Annual Undergraduate Awards
The 2025-2026 Math UG Student Awards will be presented on Wednesday, May 20th at 5p in Annenberg G15. Every year the Mathematics Department nominates undergraduate students to receive awards recognizing outstanding achievement in mathematics and contributions to the mathematics community within Northwestern University.
The 2024-2025 Math UG Awards were presented on May 21,2025. That year's featured speaker was Tadashi Tokieda (Stanford).
- Title: Applying Physics to Mathematics
- Abstract: Humans tend to be better at physics than at mathematics. When an apple falls from a tree, there are more people who can catch it — they physically know how the apple moves — than those who can compute its trajectory from a differential equation. Applying physical ideas to discover and establish mathematical results is therefore natural, even if it has seldom been tried in the history of science. (The exceptions include Archimedes, some old Russian sources, a recent book by Levi, as well as my articles and lectures.) A variety of examples will be presented.
2024-2025 NU Undergraduate Mathematics Award Winners
- Robert R. Welland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics: Chi Li, Leo Chang
- Senior Career Award in Mathematics: Nara Shin
- Junior Career Award in Mathematics: Corbin Diaz, Henry Wyers, James Lenze
- Award for Excellence in Mathematics by a First-Year Student: Sofia Kang, Jonah Kim, Sam Vogel, Paari Dhanasekaran, Bruce Bei, Gabriel Girao, Muzi Dang, Ariel Wong, Yuxin Wang, Yucheng Jin, Maya Wassercug, Michael Yao, Peter Platosh, Owen Yan
- Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Mathematical Life: Cam Kennedy
- Award for High Achievement in the William Lowell Putnam Competition: Chi Li, Prach Thaewanarumitkul, Hongyi Wang, Yuxin Wang
- Award for Excellence as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant: Leo Chang, Henry Wyers
- Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Service Award: Leo Chang, Estella Xu