Distinguished Alumni

In 2014, the Magnet Foundation began to honor distinguished alumni of the Magnet Program on an annual basis by presenting an award at the annual Magnet Research Convention. These Distinguished Alumni Awards have been given to:

• • 2014: Lorrie Cranor, Class of 1989. She spoke to students about her research on passwords, which she later presented as a TEDx talk, entitled: "What's wrong with your pa$$w0rd?"

  • 2015: Craig Rice, Class of 1990. He spoke to students about the importance of education and his decision to enter public service. He tweeted a photo of the plaque recognizing the award.

  • 2016: Zeki Mokhtarzada, Class of 1996, and Haroon Mokhtarzada, Class of 1997. They spoke to students about how they started their business, webs.com, which they sold in 2011 to Vistaprint in a multi-million dollar acquisition.

  • 2017: Matías Duarte, Class of 1992. He spoke to students about his experiences designing operating systems for Palm and Google.

  • 2018: Joshua Weitz, Class of 1993. He spoke to students about his interdisciplinary research in quantitative biosciences.

  • 2019: Ani Manichaikul, Class of 1999. She spoke to students about her genomics research in ethnically diverse data sets.

  • 2020: Robert Pless, Class of 1990. He spoke to students about his computer vision research using large public image archives.

  • 2021: no award given due to COVID-19 Pandemic

  • 2022: Jennifer Helgeson, Class of 2002. She spoke with students about her research on climate resiliency.

  • 2023: Michael Sidorov, Class of 2003. He spoke with students about his research on neurodevelopmental disorders.

  • 2024: Jessica Shang, Class of 2004. She spoke with students about the side quests that have guided her research in fluid mechanics

  • 2025: Abigail Fraeman, Class of 2005. She spoke with students about fulfilling her dream of working on Mars rovers

Learn how to nominate alumni for this award.