Brianna Billingsley,  Christopher Kane, and Maximillian Thomas win 2024 Outstanding Graduate Student Awards.

Every spring, The College of Science recognizes exceptional graduate students from each department with awards in three categories: scholarship, teaching, and service. In each category, a college-wide winner is also selected from all the departmental awardees. 

This year's Scholarship Award was presented to Christopher Kane in recognition of his publications and professional presentations, including talks given at the MIT Virtual Lattice Field Theory Colloquium Series and the Fermilab HEP/QIS forum, as well as for his awards and fellowships, which include the DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship and an Advancing Science in America (ARCS) Scholar Award.

The Graduate Teaching Award was given to Maximillian Thomas. Max's dedication to teaching and ability to engage students, combined with his capacity to explain complex concepts in a clear and relatable way, facilitate a positive learning environment and have greatly benefited scores of undergraduates. His work ethic inside the classroom is exemplary, always going the extra mile for his students.

Brianna Billingsley was selected not only as the departmental winner of the Student Service Award but also as the overall winner for the College of Science in that category. Serving as mentor to school children, high school students, undergraduates, and graduate students, Bri has done much to improve diversity and inclusion within the Department of Physics and beyond. As vice president of the student club Physicists for Inclusion and Equity in Education (PIE), she provides support to her peers in higher education, and inspires the next generation of scientists by organizing and participating in outreach events at local elementary and high schools.

Congratulations to all three truly outstanding awardees.