Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy

2024 - Robby Gourdie '24

Robert K. Gourdie, Class of 2024, your faculty proudly recognize you. A 1693 Scholar, one of Willam & Mary’s highest honors for admitted students, you have demonstrated outstanding academic promise to engage and enrich our world. Professor Young in chemistry called you a ‘once in a lifetime student.’ He further applauded your curiosity, your ability to generate independent research ideas and your enthusiasm for science.

From your first semester at William & Mary, you have eagerly pursued your interest in biochemical research. A quick learner, you were already balancing several projects ranging from synthetic chemistry to molecular biology by the end of your first summer of research. Your research has led to the discovery of a new biochemical reaction, you have made several novel amino acids and you developed complex assays to test your hypotheses. Publication in a prestigious Chemical Biology journal confirms your work’s importance. Another manuscript is being submitted to the most prestigious journal in your discipline.

Professor McNamara, also in chemistry, praised your leadership in the department and on campus. You are enthusiastic about mentoring and committed to increasing retention of younger students in STEM fields. You served as a highly successful tutor in the Tribe Tutor Zone and co-founded the mentorship program in chemistry. Your efforts in academics, scholarship and mentoring pay homage to the relationship that Thomas Jefferson had with Professor William Small, who was his tutor in science and mathematics.

Robert Gourdie, your curiosity and excellence embody William & Mary’s values. You inspire your professors. They look forward to your bright future, confident in your ability to achieve your goals. In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson and William Small, they enthusiastically honor your passion, your intellect and your kindness toward others. William & Mary is proud to present you with the 2024 Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy.

2023 - Yuxin Qin '23

Thomas Jefferson, among the most illustrious of William & Mary’s graduates, all his life honored William Small, his professor in natural science for his inspiring teaching and insightful encouragement of creative questioning.

Yuxin Qin, Class of 2023, in the spirit of that relationship, faculty members have declared you among the most inspiring and dedicated students they have had the honor to teach. A senior from Shanghai, China, majoring in Mathematics and Studio Art, you are pursuing a career as an actuary. As an undergraduate, you have already passed the actuarial exams in probability and financial mathematics. Your academic accomplishments are dazzling: you have completed several graduate classes and are currently writing an honors thesis, all while maintaining a perfect 4.00 GPA in both your undergraduate and graduate classes.

In addition to your own academic coursework, you have supported learning as a teaching assistant and grader. You have served as a teaching assistant for the Linear Algebra Boot Camp for two summers, and you have been a grader for Advanced Linear Algebra.

During your junior year, you participated in an independent study course in survival analysis. The work resulted in a paper, The Probability Mass Function of the Kaplan-Meier Product-Limit Estimator, which is being published this year in The American Statistician, a highly ranked statistical journal. While having work immediately accepted into the journal is impressive on its own, your accomplishments have also been recognized by INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Science—a professional society). One of eight finalists for the INFORMS Undergraduate Operations Research Prize, you traveled to Indianapolis in mid-October to present your work. Faculty working with you on your presentation were struck by your outstanding communication skills, organizational talents and refreshing sense of humor. Ms. Qin, an exceptional student, you have demonstrated remarkable skills as a researcher at a very young age. Mature and responsible, you possess excellent written and verbal communication skills and approach challenges with curiosity. In addition to your scholarship, you are an accomplished artist and have a black belt in karate. Your professors look forward to your very bright future in the mathematical field.

Yuxin Qin, your professors affirm that, in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson and William Small, you reflect the excellence celebrated by this award, and we are proud to present you with the 2023 Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy.

2022 - Mikayla Huffman '22

As a sophomore, Mikayla Huffman began working with a planetary geologist studying impact craters on Europa. By analyzing crater radii and depths, she found a layer of low viscosity fluid which will have substantial ramifications for the Europa Clipper mission and detection of biosignatures in subsurface oceans. Her most impressive work has been done with Dr. Kelsi Singer, the project manager for the New Horizons spacecraft that flew by Pluto.

She mapped over 12,000 secondary craters on the moon and Mercury — such craters are caused by ejecta from larger primary craters — suggested looking for tertiary craters and found 66 such craters, with many more expected. This is the first detection of tertiary craters on an extraterrestrial body and this will test models of dynamic fragmentation. She was also selected as a Makerspace Student Engineer and trained other students in 3D printers and other Makerspace tools and facilities.

2021 - Olivia Ding '21

Throughout his life, Thomas Jefferson honored William Small, his professor in natural science, for his inspiring teaching and insightful encouragement of creative questioning.

Wenxuan (Olivia) Ding, Class of 2021, in the spirit of that relationship, it is fitting that faculty members in the Department of Mathematics have declared you to be an inspiring and creative student. Your instructors are deeply impressed by your excellent work ethic and humility, in addition to your ability and intelligence. They remark that you are exceedingly gifted and intensely devoted to learning, an accomplished researcher and an integral part of the mathematics community at William & Mary.

Professor Li and Professor Johnson have both had the pleasure of conducting research projects with you, and hold your research ability in high regard. Professor Li specifically noted that you played such an important role in his project that it is fitting for you to be first author on the three-author paper on unitarily invariant norm appearing in the research journal Linear Algebra and Its Applications. Professor Johnson indicated that your research led to interesting breakthroughs on the eigenvalue multiplicities problem, and that those findings will be submitted to top research journals.

Alongside your excellent performance in coursework and 4.0 GPA, you have been recruited to grade and tutor in several mathematics courses. Professor Li and Professor Shi noted many examples of your kindness in offering help to other students and partners on your research teams.

As one of four math majors serving as student liaisons for the Class of 2024, you helped answer questions from prospective students about William & Mary and the mathematics major. There are many examples of you reaching out to help faculty and students. Professor Shi believes that you will be a great leader, and that you show maturity and communication capacities beyond your age. Unafraid of strong competition, you have applied to competitive graduate programs and plan to pursue a Ph.D. in economics or mathematics, and there is no doubt that you will become a top scholar in your field. We are confident that you will make significant contributions to the science community.

Wenxuan (Olivia) Ding, the combination of your stellar academic record, high research productivity and outstanding teaching and mentoring experience make you most deserving of this award. We are proud to present you with the 2021 Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy.

2020 - Grace Solini '20

Thomas Jefferson, the most illustrious of William & Mary’s graduates, all his life honored William Small, his professor in natural science, for his inspiring teaching and insightful encouragement of creative questioning.

Grace Solini, Class of 2020, in the spirit of that relationship, it is fitting that two faculty members in different departments have declared you to be one of the most inspiring and creative students whom they have had the honor to teach and mentor. While you were taking her Random Walks in Biology course, Professor Leah Shaw of the Department of Mathematics noted the unusual academic and scientific integrity that you displayed in your work, and your fearlessness in tackling challenging assignments. Your academic performance was one of the highest Shaw’s seen in her seven years of teaching this course, noting that you thoughtfully integrated knowledge from the multiple domains of mathematics, computer science and biology.

Professor Margaret Saha of the Department of Biology observes that you perform research at the level of an advanced graduate student. Under her guidance, your work will have culminated in three first or co-first-authored papers, signifying that you have played the leading role in formulating the hypotheses and deriving results. Besides this clear display of independence, Saha has given many examples of your leadership in her lab and your passion to do everything to ensure that the science can move forward and to help out your fellow students in every way. As a Beckman and Goldwater Scholar, you are poised for an impressive career as a scientist. Unafraid of strong competition, you have applied to three very prestigious Systems Biology doctoral programs at Harvard, MIT and CalTech.

Grace Solini, your professors continue to be inspired by you as they know that, in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson and William Small, you embody the excellence captured by the Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy. We are proud to present you with the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy.