2025 Rhodes Scholar, Simons Society of Fellows, American Academy of Sciences and Letters’ Elections, and More

Columbia News produces a monthly newsletter (subscribe here!) and article series featuring a roundup of awards and milestones that Columbia faculty, staff, and students have received in recent days. In this edition, you’ll find awards and milestones from October 24 to November 21, 2024.

If you have an accomplishment you'd like to be considered for inclusion, please email [email protected] with your name, title, school, department, and a link to the relevant award or milestone. 

You can take a look at past accomplishments on our Awards & Milestones page. And you can subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox. 

FACULTY

ARTS & HUMANITIES

Branka Arsić, Charles and Lynn Zhang Professor of English and Comparative Literature, has received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society’s 2024 Distinguished Achievement Award for her scholarship that exemplifies “Emersonian strains of interest in the conduct of language and disciplinary variety.” 

Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang, faculty members at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, have received the NYC Design Excellence in Design Award for the Orchard Beach Maintenance and Operations Facility in Pelham Bay Park, Bronx.

Barbara Fields and Susan Pedersen, professors in the History Department, have received awards of distinction from the American Historical Association. Professor Fields was one of the recipients of the 2024 AHA Award for Scholarly Distinction. Professor Pedersen received the 2024 AHA Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award.

Shana L. Redmond, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, has received the Constance M. Rourke Award for best article published in American Quarterly. Her article, "The Dark Prelude" (2023), also served as her presidential address to the American Studies Association. 

MEDICINE & SCIENCE

Riana Elyse Anderson, Associate Professor of Social Work at the School of Social Work, and Derald Wing Sue, Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, were featured in an American Psychological Association article on "10 psychologists of color at the forefront of racial equity."

Suzanne Bakken, Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Alumni Professor of the School of Nursing, was recognized by the American Academy of Nursing as a Living Legend. The Academy also recognized Linking to Improve Nursing Care and Knowledge (LINK) with an Edge Runner award, and inducted five Columbia Nursing faculty and several alumnae into its 2024 Class of Fellows.  Bakken was also named one of Crain’s New York Business’s 2024 Notable Health Care Leaders.

Stanley Chang, K. K. Tse and Ku Teh Ying Professor of Ophthalmology and Chairman Emeritus, Department of Ophthalmology, received the Laureate Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. This is the Academy’s highest award that is presented to an ophthalmologist who has made extraordinary contributions to the profession.

David A. Fidock, C.S. Hamish Young Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, is the new President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, the largest international society dedicated to tropical medicine and infectious diseases.

Oliver Hobert, Professor of Biological Sciences and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, was invested as a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Stephanie A. Rolin, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, received the "Young Alumni Award" from the Alumni Council for Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Megan Sykes, Michael J. Friedlander Professor of Medicine, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Surgical Sciences, and Director of the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology, has received a 2024 Barry Prize from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters in recognition of intellectual excellence and courage. 

Xiao Zhao, Assistant Professor of Medicine, has received the American Liver Foundation’s 2024 Pilot Research Award for her basic science research in CRISPR/Cas9-based Chemogenomic Profiling to Map Gene-Environment Interactions Underlying Biliary Atresia.

ENGINEERING

Ke Cheng, Alan L. Kaganov Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been honored with the Walter H. Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation. 

Christos Papadimitriou, Donovan Family Professor of Computer Science, and Michael Weinstein, Professor of Applied Mathematics and of Mathematics, have been elected senior fellows of the Simons Society of Fellows.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Sandra E. Black, Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs, is the recipient of the 2024 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award. Named after the first chair of the American Economic Association, the annual award celebrates those who have furthered the status of women in the economics profession.

Anu Bradford, Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization, received the 2024 Stein Rokkan Prize for her newest book, Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology.

Merlin Chowkwanyun, Gerald Markowitz, and David Rosner, professors at the Mailman School of Public Health, received the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. Award for Innovative Use of Archives for their project, Toxic Docs, a website of 19 million previously secret corporate documents.

Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, was awarded the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, Harvard University’s highest honor in the field of African and African American studies, by the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

Philip Hamburger, Maurice & Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, was invested as a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.

David E. Weinstein, Carl S. Shoup Professor of the Japanese Economy, won the 2024 Eagle on the World Award, given by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New York. The award is given to those who have made outstanding contributions towards strengthening the U.S.-Japan partnership.

POSTDOCS & STUDENTS

Isabella Ramirez (CC’25) was recently named National Student of the Year by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and CCNMA Latino Journalists of California. Ramirez is the first Latina editor-in-chief of the Columbia Spectator, Columbia’s student newspaper.

Luiza Diniz Vilanova (CC’24) was named a 2025 Rhodes Scholar, one of 32 outstanding students nationwide who will commence their postgraduate studies at Oxford in October 2025. Vilanova intends to pursue a master’s of public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and an M.Sc. in comparative and international education.

STAFF

Ana Esteban, Director of Quality Improvement and Regulatory Compliance at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, was awarded an NAHQ Fellowship. The Fellowship recognizes NAHQ members who have made outstanding contributions to the healthcare quality profession.