Alumni News: Summer 2014

Breakthrough Prize: Jacob Lurie '96, a Professor of Mathematics at Harvard, was one of the recipients of the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, a new $3 million award launched by Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner to recognize major advances in the field, honor the world’s best mathematicians, support their future endeavors and communicate the excitement of mathematics to general public.

More alumni news:

• • Lorrie Cranor '89, a professor at Carnegie Mellon studying usable privacy, gave a TEDx Talk in March: "What's Wrong with Your Password?"

  • Helen Fields '93, a freelance science writer, wrote the cover story for the June issue of Discover Magazine about The Solar-Powered Plane That'll Fly Around the World.

• Ioana Stoica '99, a math teacher at McKinley Technology High School in DC, was selected as a 2014 Fund for Teachers Fellow (pdf), and she was interviewed as an Inspiring Educator in May.

• Elizabeth Green '02 wrote an article for the New York Times Magazine: Why do Americans Stink at Math? Her book, Building a Better Teacher, is now available!

  • Samir Paul '06, who previously taught at Bell Multicultural High School in DC, will be joining the Blair Magnet faculty this fall as a Computer Science teacher.

  • Emily Jones '10 and Matt McCutchen '07 were awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Emily is pursuing a Biomedical Sciences PhD at UCSF, and Matt is going to MIT to pursue a Software Systems and Software Engineering PhD.

  • Xinyi Zhou '10 will be pursuing a PhD in Bioengineering in a joint program at Berkeley and UCSF funded by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She and Poorna Natarajan '10 were recognized by the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at UMD for their Capstone Design Projects.