Current Stamps Scholars

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Bora is a '28 from Adana, Turkey. Studying Computer Science and Mathematical Data Science, he is fascinated by the human brain and how it can be recreated in artificial minds. His Stamps research focuses on the compositionality property of the human brain and whether it exists in other animals. Specifically, he studies the Theropithecus gelada monkeys, known for their complex vocalizations. By training Bayesian grammar induction and NLP models on gelada vocalizations, Bora aims to investigate the existence of compositionality in their brain. This would mark the first observation of this property in any species other than humans, while advancing the field of non-human NLP algorithms. Outside of class, he serves as an Undergraduate Advisor (UGA) and SVPP Student Advisory Board Member. He is also President of the Dartmouth Undergraduate Language Society, officer of the Dartmouth Mathematical Society, and an artificial intelligence interpretability researcher at the Minds, Machines, and Society Lab.

Faculty Mentors: Nathaniel Dominy (ANTH) and Soroush Vosoughi (COSC)

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Aiden Cole is a '28 from Lake Milton, a small town in rural Northeast Ohio, is a proud first-generation college student double majoring in Ancient History and Music. His interest in Ancient History began by taking Latin at Dartmouth, and his interest in Celtic Studies began with exploring his family's Irish heritage, and by taking CLST 19 - Roman Britain, with his faculty advisor Dr. Roberta Stewart, his freshman spring. A lifelong lover of Music, his Stamps research consists of interdisciplinary research that examines how music shapes and preserves cultural identity from the ancient world to today, focusing on tracing the evolution of 'Celtic' identity from pre-Roman Britannia and Gaul to modern-day Ireland. He is particularly interested in the effects of conquest, empire, migration, and the passage of time on identity and aesthetics. By considering music a primary mechanism of culture within larger cultural frameworks, he will explore how music helps a people sustain itself through these events. Although little evidence of pre-Roman Britain survived the Roman conquest, he hopes to reconstruct early Celtic cultural frameworks by analyzing artifacts such as oral tradition, language, literature, and archaeological material, in order to form a more complete understanding of the ancient peoples of Britannia and their descendants.

Faculty mentor: Roberta Stewart, Classical Studies

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Lia Hansen is a '28 from Tigard, Oregon double-majoring in Biology and Environmental Studies. She grew up working on her family's vineyard with a deep love for nature, which has resulted in strong interests in agriculture and ecology. Fittingly, Lia's Stamps project will focus on the impacts of agricultural expansion in Alaska on soil properties, advised by Professors Ross Virginia and Joseph Tumber-Dávila. 

Ever since taking "Pole to Pole" in the Environmental Studies department her freshman fall, she has had a seemingly limitless interest in the Arctic, so she is incredibly excited to be traveling to Alaska to carry out sampling for this project. In Alaska, with coordination with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Lia will collect soil samples which will then be analyzed back at Dartmouth. Alongside the sample analysis, she plans to also talk with local Alaskan farmers to gain insight on their experiences with farming in the Arctic.

Lia hopes that this research will provide further understanding on how land conversion to agricultural uses impacts belowground factors, an ever important consideration as global warming both expands the possible range for farmable land and emphasizes the importance of monitoring soil carbon.

Faculty mentors: Joseph Tumber-Davila and Ross Virginia (ENVS)

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Megan Lu is a '28 from Wilmette, Illinois, majoring in Chemistry with minors in Computer Science and Environmental Studies on the Sustainable Energy track. As a Stamps Scholar, she integrates these disciplines through research on computational methods to study the supramolecular host–guest behavior of metal–organic cages (MOCs). These porous materials have promising applications for developing more selective, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly fuel production processes. Outside the lab, Megan is a leader in the Dartmouth Outing Club and was a First-Year Trips leader and crew member. She enjoys climbing, paddling, and making jewelry.

Faculty Mentors: Miguel Gonzalez and Xin Qi, CHEM

Sean Noh

Sean Noh is a Computer Science and Math major from Fairfax, Virginia. He is most interested in the intersection of AI, robotics, and safety. Sean's project will focus on the ability of LLMs and embodied agents to persuade in political, physical, and social contexts, and evaluate the impact of relevant policy interventions to mitigate the risks of persuasive AI systems. Sean began working with Dr. Herbert Chang during a gap year spent volunteering with City Year, studying LLMs as negotiation agents. This coming summer, Sean will be conducting research at NASA JPL, developing computer vision methods for Mars rover hazard detection. On campus, Sean holds leadership positions in DALI Lab, Dartmouth AI Club, and KSA.

Faculty Mentors: Herbert Chang (QSS) and Brendan Nyhan (GOVT)

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Alanna Polyak is a '28 from Dallas, Texas, pursuing a Biological Sciences major and a multidisciplinary path with chemistry, sociology, and geography. Driven by a profound interest in cellular mechanisms and their translation into clinical therapeutics, Alanna's current research is centered on regenerative biology. Specifically, her work continues from previous years, investigating planarian neoblasts, the pluripotent stem cells that enable planarian flatworms to perform full-body regeneration. By exploring the complex cellular signaling and genetic regulation that govern these stem cells, her project aims to uncover fundamental mechanisms of tissue regeneration and cellular plasticity that could ultimately be applied for both neural and oncological regenerative techniques in mammalian organisms. 

In addition to her laboratory research, Alanna bridges her scientific interests with a deep commitment to clinical care and community health. Certified as an Emergency Medical Technician, she engages directly with healthcare delivery and emergency response. She also spearheads programming with regard to children's health and abuse directly with both resources for hospitals nationwide and direct outreach. On campus, she works with the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault, where she helps foster a safer, more supportive campus environment. She also serves on the Student Advisory Board for SVPP and as a campus SAPA for her peers. She also participates in the club gymnastics team and serves as a Learning Fellow, among other commitments. Ultimately, Alanna aspires to have a career as a physician-scientist, combining high-level scientific inquiry with compassionate, patient-centered clinical practice. 

Faculty Mentors: Jennifer Hong and Aaron Mckenna (MED)

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Luke Joel '28 is a first-gen international student from Colombo, Sri Lanka majoring in Engineering Physics, with a minor in Astronomy. He also hopes to pursue a BE in Materials Science. 

His Stamps research project, based with the Gallivan Group, was inspired by differences in living standards between his home in Sri Lanka and life at Dartmouth. The project will take a materials design approach to enhance the performance of copper and other metals in removing pollutants (specifically nitrates and heavy metals) from water sources; and the method used to accomplish this will be hydrogel-infused additive manufacturing (HIAM). The underlying goal of the project is to identify a potential low-cost, low-energy alternative in comparison to existing water filtration systems. In his first year he will examine a single copper metal system and attempt to identify what structural mechanism and active sites prove to be most efficient in the adsorption of contaminants. In his second year, his research will focus on developing a prototype water filter alongside investigating other metal systems (i.e. silver and iron). 

Outside of class Joel enjoys photography, chess, and travelling through DOC trips. In his sophomore year he was President of Aegis (Dartmouth's award-winning yearbook); a member of Dartmouth's Parliamentary Debate Society; Crisis Manager for Dartmouth Model UN; and a First-Gen Office Peer Mentor. 

Faculty Mentor: Rebecca Gallivan, ENGS

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Sage Stretch is a '28 from Washington, DC studying Biomedical Engineering. Her Stamps project will involve biomaterials research for the scaffold used in pelvic floor reconstruction surgeries. She will be working with NovaGyn, a women's health startup focused on biomaterials research for pelvic organ prolapse, founded by Dr. Rebecca Thomson. NovaGyn's primary focus is to develop Dr. Thomson's polyhydroxybutyrate silk-fibroin scaffold to use as an alternative to the common polypropylene mesh that can irritate tissues and necessitate revision surgeries. Sage will be working to incorporate collagen into scaffold, and her project will also include clinical and market research. She hopes to not only pursue meaningful research and mature as a scientist, but also explore all angles of the engineering process. Her project reflects her passion for women-centered biomedical research that can translate to improved care for patients. Sage's project was inspired by her Introduction to Biomedical Engineering where she wrote an R21 grant for a post-lumpectomy breast care treatment and her Introduction to Engineering classes where she made an attachment to IUD inserters to make the procedure more efficient and more comfortable for the patient. Her work so far has included acquainting herself with the Dartmouth Biomedical Engineering Center for Orthopedics (the Van Citters Lab), and she cannot wait to begin her project. Outside of the classroom, Sage is a Global Health Fellow, a Peer Tutor, a member of the club soccer and club lacrosse teams, and a First-Year Trip Leader. She loves playing sports, reading, and all things outdoors! 

Faculty Mentors: Douglas Van Citters and Rebecca Thomson (ENGS) 

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Allison Whitt is a '28 majoring in Economics and Government. Her Stamps research project, Not Allowed to Work: The Impact of Noncompete Agreements on Employment, examines how variation in state noncompete enforceability shapes labor mobility, wages, quit rates, and innovation across the United States. Using a comparative cross-state and triple-differences empirical design, she will construct an AI-assisted index of noncompete provisions and combine it with labor market and patent data to estimate the economic effects of noncompete agreements.

Professionally, Allison has worked for five years as a legal intern, where she has drafted pleadings and briefs, supported complex case preparation across a range of matters, and presented amended rules of civil procedure. She has experience in both private and policy settings, including at Davis Polk, where she worked on complex litigation and regulatory matters, and at Brooks, Bawden, and Moore, where she supported federal policy research and legislative advocacy. She also works as a market research associate for Children's Surgery Centers, analyzing labor markets, Medicaid reimbursement structures, and state healthcare regulation to evaluate the sustainability of dental pediatric surgery centers. 

At Dartmouth, Allison serves as Editor in Chief of the Dartmouth Law Journal, is Co-President of Musical Empowerment, writes for The Dartmouth newspaper, and is a member of the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra. Her Stamps project combines her interests in law, economics, and public policy, reflecting a broader commitment to understanding how legal rules structure economic opportunity in the United States.

Faculty mentors: Jason Barabas, Government and Patricia Anderson, Econ.

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Ryan is a '28 from Iwi Katea in Aotearoa New Zealand, with whakapapa (genealogy) back to the people, places, and land of Hauraki. He grew up spending his breaks in the region, and this embedded a relational view between people and land. Now studying Studio Art and Native American & Indigenous Studies, he is interested in the ways Māori art forms have been influenced by specific cultural geographies. The way land and oceans transform into specific and repeated signs and symbols in weavings and carvings, and how this language has been used to communicate intergenerationally by iwi (tribes). Ryan is interested in studying these traditional practices alongside their reconfigurations in contemporary Māori art practice and his own painting. Using land as an archival structure, he seeks to trace a genealogy of Hauraki Māori art using interviews, oral histories, archival research, and his own studio practice. Together, he hopes to form an archive of these specific cultural geographies through the continued relationship between Hauraki iwi, land, and art.

Faculty mentors: Enrico Riley, Studio Art and Meredith Ferguson, Native American and Indigenous Studies

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Emmy Martinez is a '27 from Brownsville, Texas majoring in Art History modified with Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies. Her Stamps research examines the ways in which costumes and dance serve as tools of cultural negotiation in border communities, through the analysis of Charro Days, an annual festival that takes place in her hometown. The project incorporates her interests in art history, border studies, and allows her to better understand the border culture of her hometown. 

Outside of research, Emmy is the co-President of the Dartmouth Rockapellas, has written for the Arts Section of the Dartmouth and the Ephemera Journal, and loves to read.

Faculty mentor: Mary Coffey, Art History

Leah Cho-Carrier, Stamps '27

Leah Cho-Carrier is a '27 from Washington, D.C. majoring in Asian American Studies and minoring in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Chinese. Her Stamps research will examine poetry written by migrants in U.S. detention centers to explore how creative expression can operate as a valuable site of personal, social, political, and historical reckoning. Inspired by an Asian American History course she took as a first-year student at Dartmouth, this project will focus on two distinct yet related eras in U.S. immigration history, namely the Chinese Exclusion Acts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and the more contemporary immigration politics of the twenty-first century. Leah's Stamps research and her decision to create and pursue a custom major path in Asian American Studies at Dartmouth reflect her broader academic interests in race, ethnicity, migration, diaspora, and queer studies. Outside the classroom, she is a member of the Dartmouth Women's Rowing team, the Dartmouth Asian American Studies Collective, and the Dartmouth Prison Justice Initiative. She enjoys reading and writing, singing, biking, and spending time with her dog, Marcus.

Faculty mentors: Jodi Kim, English and Jennifer Miller, History

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Helen Cui is a '27 from Lexington, Massachusetts double majoring in Computer Science modified with Digital Arts and Studio Art. In her sophomore year she began her involvement in AI at Dartmouth, initially she surveyed multi-agent LLMs with Prof. Vosoughi then continued her work in the RISC Lab examining diffusion models in depth imaging. Afterwards, she reached out to Prof. Chad Elias to explore the intersection of her Computer Science research with Studio Art. In this vein, she has received support from the Stamps program since 2025 for her work surveying Art and AI. Over the course of the next two years she plans on traveling to different exhibits of artists currently using AI, interviewing existing artists in the field, and eventually synthesizing her own artwork. Aside from her work in the digital sphere, Helen has received the Project Greenlight Grant and Brown-Hurlock Award in the Studio Art department for the creation of a series of sculptures and paintings. Outside of her research, Helen is a leader of the Organic Farm Club and passionate about DEI– serving as the DEI Chair for Kappa Delta Epsilon and Social Chair for Dartmouth Chinese Student Association.

Faculty mentors: Chad Elias, Art History and Enrico Riley, Studio Art

Frank Gallo, Stamps '27

Frank Gallo is a '27 at Dartmouth majoring in Mathematics and Geography. A leader in the Dartmouth Outing Club and executive board member on the Dartmouth Triathlon Team, Frank is passionate about nature, and the way humanity relates to it. His current research focuses on the formation of age-restricted active living communities in Florida, and applies critical social theory to help others improve their lives. His work seeks to uncover the philosophical underpinnings of the contemporary urban area: the forces that shape it, and the structures that influence it; the axiomatic framework for the construction of the city. During his Stamps research he intends to intensively study the formation and history of The Villages, characterizing the community within the context of Florida history, and eventually hopes to publish a complete honors thesis on the topic. 

Faculty mentor: Mona Domosh, Geography

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Joe is a '27 double majoring in Music and Biology concentrated in Evolutionary Ecology, Zoology, and Bioacoustics. He is on a quest to uncover music as a universal language tied to our evolutionary roots in the natural world around us. His work set out to use biodiversity research to inspire his music, though he's found his work as a musician to deeply inform and enhance his biological research. His project consists of an investigation into temporal rhythmicity in about 30 different northeast songbird species vocalizations, and how this patterning is impacted by phylogenetic and ecological variables. His manuscript is done alongside Matthew P. Ayres in Biological Sciences, and Sharon Martinson of Cornell University's K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics. Joe presented his ongoing work at the 2025 International Bioacoustics Congress (IBAC) in Kerteminde, Denmark, and at Garden Day and 2026 Forest Festival in Woodstock, Vermont. He's been in the field at Marsh-Billings Rockefeller, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, and Shoals Marine Laboratory. On the music side of things, Joe has used biodiversity and layering to influence an upcoming folk-based EP, including the song "The Sapsucker" drawn from a native dawn chorus. He has also expanded his vocal pursuits. Outside of Stamps, Joe studied classical voice on the Vienna Music FSP and is a member of the 2027 Biological Sciences FSP in Costa Rica and Little Cayman. He is a member of Dartmouth Glee Club, Handel Society, has performed live as both a singer-songwriter and student band bassist across campus, and is an avid distance runner and endurance athlete. 

Faculty mentors: Matthew Ayres, Biology and William Cheng, Music 

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Audrey Kim is a '27 from Ambler, PA, majoring in Neuroscience with double minors in Music and Chemistry. As a Stamps Scholar, she researches unconscious learning of spatial auditory attention and its potential crossmodal effects on visual attention, integrating her interests in neuroscience, cognitive science, and music. After working in the Stromer Lab and learning about unconscious learning of visual spatial attention, she wanted to see if there was a similar effect auditorily, and whether that could also then transfer to visual attention. She is excited to use this funding to support her senior thesis and to pursue research opportunities abroad. Audrey is particularly interested in applying concepts from classes like Brainwaves and Cognitive Psychology to real-world research.

Outside the lab, Audrey serves as the Community Training Officer for Dartmouth EMS, sings with the Dartmouth Dodecaphonics a cappella group, and is a facilitator and advisory board member for the Sexual Violence Prevention Project. She also teaches piano through Musical Empowerment, works as a Learning Fellow, and serves as the Rick Chair of Chi Delta, and more.

Faculty mentors: Viola Stoermer and Kevin Ortego, Psychology

Stamps 27, Roy Leibovitz

Roy is a Physics and Computer Science double major at Dartmouth investigating how to teach quantum experiments to run themselves. Because quantum states are fragile, preparing and maintaining coherent information long enough to compute is exceptionally hard. This research involves developing closed-loop controllers that blend quantum optimal control with reinforcement learning, enabling experiments to learn in real time how to prepare, stabilize, and adapt to drift and noise. In his first year, Roy is building a simulation-to-hardware pipeline using tools such as QuTiP and standard optimization methods; in his second year, he will deploy on common laboratory control hardware, targeting autonomous state preparation and drift-resilient stabilization. The goal is a hardware-agnostic, open-source toolkit that lowers the barrier to reliable quantum operation and moves devices closer to fault tolerance. In summer 2025, Roy worked as a visiting scientist at Prof. Serge Rosenblum's quantum circuits group at the Weizmann Institute, where he explored superconducting Kerr "cat" qubits - an innovative bosonic platform with a built-in noise bias that could enable more robust quantum processors. Outside the lab, he competes for Dartmouth in track and field, specializing in the triple jump, with aspirations for the European Championships and the 2028 Olympic Games. 

Faculty mentors: Matias Fitzpatrick and Peter Chin, Engineering

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Ada is a double-major in physics and math, with a focus on quantum and condensed matter physics and pure math. Her Stamps research uses nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond as a platform to study solid-state qubit control for quantum sensing and quantum computing. She spent her freshman and sophomore years building and improving an experimental setup that uses laser light and microwave radiation to control electron spins in diamond NV centers. Once the setup is complete, she will replicate existing research on solid-state electron spin manipulation, focusing on learning and testing shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) techniques. Subsequently, she will work on the design and implementation of new STA laser- and microwave- pulse sequences, which imitate adiabatic spin control (slow induced evolution of the electrons' energy functions) on a shorter timescale in order to reap the benefits of reducing qubit error rates while maintaining efficiency. Outside of her research, Ada enjoys drawing, hiking, and running. In her sophomore year, she was president of the Dartmouth Physics and Astronomy Society. She is also a leader in the Cabin and Trail subclub of the Dartmouth Outing Club. 

Faculty mentor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan, Physics

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Fatmata is a '27 majoring in engineering sciences and pursuing the BE in environmental engineering. She is interested in environmental, civil, and water resource engineering, focusing on both the technical aspects and the impact of climate uncertainty on public health and safety Her project entitled "Risk assessment of Dartmouth's stormwater pipeline network under climate uncertainties," is supervised by Thayer professor Klaus Keller. She aims to study how green infrastructure and stormwater management in the western portion of campus currently addresses flood risk and evaluate whether future improvements need to be made in the face of climate change and upcoming construction. Over the next two years, she hopes to gain proficiency in stormwater management modeling, gain internship experience in water engineering, and conduct uncertainty analyses to inform campus decision-making. Outside of research, she serves as co-president of the Society of Women Engineers and National Society of Black Engineers chapters on campus. In her free time, she also enjoys canoeing, hiking, and journaling. 

Faculty mentor: Klaus Keller, Engineering

Mingyue Zha. Stamps '27

Mingyue Zha is a '27 from Woodbridge, Connecticut majoring in Quantitative Social Science and majoring in Chemistry on the pre-medicine track. Ming plans to pursue a career in psychiatry focused on providing inclusive and data-informed mental health care. As a Stamps scholar, she will study how social media platforms and AI chatbots provide support for individuals with social anxiety, with the goal of informing both clinical outcomes and mental health policy. Her previous research work with Professor Herbert Chang has spanned across computational social science, affective computing, and political discourse, with projects ranging from analyzing gender inequalities in content creator collaborations to online discourse during the 2024 election. In the AI and Mental Health Lab at the Geisel School of Medicine, she helped to test AI-driven mental health tools in clinical settings. 

Beyond research, Ming serves as president of the Nathan Smith Pre-Health Society to support fellow students in their pre-health journeys. As president of the Dartmouth Mental Health Union, she actively advocates for campus initiatives promoting student well-being. She is also a teaching assistant in the music department and pursues creative projects as a classical pianist and visual artist. 

Faculty mentors: Herbert Chang, Quantitative Social Science