Current Scholars

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 Having spent years engaging in medical and social volunteering across multiple continents, Timmie Artan '28 (she/her) is passionate about accessible, globally informed healthcare. She serves as Strategic Partnerships & External Relations Manager at Mary Global Health, a nonprofit building mobile micro-clinics that expand care access for last-mile patients in Ghana and Vermont. She recently advanced MGH through entrepreneurship competitions at Dartmouth's Magnuson Center and the Dartmouth Innovation Accelerator for Digital Health, where her team was selected as a finalist. On campus, she is pursuing intensive policy research and will deliver formal testimony in New Hampshire and Vermont statehouses this term. She hopes to continue bridging clinical care, structural change, and policy in her future career.

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Angel Avila '28 (he/him) is a Thrive Scholar, originally from southern California, who learned jiu-jitsu and excelled in STEM in high school. At Dartmouth, he has joined the Machine Shop at Thayer, where he's learned to fix 3D printers and serves as a Teaching Assistant. He plans to major in Biology and Engineering and looks forward to learning research techniques on biofuels.

Mark Ghiu '28 (he/him) is a Dartmouth Book Award Winner who has pursued research opportunities in math and physics through St. John's Prep, including on quantum loop gravity. Since starting at Dartmouth, he has worked with the Formula One team and joined Club Soccer. Currently, Mark is part of the Multifunctional Integrated NeuroElectronics (MINE) lab, led by Professor Hui Fang, where he is working on a high-speed insertion device for the ROSE probe. He aspires to become an Aerospace Engineer or pursue graduate studies in Physics.

Coming from Groton School, where he headed the sustainability team and founded a social justice organization, Evan Khym '28 (he/him) has co-authored research on socioeconomic mapping layers and climate considerations in developing countries. He has also testified before the Massachusetts Senate on a zero-carbon bill and worked to organize the first student-led Hawaiian youth climate conference. Evan's academic interests are in economics and environmental studies.

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Lamine Sao '28 (he/him) comes from The American School in London, where he conducted research on applying machine learning to drone imagery and remote sensing to assess forest health. He is a jazz musician and joined the Jazz Band on campus. Lamine has been assisting a professor with a 3D printing project and is excited to pursue Engineering at Dartmouth. Recently, he conducted research at the Trust Lab focused on cybersecurity to develop a tool to identify vulnerabilities in web servers. 

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Coming from San Francisco, California, Summer (she/her) is a cognitive science major with an interest in business, healthcare, and philosophy. Whether it's the mountains of Marin or the birch forests of the Upper Valley, Summer loves getting outdoors and can't get enough of hiking, camping, and backpacking. This past summer, Summer worked as a Strategy and Operations intern for Claimable, a healthcare startup that leverages AI to help patients appeal health insurance denials and unlock access to life-changing treatments. At Dartmouth, she plays for women's club hockey, analyzes investment opportunities for DIPP, leads consulting teams with the DCSI, and is currently working to build a healthtech startup with a friend that aims to make wellness purchases more financially accessible.

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Nica Alimzhanov has spent the past three summers working full-time in Dr. Artzi's lab (HMS, MGB, Wyss), contributing to projects that advance the understanding of tissue-biomaterial interactions and therapeutic delivery. Her work has included developing hydrogels to localize chemotherapy, manufacturing novel microneedles for painless and sustained drug administration, and formulating nanoparticles to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing machinery for genetic disorders. She also published a review article in the International Journal of High School Research (IJHSR) on microneedles and their biomedical applications.

In high school, Nica served as Secretary of the National Honor Society, Captain of the Swim and Dive Team, and Co-Founder of her school's Flag Committee, which created a permanent installation of 252 world flags to promote inclusivity. She was also active in her school's Science Olympiad team, worked as a mathematics tutor and a theater coordinator for a Russian Literature and Drama Studio. Nica was honored with the Daniel J. Calugar Foundation $10,000 Merit Scholarship and recognized as the Massachusetts Affiliate Winner of the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award. She was also selected to compete in the national round of the International German Olympics, where she was one of 16 participants selected from hundreds of U.S. students and achieved the highest B2 language proficiency level among all competitors.

At Dartmouth, Nica plans to study Biochemistry or Biomedical Engineering. In addition to her STEM classes, Nica is pursuing her passion for language by working as a drill instructor for the German department. She plans to join club water sports and explore various DOC subclubs. She is looking to pursue a PhD, MD, or MD/PhD with the goal of developing and translating new biomedical technologies into real patient outcomes.

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From Minneapolis, Minnesota, Finn is a prospective Mathematics major with a strong interest in the safe development of artificial intelligence. In high school, he was a Regeneron ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair) finalist, served as a lead programmer on his robotics team, and founded his school's Computer Science Club. During the summer, he worked as a youth sailing instructor, and is now a member of the Dartmouth Sailing Team. 

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In high school, Jack led the Gonzaga Peace Club, promoting Catholic social teaching, dialogue, advocacy, and service. He was an active member of local mutual aid organizations and food pantries in the DC area, working with the unhoused and local immigrant populations. He also plays saxophone and guitar, co-founded a cycling club, and helped lead a club focused on local environmental and water insecurity issues. Looking ahead, Jack plans to study Linguistics and Astronomy, with a focus on indigenous language preservation and dark energy research. Inspired by his family's Basque heritage, he hopes to work with organizations like the Endangered Language Project. His interest in cosmology fuels a long-term goal of contributing to research at observatories such as ALMA or the ELT.

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Before college, Roen was deeply involved in both the arts and academics. She served as principal oboist for the Santa Monica High School Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra from 2022 to 2025, earned a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo, and conducted independent research as a mentee at California State University Los Angeles. She also founded a free music mentoring program for younger students in her school system and launched the Conlang Cabal, a club dedicated to constructed languages, where she served as founder and president. At Dartmouth, Roen plans to explore the intersections of linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence, with a special interest in language preservation and the use of large language models in education. She is also drawn to music and memory research, particularly in support of Alzheimer's patients, inspired by personal experience.

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Patrick Shi plans to major in Computer Science and Biological Sciences with an interest in data science. He has published bioinformatics, having studied gene expression in cancer diagnosis and was an STS scholar. He has additional interests in climate modeling and sociology, and he hopes to explore the integration of AI into the healthcare system from a public policy perspective. In his free time, Patrick enjoys traveling, playing the violin, and cooking

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Dylan was valedictorian of his high school in Hopkinton, MA and has demonstrated leadership and passion in STEM through roles such as Science Fair Team Lead, Co-President of the Invention Club, and Co-Captain of the Robotics Team. Dylan is also a member of the National Honor Society, the Robotics National Honor Society, and is a lifetime fellow of the American Junior Academy of Sciences (AJAS). He has performed independent research in the environmental engineering, biomedical engineering, and sociology fields and hopes to continue innovating at Dartmouth. He has also been honored as a Henry David Thoreau Scholar in addition to being a Hanlon Scholar, with his most prized achievements including holding two U.S. patents and earning the 3rd Place Prize in the Earth and Environmental Sciences category at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in 2023. In addition to his interest in STEM, Dylan's interdisciplinary passions include product development, project management, and sociology. While he is unsure of his prospective major, he hopes to combine his love for the environment, social psychology, and STEM to create meaningful and effective change.

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A history major with a minor in Middle Eastern studies, Tessa Augsberger '26 (she/her) has based her Hanlon Scholars research on her study-abroad experience in Morocco and family experience in Germany, asking how Western countries can support refugee women from the MENA region. Tessa is a host for WebDCR (Dartmouth's online campus radio station) and the founder of Global Youth Climate Database, a non-profit news organization based in LA. 

Faculty mentor: Golnar Nikpour, HIST

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 JJ Dega '26 (he/him) holds a deep passion for Access to Justice. Over the course of 2023 and 2024, he studied the New Hampshire Court Navigator Program and its assistance for self-represented litigants. He interviewed New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice MacDonald '83 and Senior Associate Justice Bassett '78, along with other stakeholders, and eventually provided 22 short-, medium-, and long-term recommendations to the court, aiming to continue the program's efficacy and ensure its future sustainability. 

As a Hanlon Scholar, JJ spent the past year studying the emergence and impact of pretrial diversion programs. He spent his Junior summer in the Northern District of Illinois US District Courthouse, identifying the benefits of the Sentencing Alternatives that Achieve Results program. Working with Judges Jorge Alonso P'25 and Judge Beth Jantz '99, his analysis identified over $10.1 in cost savings to the federal government, in addition to significant qualitative benefits to participants. As part of his Hanlon Scholarship, he presented to the Law and Society Association conference on his paper attempting to identify causes for the emergence of pretrial diversion programs across US District Courts. This paper will continue over the next year as he leverages his scholarship to bring together scholars, jurists, and students to study alternatives to incarceration. JJ is a history major modified with economics, with a minor in public policy and hopes to attend law school after first gaining meaningful work experience. 

At Dartmouth, he is pursuing a History Modified with Alternative Economic Visions major and a Public Policy Minor. He actively participates in: Dartmouth Student Government as the '26 School House Senator and Co-Chair of the Student Life Committee, Club Tennis, Ledyard Canoe Club, the Tour Guide Program, Greek Leadership Council, Seltzer Project, Rockefeller Center programming (including the Policy Research Shop), Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, Dartmouth Leadership Attitudes and Behavior Program, and Phi Alpha Theta history honor society. Outside of Dartmouth, JJ is a Men4Choice Fellowship Coordinator, a member of New Hampshire Young Democrats, and was a delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention. JJ originally hails from Boise, Idaho, where he graduated with honors from Boise Senior High School.

Faculty mentors: Elizabeth Pfeffer, GOVT and Julie Kalish, WRIT

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Gideon M. Gruel grew up in different places around the United States, on both the East and West coasts. Before matriculating at Dartmouth, he served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile and Arizona. He studies Ancient History, Classical Languages, and Philosophy, with a focus on the form, function, and change of ancient Roman religion. As a Hanlon Scholar, he currently studies how Christian bishops, widely and perhaps deceptively known as the movers and shakers of Late Antiquity, came to invoke and wield their ecclesiastical authority as political clout in the face of the emperor's supreme sovereignty, which recently culminated in an article on the free speech (παρρησία) of Christian bishops in letters addressed to Roman emperors. A new strand of his research explores the writings and Late Antique reception of second century CE Christian philosopher-apologists, like Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Minucius Felix.

In his senior year, his research on the religious significance of Augustus' Egyptian coinages was awarded the Zarbin Prize in Ancient History. Thanks to Hanlon funds, he split Summer 2025 between Rome—digging with the Gabii Project—and Charlottesville—taking an Intensive Latin course at UVA. For Fall 2025 in Rome on the Classics FSP, funded by a Gilman Scholarship.

On campus, Gideon is involved with the Latter-day Saint Students Association, the Tucker Center, and the Mock Trial Society. In 2024, he was selected as a John Robert Lewis Scholar by the Faith and Politics Institute. In addition to his academic and co-curricular activities, Gideon enjoys taking road trips, browsing through thrift stores or antique shops, and drinking yerba mate. 

Faculty mentors: Roberta Stewart, CLST and Christopher MacEvitt, REL

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Idil Sahin '26, a double major in cognitive science and math from Turkey, investigates theory of mind in large language models through mechanistic interpretability. In 2025, working with Dartmouth's Mind, Brain, & Computation Lab and researchers at Princeton's Cohen Lab, she has identified preliminary circuits underlying ToM reasoning in LLMs and is preparing a manuscript for submission. In a parallel project with Prof. Feng Fu, she analyzes how neural networks develop cooperative strategies in iterated game-theoretic scenarios. She previously compared generalization gradients in visual transformers and CNNs against human similarity judgments at Brown's Favila Lab, and conducted research at Dartmouth's Brain Imaging Center and DALI Lab. Summer 2025 she also attended the EXP workshop in Prague.

Faculty mentor: Steve Frankland, COGS

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Sarah Watson (she/her) is a Biology and French Studies double major from Sudbury, Massachusetts. She has been involved in research into neurodegenerative diseases since high school and is fascinated by both the immune processes and metabolic changes involved in disease progression. As a Women in Science Project intern, URAD Scholar, and Presidential Scholar, Sarah conducted research in the Gaur Lab at DHMC demonstrating how both neuroinflammatory signatures and accumulation of pathogenic proteins differs in male and female mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. Her Hanlon project, advised by Professor Robert Hill, explores how myelination patterns drive mitochondrial heterogeneity in distinct neuronal populations and has implications for understanding mechanisms of mitochondrial dysfunction in demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. Sarah's research investigates how mitochondrial morphology, distribution, DNA and protein content, and function differs in myelinated versus unmyelinated regions of axons. Sarah has been awarded a Goldwater Scholarship for her work and hopes to pursue a career as a physician-scientist focused on the development of precision medicine strategies for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. As a member of the Nathan Smith Society (NSS) Leadership Committee and Dartmouth Undergraduate Research Association (DURA) Executive Board, Sarah is actively involved in planning events and developing new initiatives for other students interested in medicine and research. Sarah is also particularly interested in the intersection of science and faith, and has served as the Tucker Fellow for Religious Literacy, a Tucker Council member, and an active community member of the Edgerton House Episcopal Campus Ministry. Sarah enjoys spending her spare time sharing her love of nature and the outdoors by volunteering with Growing Change, hiking with Cabin and Trail, and finding the best running routes around Hanover.

Faculty mentor: Robert Hill, BIOL

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Tracy Weener '26 hails from Boxford, Massachusetts, and was the 2024 winner of the North American Taiwan Studies Association's Undergraduate Research Paper Competition. She is pursuing a double major in Quantitative Social Science with a concentration in Public Policy and Computer Science, in addition to a minor in French. Her research investigates US-Taiwan relations from the perspectives of public opinion and social media, an evolving topic she studies as a Hanlon Scholar under the guidance of Professor Herbert Chang and Professor Yusaku Horiuchi. She has presented findings at several conferences, including the 2024 and 2025 American Political Science Association Annual Meetings and the 2025 National Collegiate Research Conference, and has published in the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, Global Taiwan Brief, and Ketagalan Media. During her first two years at Dartmouth, she participated in the Class of 1964 Policy Research Shop, Rockefeller Center First-Year Fellows Program, and Women in Science Project, before joining Professor Chang's Computational Social Science Working Group as a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar.

She is active on campus as co-editor of The Dartmouth's Data Visualization section, a class representative on the Council on Student Relations, an alto saxophonist in the Wind Ensemble, and a peer mentor and tutor. Additionally, she is president of the Dartmouth Taiwanese Association, which she reactivated in April 2025. Passionate about building community, she was a Summer 2025 intern at the Global Taiwan Institute and is excited to serve as National Finance Director of the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association this year. An avid language learner, she was also selected for the Rick Angulo World Experience Award during the Spring 2024 Paris Foreign Study Program. Proud of her Taiwanese heritage, she endeavors to contribute to the growing field of Taiwan Studies during her final year at Dartmouth, promoting a future of inquiry at the intersection of quantitative methods and the sociological imagination.

Faculty mentors: Herbert Chang, QSS and Yusaku Horiuchi, GOVT

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Nicholas Booth '27 from Dalton, PA, is an Economics major with a strong interest in policy and economic development. On campus, he is a Teaching Assistant in the Economics Department, a member of Fed Challenge, co-chair of the Political Economy Project, and an avid cross-country skier. He has received numerous independent research grants, allowing him to explore topics from sustainable energy in Sweden to the ethics of Peruvian agriculture. Last summer, Nicholas interned in Kosovo at The Riinvest Institute, an economic policy and development think-tank. For his Hanlon Project, Nicholas is studying addiction, gambling, and financial insecurity. Most recently, he has begun working with Economics Professor Bruce Sacerdote, his project mentor, as a research assistant. Before Dartmouth, Nicholas was class president, captain of his track team, and a Coca-Cola Scholar. In his free time, he enjoys reading, running, and traveling.

Faculty Mentor: Bruce Sacerdote, ECON

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Tess Bruett '27, a History major and International Studies minor from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, plans to attend law school after graduation. She graduated as high school valedictorian, where she led her school's swim team, mock trial team, spanish club, and served as a Milwaukee County Youth Commissioner in local government. She was also a Herb Kohl Scholar and the recipient of her class's Outstanding Senior Award. She currently conducts research in the History Department, works at Rauner Special Collections Library, and is actively involved with the Dickey Center as a War Peace Fellow and Arctic Innovation Scholar. As a dedicated Arctic Innovation Scholar, she participated in the "Arctic Sustainable Transitions" trip to Iceland and will study the integration of women into Antarctic fieldwork during her term abroad in London. Tess is also a writer for The Dartmouth, a member of the Dartmouth Law Journal, and is the Assistant Director of the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact's Growing Change program. Outside of school, Tess enjoys staying active and getting outside, reading, and traveling. 

Faculty Mentors: Bruce Duthu, NAIS and Melody Burkins, ENVS

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Felipe Mendonça ('27) is a Government, Economics, and Latin American Studies triple major from São Paulo, Brazil. As a Hanlon Scholar, he is investigating participatory budgeting, a policy initiated in Brazil that enables citizens to actively participate in their municipalities' budgets by proposing and voting on projects to allocate government funding. His research aims to compare the failures and successes of two different locations, hoping to draw lessons and create concrete legislation to implement the policy in São Paulo. Recently, Felipe has interned in the US Congress, conducted research with Professors Pamela Voekel (LACS), DG Webster (ENVS), and Carlos Minchillo (LACS), and facilitated leadership bootcamps in the Latin American Leadership Academy. His interests outside of research are wide and include climbing, debate, gymnastics, drag art, reading, and much more. He served as president of the campus labor union, the Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth, alongside Dartmouth's Drag Group––House of Lewan, and the Brazilian Society for the 24-25 academic year. Felipe is passionate about organizing and activism with a focus on social justice and environmental action. He aims to return to Brazil and work in politics after pursuing a Master's degree. 

Faculty Mentors: Pamela Voekel, LACS and Lisa Baldez, GOVT

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Ben Stevenson grew up in Portland, Oregon, on the traditional and unceded land of the Clackamas and Kalapuya peoples. He organized for climate justice from a young age. Since coming to Dartmouth, Ben has worked on federal policy in Washington, DC and studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Havana, Cuba. At Dartmouth, he studies History and Spanish. 

Through a mix of oral history and audio storytelling, Ben will study and tell the story of the creeping dominance of financial landlords in US housing—and how tenants are organizing themselves in response. Ben's research connects the glittering towers of Wall Street with the reality of people across the United States, revealing how an economy dominated by finance shapes our daily lives. Above all, Ben hopes to illuminate how building economic and political power together can propel us beyond financialization to a more just, democratic economy.

Faculty Mentors: Bethany Moreton and Annelise Orleck, HIST

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Manoela Ferraz '27 (she/her) is a Cognitive Science major and Philosophy minor from Santa Maria, Brazil. Her Hanlon Scholars project explores what motivates people to change their minds regarding moral beliefs, focusing on the role of emotions, heuristics, and belief flexibility in this process. She hopes that the findings from this project can later inform the design tools that apply mechanisms of moral judgement shift to encourage people to partake in philanthropic actions or dialogue amidst intractable group conflict. Manoela has been a research assistant at PhilLab since her freshman year, and recently she has also started to work at Frankland Lab. On campus, she is involved with the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth and has worked as a teaching assistant for the CS department, Drill instructor for Portuguese, and many other jobs! Outside of academics, Manoela loves to climb, run, hike, practice orienteering, crochet, play sudoku, and cook. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a PhD in Cognitive Science and, in the long run, contribute to the development of the field in her home country. 

Faculty Mentor: Jonathan Phillips, COGS

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Katie Wilson '27 (she/her) is a chemistry major and Chinese minor from Cincinnati, Ohio. Her Hanlon Scholars project asks how pharmaceutical research and development can use advanced computational tools to more efficiently discover life-saving drugs. Through engineering ferritin, a naturally occurring human protein, into a chemotherapy delivery system, she hopes to create a new framework for how drug discovery is done. But above all, she is passionate about chemistry, and helping other people to love chemistry, too. She has worked as an AmeriCorps member teaching middle school chemistry, Organic Chemistry 1 and 2 teaching assistant, and a chemistry private tutor. In addition to chemistry, Katie is also passionate about skiing, peak bagging, and cheering on The Ohio State Buckeyes. On campus, she is involved with Agape Christian Fellowship, the Women in Science Program, and the Dartmouth Outing Club.