiting new undergraduate majors, the success of its new PhDs in finding desirable employment in academia and industry, and the highly anticipated opening of its unique analytical laboratory on north campus, the individual accomplishments of the past year have helped build on the department's already considerable forward momentum.

Congratulations to this year's graduates and award winners!