Graduating senior Michael Lindsey won the university’s Kennedy Award for the best undergraduate thesis in the natural sciences. Michael’s thesis originated in a team project with SURIM, the Stanford Undergraduate Research in Mathematics program, directed by Dr. Yanir Rubinstein in the Summer of 2012. Michael’s work led to an algorithm with which, using sophisticated arguments from functional analysis and partial differential equations, he was able to prove converges to a solution of the optimal transport problem, a very active topic in current mathematical research.

Kennedy Thesis Prizes are awarded to the top Firestone/Golden medalist from each of the following areas of study: humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering and applied sciences.