This year, 19 students were awarded the Robert M. Golden Medal for Excellence in Humanities and Creative Arts, and 26 students were awarded the Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.

The Firestone award recognizes students nominated by their academic programs or departments for outstanding honors projects in the social, physical and natural sciences. The Golden award distinguishes students nominated by their academic programs or departments for outstanding honors projects in the humanities or creative projects in the fine arts. The medalists each received an engraved bronze medal, citation and monetary award.

The medalists, their hometowns, departments or programs, projects and faculty sponsors are listed below:

Robert M. Golden Medals for excellence in humanities and creative arts  

Nancy Elisa Alvarez, West Covina, Classics and Individually Designed Major (Medieval Studies); "Sex and Power in a Textual Variant of the Collectio Tripartita: Reconstructing an Ideology of Reform Identity from a Canon Law Collection at the Benedictine Monastery of Admont, c. 100-1125"; Hester Gelber, Religious Studies, and George Brown, English and Classics.

William R. Buck, Wethersfield, Conn., Music and Computer Science; "Artistic Creation in Music"; Tobias Plebuch, Music.

Matthew D. Coffman, Franklin, Tenn., Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (Modern Thought and Literature); "Dark Matters: Death, Language and Human Limitation in British First World War Poetry"; Brett Bourbon, English.

Julia J. Cohen, Weston, Conn., American Studies; "Majority Status for 'Minority' Students: The Challenges of Desegregation and Realities of Racial Isolation in Redwood City, California"; Joy Williamson, School of Education.

Nandini G. Gandhi, Sacramento, Biological Sciences with honors in Ethics in Society; "Sorting Students by Ability in Elementary Schools: A Civic Approach"; Rob Reich, Political Science.

Amanda E. Gibbon, Arlington, Va., Drama; "Artistic Creation in Drama"; Rush Rehm, Drama.

Virginia O. Hancock, Chicago, Religious Studies; "Creating King Bhim: Ambedkar, Buddhism and the Mahars of Maharashtra"; Linda Hess, Religious Studies.

Stephanie A. Kehrer, Palo Alto, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and History; "The Identity Dilemma: Education, Identity and the Legacy of Guest Worker Programs: The Case of Turkish-German and Mexican-American Youth"; Guadalupe Valdes, School of Education and Spanish and Portuguese.

Franzo F. Law II, Jamaica, N.Y., Linguistics; "Is It Justified to Absolutely Avoid Splitting an Infinitive? A Diachronic Analysis of the Split Infinitive"; Elizabeth C. Traugott, Linguistics.

Katherine Lemons, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., Comparative Literature; joint project with Rebecca Sheehan: "Imperative to Critique: Defamiliarizing the Silicon Valley"; Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Comparative Literature.

Luisa M. Magarian, Santa Cruz, Human Biology; "Portraits of Change: Women's Lives over 58 Years in a Mayan Town, San Pedro, La Laguna, Guatemala"; Benjamin Paul, Anthropological Sciences, and Kathleen Morrison, Latin American Studies.

Dana Anne Mulhauser, Washington, D.C., History; "Women at Work: Gender and Class Consciousness in the New York Women's Labor Movement, 1900-1914"; David M. Kennedy, History.

Huong Thien Nguyen, Beaverton, Ore., History; "Defining the Sister-God: Ptolemaic Politics, Society and Agenda in the Dichotomous Images of Arsinoë II Philadelphos"; Joseph Manning and Jennifer Trimble, Classics.

Bradley Alan Richie, Austin, Texas, Human Biology; "A Second Creation: Translating Andre Verdet"; John Felstiner, English.

Erica C. Roedder, Sunnyvale, English; "Causation in Explanation: Some Adventures of Goldilocks"; Michael Strevens, Philosophy.

Lisa S. Rosenbaum, Portland, Ore., Human Biology with honors in Ethics in Society; "Mother's Days: Stories About Mothers and Daughters"; Penelope Eckert, Linguistics and Feminist Studies.

Jeffrey L. Schwegman, Wayzata, Minn., History; "The Revolt of Eden: The Transformation of Nature in the Novels of Émile Zola"; Paul Robinson, History.

Rebecca Anne Sheehan, Albuquerque, N.M., Comparative Literature; joint project with Katherine Lemons: "Imperative to Critique: Defamiliarizing the Silicon Valley"; Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Comparative Literature.

Matthew W. Tsang, San Francisco, Biological Sciences with honors in Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities; "The Significance of Obelisks: Monumental Meanings and Interpretations"; Ian Hodder, Cultural and Social Anthropology and Classics.

Firestone Medals for excellence in undergraduate research

William B. Barkis, Louisburg, Kan., Symbolic Systems; "A New Insight into a Fundamental Neural Mechanism of Learning, Memory and Neuron Death: Understanding the Regulation of NMDA Receptor Expression"; Ben Barres, Neurobiology and Developmental Biology.

Zoë Ida Bradbury, Langlois, Ore., Anthropological Sciences; "Farming at the Margins: The Struggle to Sustain Family Agriculture in Langlois, Oregon, and La Estrella, Chile"; William B. Durham, Anthropological Sciences.

Amy G. Chen, Brea, International Relations; "U.S. Policy Toward Rwanda, Spring to Summer, 1994: From Genocide to Cholera"; David B. Abernethy, Political Science.

Stephanie S. Cheng, Los Angeles, International Relations, Political Science and Sociology; "Strategic Calculation or Political Blunder? Analyzing Chirac's Decision to Dissolve the National Assembly in 1997 in the Context of Retrospective Voting and Blame Avoidance"; Isabela Mares, Political Science.

Jennifer Anne Dorth, San Diego, Human Biology; "Cloning of the Rearranged Va3.5 and VB6 T-cell Receptor and Ligation into a TCR Transgene Expression Vector"; C. Garrison Fathman, Medicine (Immunology and Rheumatology).

David M. Goehring, Marina, Biological Sciences with honors through the Institute for International Studies Goldman Honors Program; "Keystone Species and Community Importance: Ecological Theory and Conservation Policy"; Gretchen Daily, Biological Sciences.

Fiona E. Greig, Brooklyn, N.Y., International Relations; "Women's Empowerment and HIV Prevention"; Susan Okin, Political Science.

John W. Hanna, Ballwin, Minn., Biological Sciences; "Recruitment of TIP47 to the Late Endosome by Rab 9"; Suzanne Pfeffer, Biochemistry.

Alexis K. Kaminsky, Manhasset, N.Y., Urban Studies; "Engaged Corporate Philanthropy: New Models in Silicon Valley"; J. Gregory Dees, Graduate School of Business.

Kenji E. Kushida, Tokyo, Japan, Economics, International Relations and East Asian Studies; "The Japanese Wireless Telecommunications Industry: Innovation, Organizational Structures and Governmental Policy"; Timothy Bresnahan, Economics.

Phillip Y. Lipscy, Tokyo, Japan, Economics, International Relations and Political Science; "Japan's Reaction to the Asian Financial Crisis, and the Distributive Tradeoff Between Moral Hazard and Liquidity Provision"; Daniel Okimoto, Political Science.

Shira Beth Lipton, Atherton, Human Biology; "Comparison of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising on Hispanic versus Mainstream Broadcast Media"; Donald Barr, Human Biology.

Benjamin J. Liu, Cary, N.C., Electrical Engineering and Economics; "Product Market Monopoly and Worker Compensation: Are Labor Unions Required for Monopolies to Share Rent with Workers?"; John Pencavel, Economics.

Adi Livnat, Haifa, Israel, Biological Sciences; "Information and the Evolution of Cooperation"; Marcus Feldman, Biological Sciences.

Lauren Shizue Maeda, Kailua, Hawaii, Biological Sciences; "Effect of Nucleotide Sequence Context on Transcription Elongation Through Thymine Glycol Sites in DNA by T7 RNA Polymerase and Mammalian RNA Polymerase II"; Philip Hanawalt, Biological Sciences.

Simone S. Marticke, Nebelschuetz, Germany, Biological Sciences; "Identifying and Characterizing Genes Involved in Axonal Reorganization in the Mushroom Body of Drosophila melanogaster"; Liqun Luo, Biological Sciences.

Robert B. McNary, Madison, Conn., Public Policy; "The Network Penetration Effects of Telecommunications Privatization and Competition"; Roger Noll, Economics.

Michael J. Mongan, Sausalito, Political Science; "Ethnic Politics in the Information Age: Case Studies of Asian American Political Entrepreneurship and the 2000 Elections"; Luis R. Fraga, Political Science.

Daniel Scott Noble, Richland, Wash., Economics and Political Science with honors through the Center for International Security and Cooperation; "Rationalizing ABM in the 1960s: The Decisions to Deploy Sentinel and Safeguard"; Coit M. Blacker, Institute for International Studies.

Mark R. Pearson, Reston, Va., Computer Science and Psychology; "Computational Issues Surrounding Equilibrium in Games"; Yoav Shoham, Computer Science.

Krista Beth Pelisari, Fresno, Psychology; "Understanding the Development of Children's Mental Rotation Ability: An fMRI Study"; John Gabrieli, Psychology.

Caroline Jane Perry, Bonsall, Human Biology; "Emotional Expression During Narratives in a Breast Cancer Support Group"; Janine Giese-Davis, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Jubin W. Ryu, Morgantown, W.Va., Biological Sciences and English; "A Global Analysis of Sex-Regulated Gene Expression in Caenorhabditis elegans"; Stuart Kim, Developmental Biology.

Lisa Maureen Walling, Voorschoten, Netherlands, Biological Sciences; "Nutrient Preferences of three families of temperate butterflies: Lycaenidae, Nyphalidae and Pieridae"; Carol Boggs, Biological Sciences.

Kelly Michelle Wilhelm, Denver, Biological Sciences with honors in the School of Education; "Identifying Predictors for Promoting Professionalism in Teaching"; Martin Carnoy, School of Education.

Stacey Mayhene Woo, Stanford, Human Biology; "Transgenesis in Sea Urchin Embryos by Sperm-Mediated Gene Transfer"; David Epel, Biological Sciences.

• Full coverage of Commencement 2001