Gemstone Awards
The Gemstone awards program was started more than ten years ago to reward students, mentors, teams, and librarians that have worked extremely hard throughout this four year process. Award winners are announced at the Gemstone Citation Ceremony and Awards Celebration, held in May of each year. Parents, families, friends, and alumni are all invited to attend, as the event is open to the public!
First-years
Gemstone Rookie of the Year
This award recognizes an outstanding first year Gemstone student who has demonstrated enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research and commitment to involvement in the Gemstone Program.
2013 Emily Ruppel
2014 Pradip Ramamurti
2015 Elliot Frank
2016 Saul Schaffer
2017 Eli Fastow
2018 David Polefrone and Mansu Shrestha
2019 Logan Swaisgod
2020 Ethan Green
2021 Joshua DiGiorgio
2022 Rajit Mukhopadhyay
2023 Rohan Dewan
2024 Bhargav Srinivasan
2025 Helen Coale
Sophomores & Juniors
Most Valuable Team Member Award
This award recognizes a student who has demonstrated excellent organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills and has played a key role in clearly motivating his or her team over the past year.
| Year | Sophomore | Junior |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Devon Freudenberger | Eric Kazyak and Natalie Anzures |
| 2014 | Parinaz Fathi | Timothy McLaughlin |
| 2015 | Adam Berger | Isha Agarwal |
| 2016 | Prateeti Sarkar | Chris Rother |
| 2017 | Thea Ornstein | Cassidy Laidlaw |
| 2018 | Linnea Warburton | Greg Krasnoff |
| 2019 | Stephanie Moy | Abdulfatal Fakoya |
| 2020 | Gillian Lee | Aranya Banerjee |
| 2021 | Joanna Ihm | Mikhail "Misha" Khnrenov |
| 2022 | Natalie Field | Daniel Zhu |
| 2023 | Owen Mank | Mukti Trivedi |
| 2024 | Liam Allen | Nada Fadul |
| 2025 | Paola Rojas | Neha Narayan |
Sophomore/Junior Mentor of the Year
This award recognizes an outstanding Gemstone faculty mentor who has provided dedicated service to a Gemstone team.
2013 Dr. Lance Yonkos and Dr. Matthew Roesch
2014 Dr. Tom Miller and Adam Behrens
2015 Dr. Susan Dwyer and Dr. Zhengguo Xiao
2016 Dr. Debu Biswas and Jon Hoffman
2017 Dr. Ryan Sochol and Dr. Mark Fuge
2018 Dr. Lex Schultheis
2019 Dr. Margret Bjarnadottir and Dr. Sean Barnes and John Daristotle
2020 Stephanie Yarwood
2021 Dr. Mary Beth Furst and Dr. Romel Gomez
2022 Dr. Aparicio/Dr. Zeeger and Dr. Zhang
2023 Dr. Sylvette LaTouch-Howard and Dr. Elizabeth Aparicio
2024 Dr. Andrew Schiffmacher and Dr. Daniel Stein
2025 Héctor Alcalá and Dr. Youssef Kousa
Outstanding Do Good Showcase Presentation
This award recognizes Gemstone teams who gave outstanding presentations at the annual Do Good Showcase.
2019 ASTRO, CONTACT, TUMOR
2020 Auto Cycle, LEMMA, PRODUCE
2021 BCIPRO, EVICT, PISO
2022 HiveMind, MARINE, SOLAR
2023 BELI, FUNGI, Supa'Hot
2024 COAST, COLOR, TOXINS
Seniors
James M. Wallace Outstanding Gemstone Team Thesis Award
This award recognizes the team with the best submitted thesis based upon feedback from discussants, mentors, and the Gemstone staff. No nomination is required to be considered for this award.
James Wallace is an Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Burgers Program for Fluid Dynamics of the Institute of Physical Science and Technology at the University of Maryland at College Park. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in 1962 and 1964 at the Georgia Institute of Technology and his D. Phil. in Engineering Science at Oxford University in 1969. He was a research scientist at the Max-Planck-Institut für Strömungsforschung in Göttingen, Germany from 1969 until he joined the faculty of the University of Maryland in 1975. In addition to his research and teaching, Wallace has held several academic administrative positions at the University of Maryland. From 1985 - 87 he was the Assistant Provost of the Division of Mathematics, Physical Science and Engineering. From 1993 - 1998 he served as Associate Chairman for Graduate Studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He also directed two Science, Technology and Society programs at Maryland and directed the Gemstone Honors Program for undergraduate team research for eleven years from 2001 - 2012.
Wallace does experimental research on turbulent shear flows, in particular with the development of techniques for measuring and analyzing velocity gradient fields. He has investigated scalar dispersion in shear flows with environmental and mixing applications, as well as turbulence in high temperature flows. He currently is engaged in the renewed effort to understand the structure and dynamics of turbulent boundary layers using massive, high fidelity numerical simulations.
He became an American Physical Society Fellow in 1989, was chair of its Division of Fluid Dynamics in 2003 and was Division Councilor from 2010 - 2014. Other recognitions of his research and teaching include: Distinguished Service Award in the Engineering Sciences of the Washington Academy of Sciences (1984), Distinguished Scholar-Teacher of the University of Maryland, College Park (1987), Achievement Award for Contribution to Science of the Sigma Xi Chapter of the University of Maryland (1992), induction in the Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni of the Georgia Institute of Technology (1995), the University System of Maryland Regents Teaching Award (2004), The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education award as U.S. Professor of the Year for Maryland (2005), and the Kirwan Undergraduate Education Award of the University of Maryland (2006).
2002 Fish Sustainability and Innovative Tracking Systems
2003 Ecodynamics and Universal Playgrounds
2004 GEMS: Generating Eager Minded Students
2005 SWAMP
2006 Phosphorus Agriculture Runoff Management
2007 TRACK
2008 CRABS
2009 Renewables at UMD
2010 CHIP
2011 BREATHE
2012 FACE
2013 Solar Campus
2014 Electrode
2015 CLOT
2016 Haptic
2017 INJECT
2018 ARM IT
2019 DIVA
2020 VISOR
2021 ASTRO
2022 MUTATE
2023 EVICT
2024 FUSE
2025 ASQ
Outstanding Gemstone Team Presentation Award
As a requirement of the Gemstone Program, teams are expected to write and defend a thesis. Teams are given 25 minutes at the Thesis Conference to communicate three years worth of research to an audience of experts, families, and friends. The honor of the Outstanding Presentation is awarded based on a team's clarity, creativity and overall presentation style. No nomination is required to be considered for this award.
2002 Non-Lethal Weapons
2003 Global Ed-Venture
2004 Innovations
2005 SmartRoads
2006 PlayInc
2007 Team URBAN
2008 Binge Drinking
2009 iGem
2010 IMAC
2011 Cogeneration Technology
2012 FLIP
2013 KERMIT
2014 ADDICT
2015 Bass
2016 Brain Blast
2018 GOLD
2019 SPACE
2020 LYTIC
2021 FORMULA
2022 MIND
2023 BCIPRO
2024 TRANSPORT
2025 HEM(O-)
Team of the Year Award
A new addition to the annual recognition of exceptional students, teams, mentors and librarians, this award recognizes a team that truly exemplifies the values of the program.
2014 MEGA
2015 VIRTUAL
2016 SAVIOR
2017 PIEZO
2018 VIRUS
2019 Oysters
2020 ART
2021 IPOV
2022 Autocycle
2023 DeBIAS
2024 MARINE
2025 EXO
Outstanding Gemstone Scholar Award
This honor will be awarded to a student who has been intellectually engaged and highly involved on their Gemstone team. This award goes beyond the normal leadership behavior of organizing the group, motivating members and running meetings. Nominees for this award should be students that have taken the intellectual leadership role and have served as a driving force behind the topic and content of the research. We strive to give the award to a student who demonstrated passion for the team’s topic and was truly engaged in the subject matter.
| Past winners | Past winners |
|---|---|
| 2002 Elizabeth Flynn and Philip Jones | 2003 Robert Schroll |
| 2004 Christian Klein | 2005 Gregory Crosswhite and Ashley Naimaster |
| 2006 Alan O’Connor | 2007 Emma Simson and Travis Young |
| 2008 Neil Agarwal and Robert Vocke III | 2009 David Chen and Gregory Hitz |
| 2010 Stephanie Galanie and Ben Tousley | 2011 Junjie Hao and Angela Lee |
| 2012 Matthew Conway | 2013 Alex Mamunes |
| 2014 Sudi Jawahery | 2015 Katerina Christodoulides |
| 2016 Andrea Bajcsy | 2017 Megan Dang and Elfadil Osman |
| 2018 Prableen Chowdhary and Sarah Frail | 2019 Morgan Janes |
| 2020 Shifali Mathews | 2021 Sam Klueter |
| 2022 Anjali Dhamsania | 2023 Daniel Zhu |
| 2024 Mukti Trivedi | 2025 Nada Fadul |
Gemstone Citizen and Leader of the Year
This Program could not function without the involvement of so many students. This award goes to a graduating student who has demonstrated enthusiasm, constant involvement and leadership within the Gemstone Program. Those considered for this award are nominate by their peers and have been very involved in the Gemstone Program outside of his or her team by holding positions of leadership, planning events, or serving as a positive role model for the Program.
2002 Jeremy Rachlin
2003 Sara McKelvey and Soroush Rais-Bahrami
2004 Emily Beckstrom and Andy Smith
2005 Thomas Haun
2006 Ryan Hoffmaster and Justin Waltrous
2007 Nikhil Joshi and Greg Teitelbaum
2008 Anita Kohli and Teddy Tien
2009 Pratik Davè and Lindsey Mooney
2010 Hannah Tolley
2011 Akhila Iruku and Katherine Mann
2012 Jillian Chavis and Joshua Lacey
2013 Jaishri Shankar
2014 Taylor Hearn and Jessica Lee
2015 Ed Lin
2016 Zeke Gonzalez and Ilana Green
2017 Marquise Singleterry
2018 Allison Chen
2019 Cristina Hnatov
2020 Emma Margolis
2021 Ria Sebastian
2022 Jayme Savoy
2023 Aarushi Malhotra
2024 Josh Digiorgio
2025 Annette Eldo
Gemstone Team Leader Award
This award recognizes a student who has demonstrated excellent organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills and has played a key role in clearly motivating his or her team over the past three years.
2004 Jamille Bigio and Phil de Souza
2005 Philip Brazio and Lauren Schlanger
2006 Sumair Akhtar and Margaret Distler
2007 Kristin Freese and Patrick Hughes
2008 Christina Walsh
2009 Elizabeth Dillon and Lee Stearns
2010 Nick Asendorf and Kelsey Merrick
2011 Jasjeet Khural and Adam Pampori
2012 Timothy L. Crisci and Tina Zhang
2013 Sebastian Serrano
2014 Yoon Shin
2015 Devon Freudenberger
2016 Natalie Griffin
2017 Meredith Pecukonis
2018 Anna Harrison
2019 Cara Schiksnis
2020 Linnea Warburton
2021 Aranya Banerjee
2022 Zofia Cieslak
2023 Catherina Samson
2024 Roman Kassaraba
2025 Maggie Grant
Dr. Vickie Hill Service Award
This award recognizes senior(s) with long record of service to Gemstone program.
2023 Rithik Sebastian and Katherine Brown
2024 Maya Pulliam
2025 Esohe Owie and Rajit Mukhopadhyay
Outstanding Gemstone Mentor Award
This award recognizes an outstanding Gemstone faculty mentor who has provided dedicated service to and demonstrated exemplary support and guidance of his or her team. This honor is based on nominations from the students.
2002 Dr. Greg Baecher
2003 Dr. Colleen Farmer
2004 Dr. Ray Adomaitis and Dr. Linda Schmidt
2005 Dr. Gilmer Blankenship
2006 Dr. Frank J. Coale, Dr. Francey Kohl, and Dr. Jim Purtilo
2007 Ms. Karen Thornton and Dr. James Milke
2008 Dr. David Tilley
2009 Dr. Lowell Adams and Dr. Rama Chellappa
2010 L. Curry Woods
2011 Dr. Kevin Sellner and Dr. Charlie Carr
2012 Sameer Shah
2013 Dr. Stephanie Grutzmacher
2014 Dr. Peter Mallios
2015 Dr. Andrew Ristvey
2016 Dr. Marcio Oliveira
2017 Dr. Matthew Roesch
2018 Bryan Quinn
2019 Dr. Jin-Oh Hahn
2020 Joanna Goger
2021 Dr. Natasha Andrade
2022 Dr. Romel Gomez
2023 Dr. Steve Sin
2024 Dr. Lance Yonkos
2025 Dr. Brantley Hall
Gemstone Librarian of the Year
This award recognizes an outstanding librarian for his or her dedication to the Gemstone Program and team research. It is awarded to the librarian who has demonstrated exemplary support and guidance of his or her senior team. This honor is based on nominations from the students.
2014 Nevenka Zdravodska, Alex Carroll
2015 Robin Dasler, Jeremy Garritano, Eileen Harrington
2016 Celina McDonald, Kelsey Corlett-Rivera, Elizabeth Soergel
2017 Eric Cartier, Nedelina Tchangalova
2018 Kelsey Corlett-Rivera
2019 Dr. Sarah Over
2020 Nevenka Zdravkovska
2021 Jodi Coalter
2022 Jodi Coalter
2023 Kate Dohe
2024 Nevenka Zdravkovska
2025 Isabella Baxter
Non-cohort Specific
Gems Camp Leader of the Year
This award recognizes an outstanding Gems Camp Leader who has demonstrated enthusiasm for the program and eagerness to orient and interact with first-year students at camp.
2015 Eileen Ser
2016 Becky Vanarsdall
2017 Caroline Simon
2018 Emma Margolis
2019 Divya Kapoor
2020 Michael Piqué
2022 John Yang
2023 Donald Spriggs
2024 Neel Jay
2025 Madi Jones
Outstanding CONNECT Mentor
This award recognizes an outstanding CONNECT mentor who has demonstrated enthusiasm for the program and eagerness to orient and interact with first-year students and other mentors.
2015 Tracy Sebastian
2016 Erin Verni
2017 Kayla Sukri
2018 Humza Yahya
2019 Haley Mullen
2020 Imran Khawaja
2021 Imran Khawaja
2022 Sruthi Srinivasan
2023 Esohe Owie
2024 Talya Simcox
2025 Darsana Alagarsamy
Outstanding Teaching Assistant
This award recognizes an outstanding section leader (GEMS100, GEMS102, GEMS104, or GEMS202) who has demonstrated enthusiasm for the program and has gone above and beyond with their teaching responsibilities.
2015 Kara Higgins
2016 Annelise Buck and Elizabeth Corley
2017 Alex Boukhvalova and Lara Fu
2018 Shireen Khayat
2019 Soma Umeozulu
2020 Haley Mullen
2021 Aarushi Malhotra
2022 McCauley Brown
2023 Noam Fox
2024 Noam Fox
2025 Eesha Reddy
Robert McDermott Fearless Award
This award was created in 2018 in remembrance of Robert McDermott. Each year this award is given to the Gemstone student that best exemplifies the qualities that made Robert such a valued member of our community. Nominees must exhibit general optimism, resilience, and dedication in the face of adversity with a sense of self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses that allows them to provide creative solutions to adapt their own skills and abilities for the purposes of their project. Above all, nominees should be those that bring a “can-do” attitude to any challenge they face and prioritize their Gemstone project throughout their time in the program.
Robert McDermott was a member of Team BREATHE in the Gemstone class of 2018. A valued team-member, his time with Gemstone coincided with a three-year battle with brain cancer. From diagnosis, Robert chose to remain in school, striving to continue his contribution and collaboration to his Gemstone team regardless of the medical hardships he faced. Robert passed away in January of 2018, months before the completion of his Gemstone project. Although his battle with cancer was very difficult, those that knew him remember him not for the illness but for his unique personality of devotion, positivity, and humor.
2018 Robert McDermott
2019 Daniel Lay
2020 Ria Sebastian
2021 Class of 2021
2022 Aarushi Malhotra
2023 Ella Evensen
2024 Tami Mumuney
2025 Donald Spriggs