The 14 Most Impressive Students At MIT Right Now
Arfa Aijazi is creating affordable innovations for impoverished communities.
Lizz Albany is an aspiring teacher who is researching the ways young children come to understand the world around them.
Class of 2013
Lizz Albany is a senior at MIT studying Brain and Cognitive Science, with a focus on early childhood cognition.
She conducts research in MIT's Early Childhood Cognition Lab on how children come to understand their environments through social interaction and play.
Albany is an active leader in many organizations on campus, including her sorority, Pi Beta Phi, in which she serves as the chair of its annual philanthropy event. She is also an associate advisor for the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming, a founding member of the Returning Students Mentoring Program, a member of the inaugural Student Advisory Committee on Diversity and Admissions, and a member of the Community Catalyst Leadership Program.
This past fall, Albany gave a TimTalk lecture on why she thinks all MIT students should graduate with at least two degrees, given that they learn so many valuable and different lessons while in school.
While she is working toward her Massachusetts teachers certification in elementary education, Albany is also a SMART Scholar with the Department of Defense, and plans to work for the Army after graduation.
Noam Angrist is engaging youth in athletics and academics with a new approach.
Class of 2013
Noam Angrist is persistent. After he suffered from a blood clot that almost killed him and effectively ended his rowing career (he was a strong athlete and a member of his high school's crew team), he switched to coaching and led his high school's crew team to win gold medals in the Massachusetts state championships.
Now a senior at MIT, Angrist continues to coach crew. He has also found ways to share his love of crew: he co-founded the Amphibious Achievement program, in which he and fellow mentors teach swimming and rowing to Boston youth while also tutoring them and helping them with college prep.
The economics major gave a TIMTalk lecture in May about what he calls a "Do Now" approach to learning, which he uses to engage students in charter schools.
Rachel Davis fights fires both in the lab and in the field.
Class of 2016
Rachel Davis is fascinated by fire and has devoted her life to studying and fighting it.
Her family's home burned down when she was 13 years old, which led her to become a volunteer firefighter in her hometown in Long Island, New York. Today she continues to fight fires with the Nissequogue Fire Department.
Meanwhile, she's been fighting fires in a different way: in a lab. When she was still in high school, she created a flame retardant plastic that utilizes cellulose — a material that's used as a flame retardant in clothing — by soaking the cellulose in a phosphate-based component and then blending it into a biodegradable plastic blend.
"This flame retardant biodegradable plastic can be used for industrial packaging purposes and many other applications, like disposable plasticware and water bottles and much more," she told us.
At MIT, she is studying materials science and engineering, and has said that she "adore[s] plastic polymers." She's also interested in entrepreneurship and management, and is a student blogger for MIT Admissions.
Lauren Kuntz is an All-American athlete who is trying to solve the energy crisis.
Class of 2013
Lauren Kuntz is a physics and mechanical engineering major with a passion for energy, technology, and environmental issues. She has held internships and conducted research on these issues at Microsoft and the Fraunhofer Institute, among others.
Outside of the classroom, Kuntz is a captain of MIT's track team, a two-time all-American pole vault champion, and an academic all-American. At the recent division three indoor track and field championships, she was named the competing athlete with the strongest academic record.
She believes that the best way to tackle the energy crisis is to educate people about energy technology and face the problems head on.
Cameron McCord leads through example as an ROTC commander and a nuclear engineer.
Class of 2013
Cameron McCord is a born leader. He is the battalion commander of the Navy ROTC at MIT, a member of the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, a player on the MIT soccer team, and a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity.
McCord is double-majoring in nuclear engineering and physics, and is interested in pursuing a career in nuclear energy safety and nuclear nonproliferation. He has worked for the U.S. Government's Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the Fukushima crisis, the Department of Energy on nuclear security issues, and at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on nuclear risk assessment issues.
"Nuclear engineering and nuclear energy production will always be closely linked with policy," he said. "They come hand in hand. If you aspire to be a nuclear scientist or engineer and you don’t make a concerted effort to both understand the policy as well as how to communicate, work in teams, and lead people, I think you are doing yourself a disservice."
He's also a brilliant scholar who won a Truman Scholarship toward a career in government or nonprofits. At graduation McCord will be commissioned as a Navy ensign.
Victoria Okuneye is changing the way we think about decision making.
Class of 2013
Victoria Okuneye has a passion for understanding how the human mind makes decisions.
The brain and cognitive sciences major conducts hands-on research at MIT into the neural mechanisms behind denial and decision making, particularly in a person's decision to seek help, or not, in a health-related matter.
But she's also passionate about empowering youth around the world. She has traveled to Mexico and Jamaica to study neuroscience and global service. While there, she also taught local teachers computer skills that they could then teach their students.
Okuneye, who hails from the Midwest, is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. She says that the fact that she was born in the U.S. inspires her to take advantages of all the opportunities that come her way.
Last year Okuneye won prestigious status as a Truman Scholar. She is also an accomplished salsa dancer and performer of spoken word poetry.
Okuneye plans to combine her two passions — neuroscience and international youth empowerment — by pursuing a career in global mental health care, focusing on disadvantaged youth. After graduation, she plans to pursue an MD/PhD and has said that she would like to become a professor one day.
Ekaterina "Katia" Paramonova is a Russian-American nuclear engineer who is determined to help "thaw" relations between Russia and the U.S.
Class of 2013
Ekaterina "Katia" Paramonova is a dual Russian and U.S. citizen majoring in nuclear engineering and minoring in public policy.
She is determined to help "thaw" the Cold War and repair relations between Russia and the U.S., because she believes that countries have to be willing to work together in order to achieve success.
Paramonova organized a trip for MIT students and faculty to the AtomExpo Nuclear Conference in Moscow to foster a discussion about the ways scientists and researchers in the two countries can help each other. At the conference, Paramonova also planned and moderated a panel there.
An assistant student leader of the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program, Paramonova has also studied at the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute doing materials research for the International Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER), and is a participant of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) with the MIT nuclear reactor. She also co-chairs a 500-person student conference through the American Nuclear Society.
Upon graduation, Paramonova plans to get a masters in nuclear engineering and a PhD in France in order to work with fast reactors.
Anthony Pennes suffers from spina bifida but competes on MIT's crew team and rifle team.
Class of 2016
Anthony Pennes suffers from spin bifida — but you'd never know it by looking at what he's achieved.
In high school, he was a farmhand who worked tirelessly caring for animals, installing fences, and designing and building the barns on his family's farm in upstate New York. He also worked at a bed and breakfast providing maintenance and landscaping.
Now a freshman at MIT, Pennes is still active: he's a member of the men's lightweight crew team and he competes on MIT's rifle team.
He's also a strong student who plans to study mechanical science and economics.
Ethan Peterson is the first MIT football player to be named National Scholar-Athlete.
Class of 2013
Ethan Peterson is the co-captain of the MIT football team and was named a National Scholar-Athlete — the first football player at MIT to win this award.
The Vermont native is a nuclear engineering and physics double major with a minor in French.
He is also the treasurer of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and volunteers at the Special Olympics and the Boston Medical Center. He has also achieved the highest rank of Eagle Scout from the Boy Scouts of America.
Upon graduation, Peterson plans to pursue a PhD in nuclear engineering or physics in order to do plasma physics and fusion research and become a college professor.
Jessica J. Pourian shapes campus and local news as the editor in chief of MIT's student newspaper.
Class of 2013
Jessica Pourian has been the editor in chief of MIT's newspaper, The Tech, for the last year. In that time she re-shaped the paper to focus more on notable students, while managing the paper's staff of nearly 200 people. She also worked as a reporter and associate editor before taking on the role of editor in chief.
Pourian is studying brain and cognitive sciences, and has worked in several research labs at MIT. She's currently working with autistic children as a research at MIT's Kanwisher Lab.
Marissa Stephens is a math wiz who is determined to get women more interested in math.
Class of 2016
Before she came to MIT, Marissa Stephens won all sorts of awards for her mathematical prowess: she scored in the 99th percentile of women who took the difficult AIME math exam, took 11 AP classes, and won the AP Siemens Award for Indiana.
But the Indiana native took note of the fact that she was often the only girl in these high-level math classes and decided to do something about it. She started MathMania, a free student-taught one-week math camp for middle school students, with her sister and two friends, when she was still in high school.
"MathMania has enabled me to pass on my love of math to the next generation of male and female students alike," Stephens told us.
When she's not solving math problems or encouraging girls to learn math, she's probably outside rock-climbing, running, or rowing. She's on the women's lightweight crew team and the women's cross country track team at MIT.
Though she hasn't declared her major yet, Stephens has continued to pursue mathematics in her freshman year.
Shannon Taylor studies the chemistry and mechanics of ancient metal artifacts to help prep them for restoration.
Class of 2013
The daughter of a statistician and a mathematician, Shannon Taylor thought she would study math at MIT but found herself drifting towards another passion: materials science.
She took on a research project studying Mexican and South American metals, with the goal of studying the properties of the metals. Along the way, she learned about the history and cultural significance of the metal items.
Taylor traveled to Mexico, where she worked in a physics lab at a top university there, studying old paintings and metal crowns from the Aztec empire. Her research will help restore the artifacts and preserve this important history.
Upon graduation, Taylor hopes to attend graduate school for materials science.
Eric Trac is the first member of his family to go to college, and now he's a pre-med student who is studying a gel that can heal scarred vocal cords.
Class of 2013
Eric Trac is a chemical engineering and pre-med student who is researching a hydrogel that can improve the flexibility of scarred vocal cords.
"People who use their voices very often, such as singers or lecturers, may scar and stiffen their vocal folds over time,” Trac told MIT News. “This hydrogel could restore the flexibility of the vocal folds, thereby restoring these individuals’ voices.”
The son of Vietnamese refugees who fled communist Vietnam, Trac is the first member of his family to attend college. He initially struggled in school and didn't speak much English himself, but he worked hard to obtain the grades and scholarships that got him into MIT. He won an award for an essay he wrote about his mother’s escape from Vietnam and her struggles to provide for her family in America.
When he isn't conducting research or studying, Trac mentors local youth with intellectual disabilities and disadvantaged youth in the Boston Debate League. He is planning to attend medical school after graduation.
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