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 has logged hundreds of hours serving communities through health clinics and is committed to promoting a broader global and sociopolitical consciousness in medicine. At Dartmouth, she is involved in the Nathan Smith Society's physician shadowing and mentorship programs, nonprofit consulting, the Dartmouth Global Health Coalition, and social impact initiatives in the Upper Valley. Over winterim, she interned at a healthcare nonprofit in Rhode Island, funded through the Center for Social Impact. Her favorite class this term is Public Policy 005, which has deepened her understanding of healthcare policy and its societal impact. Beyond academics, she plays ice hockey and is involved with House Leadership. After Dartmouth, she hopes to pursue a career in medicine, academic research, and/or healthcare policy. 

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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 high school, including on quantum loop gravity. Since starting at Dartmouth, he has worked with the Formula One team and joined Club Soccer. Mark hopes to study abroad in Germany on the Engineering FSP and aims to become an Aerospace Engineer or pursue graduate school 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.

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Summer Williams '28 (she/her) is an advocate for children with autoimmune encephalitis and loves the outdoors. She has wide-ranging academic interests in cognitive science, economics, literature, and philosophy, and is eager to get involved with the PANS/PANDAS clinic at Geisel. At Dartmouth, Summer has joined the club ice hockey team, is a team lead for the Social Impact Nonprofit Consulting Group, is a member of the Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program, and conducts neuroscience research at the Smith Lab. 

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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, he is now turning his research attention to evaluating US Federal District Court diversion programs as alternatives to incarceration. This summer, he will work with the Judges and stakeholders in the Northern District of Illinois to complete a policy evaluation of the Sentencing Options that Achieve Results (SOAR) program.  JJ originally hails from Boise, Idaho, where he graduated with honors from Boise Senior High School. 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. After graduation, JJ hopes to pursue a JD/MPP degree and eventually run for office. 

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

Gideon Gruel

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. 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

A student from Turkey, Idil Sahin '26 (she/they) is a double major in cognitive science and math with a passion for researching artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs). She has previously conducted research in the Brain Imaging Center and with the DALI Lab. Her Hanlon Scholars research aims to explore how we can effectively teach LLMs to encourage abstraction and the inference of intentionality, beyond user preferences, similar to how human brains develop theory of mind. 

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 (she/her) is the winner of the 2024 North American Taiwan Studies Association Undergraduate Research Paper Competition. A computer science major and quantitative social science minor, Tracy undertook a comparative analysis of the 2024 presidential elections in the U.S. and Taiwan and worked to understand how young voters in both countries diverged from other age groups.

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

Faculty Mentor: Bruce Sacerdote, ECON

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

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

Faculty Mentors: Bethany Moreton and Annelise Orleck, HIST

Faculty Mentor: Jonathan Phillips, COGS

Faculty Mentor: Xin Qi, CHEM