Meet Northeastern’s Rhodes, Marshall, and Mitchell Scholarship Candidates
The Rhodes, Marshall, and Mitchell Scholarships are among the most prestigious postgraduate awards in the world. Endowed in the will of Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Scholarship funds two years of postgraduate study at the University of Oxford. The Marshall Scholarship commemorates the special Anglo-American relationship exemplified by the Marshall Plan and funds one or two years of postgraduate study in the United Kingdom. The Mitchell Scholarship honors US Senator George Mitchell’s role in the Northern Ireland peace process and funds one year of postgraduate study in Ireland.
This year Northeastern University had the pleasure of nominating a slate of exemplary applicants for these scholarships. These students and alumni embody the best aspects of a Northeastern education: academic excellence, consequential research, dedicated service to others, and an aspiration to apply their prodigious talents and skills to improving our world. Read on to meet these exceptional young people.
Nicholas DePorzio COS ’17
Nominee for the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships
A mathematics and physics major from Queen Creek, AZ, University Scholar and Honors student Nicholas DePorzio came to Northeastern determined to begin a world-class research career in particle physics. In the years that have followed, he has doggedly pursued this ambition, beginning his research career at the Northeastern University Center for Graphene Research. Following this, DePorzio completed two research-based co-ops. First as a team member on the CUORE experiment at Italy’s Gran Sasso National Laboratory, a coop he established with the assistance of Professor Emanuela Barberis, and later through work on the Compact Muon Solenoid project at CERN. In both, DePorzio contributed to groundbreaking research in two of the most prominent hubs of physics experimentation in the world.
Not simply a talented researcher, DePorzio is a leader amongst student physicists not just at Northeastern but nationally and has been elected to two terms on the national board of the Society of Physics Students, where he represents the entire New England region. In this capacity, he has become the public face of the future of physics, even advocating before members of Congress. Back on campus, DePorzio’s startup, Krystalboard, won the Husky Startup Challenge. DePorzio has also designed, launched, and run multiple physics education initiatives for young people, including “Einstein in the Classroom,” intended to make relativity accessible to children, and “WaterWorks,” which engaged high school students in physics through building sailboats and water pumps at the Charles River. For these efforts, DePorzio has been recognized with multiple national awards, including the Marsh White award to Northeastern’s chapter of the Society of Physics Students, and the Blake Lilly Prize, awarded to DePorzio individually.
Mary Elliott COS/CSSH ’17
Nominee for the Rhodes, Marshall, and Mitchell Scholarships
Growing up in West Virginia revealed to Mary Elliott the profound connection between language, place, and culture, as well as the discrimination experienced by speakers of nonstandard dialects. The underlying theme of Elliott’s scholarly and extracurricular pursuits, evident in her double majors of linguistics and cultural anthropology, has consequently been a curious but respectful desire to connect with others and understand how they live. This desire led Elliott to a co-op in the lab of Professor Shanley Allen at the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. Subsequently, Elliott was invited to continue her research at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands. This is a high honor for any researcher, even more so for an undergraduate. At the Language and Cognition group at the Max Planck Institute, Elliott works under two giants in the field: Stephen Levinson and Penelope Brown, whose foundational and widely-cited work has profoundly shaped their discipline.
The potential social and scholarly impact of Elliott’s own work is evident in the honors thesis she is now completing, which confronts the long history of negative stereotyping of speakers of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). Elliott is now exploring the link between teachers’ attitudes toward AAVE and student achievement. Her analysis, particularly of the possible negative repercussions for student achievement, is likely to result in an important contribution not only to her field but to anyone interested in educational reform and social equity.
Keith Harrigian COS ’17
Nominee for the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships
Los Angeleno and Honors student Keith Harrigian began his Northeastern University career as a physics major before subsequently focusing on mathematics with minors in both physics and music. At the start of his sophomore year, he began working in Professor Dagmar Sternad’s Action Lab, where he contributed to two major studies, devoting over 50 hours to data collection and spearheading the analysis of that data. Through this work, Harrigian discovered his interest in developing sophisticated statistical tools to undergird computational models for understanding and analyzing big, fuzzy data. Harrigian has simultaneously developed an equally broad and sophisticated vision of the role he can play in addressing some of our largest societal challenges through his research, seeking to deliver novel–but reliably verifiable and trustworthy–insights from rigorous mathematical analysis.
Harrigian further developed his skills through a co-op at Legendary Pictures, where he devised a statistically-informed computational tool that inferred the gender of Reddit users with nearly 80% accuracy. The poster and presentation of his results earned him the Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor Award in Computer Science at Northeastern’s annual Research, Innovation, and Scholarship Expo (RISE). This was a remarkable accomplishment, especially for someone who is neither a Computer Science major nor had ever taken a computer science course.
Outside the lab, Harrigian has been a devoted and generous leader in the Northeastern community. During his first year, in which he was named Senator of the Semester, Harrigian contributed over 100 hours of his time to Northeastern’s Student Government Association. Harrigian has also served as a Resident Assistant and a Peer Advising Coach (PAC) for the physics department.
Farhana Hussain CSSH ’17
Nominee for the Marshall Scholarship
Farhana Hussain, a first-generation immigrant, hails from Washington, DC, where she grew up in the shadow of our national power centers. Attending under-resourced public schools, she felt a world apart from the arena of public service and public policy, the doors of which seemed barred to her. Uninspired, “I wasn’t sure if I could make it to college,” she reflects. Prompted by those who saw her potential, Hussain awoke to the possibility of a brighter future through service. Approached by the Student Conservation Association, she began restoring national parks within D.C. and was later invited to restore trails in California’s backcountry for a month, an experience she credits with changing her life’s trajectory. Enjoying a moment of clarity, Hussain further dedicated herself to the common good, committing over 700 hours to public service during high school and challenging herself with internships in some of her city’s storied institutions, researching the housing crisis and the national debt ceiling for Fannie Mae.
Having displayed such grit and promise, Hussain came to Northeastern through the Ujima Global Leaders program, which selects students on the basis of their academic achievement and potential to become culturally agile agents for positive change. Hussain has exceed in all ways the high expectations set for her as a member of this esteemed cohort. An international affairs major, Hussain has gone beyond the conventional curriculum, taking graduate-level and ROTC classes to enhance her understanding of complex global issues. She completed a thesis examining the integration of Iraqi militias into a unified National Guard. In addition, she has learned Arabic, Spanish, and Italian and studied in Jordan, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through co-op, Hussain has worked for the Atlantic Council and the US Agency for International Development in Washington and the NATO Defense College in Rome, routinely briefing high-level officials. Hussain aspires to bring her intellectual acuity, public-spiritedness, and moral clarity to a career in the US intelligence sector.
Katra Laidlaw COS ’17
Nominee for the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships
Katra Laidlaw’s interests and skills span the disciplines of environmental studies (her major), sustainable business (a minor), and theater (her other minor), allowing her to marshal scientific, strategic, and communicative acumen in the quest to mitigate environmental damage through wildlife habitat restoration and “rewilding.” Laidlaw’s motivation to work toward a solution to the world’s current unprecedented environmental issues stems from an understanding of herself as an ecological mediator facilitating the co-habitation of people and non-human animals.
This role is epitomized by an impressive research project that Laidlaw, an Honors student, designed and executed in Costa Rica under the auspices of Northeastern’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor Award. The project involved the upkeep and evaluation of aerial rope bridges for animals—whose habitats had been fragmented by human development—to use in crossing dangerous roads in Costa Rica. In collaboration with a local nonprofit and the utility company, Laidlaw quantified the extent to which these bridges were indeed used by animals, preventing them from being struck by vehicles or electrocuted by wires. Laidlaw’s yearslong work at the Franklin Park Zoo, as both an animal caretaker and a camp counselor, also exemplifies her mission to facilitate relations between different creatures through research and educational outreach.
In high school, Laidlaw discovered her love for theater through summer programs; at Northeastern, she has further cultivated this passion, working with the musical theater group on campus, while also choreographing for the Boston Children’s Theatre. She is currently writing an environmental-themed play with one of our theater faculty members, while also completing her thesis in environmental studies.
James McKeon CSSH ’14
Nominee for the Marshall and Mitchell Scholarships
James McKeon is a summa cum laude graduate of Northeastern University, where he studied political science with majors in international affairs and urban studies. In the years since his graduation, he has already established himself as a first-rate policy analyst and communications specialist in Washington, DC, with a particular interest and expertise in nuclear security and disarmament.
McKeon came to Northeastern from Erie, PA. Motivated to move beyond the small circle of opportunity available to him in this heart of the rust belt, McKeon carved an academic, research, and experiential path for himself that spanned continents and branches of government. He traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to study at the United Nations, and he spent a term as a Hansard Scholar in London, studying at the London School of Economics and Political Science and interning for the six members of the Scottish National Party in Parliament—who were so impressed with McKeon’s work that they kept him on full-time after his Hansard experience concluded. McKeon also worked in the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence, where he processed gifts given to the president by foreign heads of state. Back on campus, McKeon undertook an ambitious and sophisticated capstone research project on gerrymandering and nonpartisan redistricting.
After graduating from Northeastern, McKeon won the Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship, which placed him as a staffer at the Stimson Center, a think tank focused on threats to security and prosperity. Building on research he conducted as a Hansard Scholar, McKeon turned his attention to the implications of Scottish independence for the UK’s nuclear arsenal. He has published on this and other topics. McKeon is currently a Policy Analyst and Communications Manager at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington.
Alexander Piers COE/COS ’17
Nominee for the Marshall and Mitchell Scholarships
Alexander Piers’s double major in physics and electrical engineering is emblematic of his two central drives: as a physicist, he enjoys intellectual problems that exercise his mind; but as an engineer, he continually seeks to apply his knowledge for the betterment of the world. From almost the moment he stepped on campus, Piers has immersed himself in the research enterprise of the university, always tackling sophisticated problems with real-world effects. He has contributed to several projects underway at Northeastern’s ALERT lab, most notably on the problem of subsurface detection of landmines. During research-intensive co-ops, he devised patches to track health metrics for Parkinson’s disease, and he developed a simulation tool for satellite telecommunications. Most recently, he undertook an independent project on grasp-level robotic control that contributed to a larger effort to create a brain-controlled prosthetic hand for amputees.
Alongside the prizes he has captured as the top student in both the physics department and the college of engineering, Piers has earned the College of Engineering’s Silevitch Award, for the student engineer who displays exemplary leadership above and beyond expectation. This is emblematized by Piers’s involvement in the Northeastern University chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a group that harnesses the skills of student and professional engineers to undertake development projects around the world. In only his second year at Northeastern, Piers took on the role of Program Director as the EWB chapter embarked on its most ambitious and difficult project to date, a gravity-fed water system in Uganda.
Piers, a University Scholar and member of the Honors Program, proposes to pursue graduate work on quantum computing and the control of ultra-cold atoms, another intellectual puzzle with potentially vast practical implications.
Kristian Teichert COS ’17
Nominee for the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships
Biochemistry major and Methuen, MA, native Kristian Teichert aspires to advance the treatment of cancer at both the cellular and the health-systems levels. In so doing, he builds on biomolecular and genetic advances that have led researchers to look beyond antiquated categorizations of cancer based on anatomic origin.
Teichert, a member of Northeastern’s Honors Program, launched his research career in the lab of Professor John Engen. Taking full advantage of Northeastern’s experiential education model as well as its location in one of the world’s leading biotechnology hubs, Teichert then continued his research at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Visterra, a biopharmaceutical company. While working on a joint Northeastern-Dana Farber project, Teichert encountered the scientific conundrum that exemplifies both the type of challenge that intrigues him and the creative thinking he brings to bear: the oncogenic protein NSD2. Teichert realized that research on NSD2 had hit a wall not because the experimental approaches per se were flawed, but rather because the models used to conceptualize NSD2’s structure were likely inaccurate. Based on Teichert’s structural analysis, researchers’ efforts were refocused and became more productive.
Outside the laboratory and the classroom, Teichert led the Northeastern Biochemistry Club and founded two educational outreach programs: the Northeastern Program for Teaching by Undergraduates—NEPTUN—and the Post-High School Educational Outreach Network—PHEONX. NEPTUN brings high school students onto Northeastern’s campus to learn about science topics from current undergraduates in a fun, exciting atmosphere. Teichert founded his newer venture, PHEONX, after learning that 80% of college students nationwide change majors at least once, often lengthening time to degree and incurring higher costs for extra coursework. Undergraduate participants in PHEONX introduce high schoolers to collegiate disciplines, leaving them better informed as they declare majors at the outset of college.