Twelve graduating seniors have been named as the 2014 Syracuse University Scholars, the highest undergraduate honor that the University bestows. Two of those seniors are biomedical engineering students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
University Scholars will represent the entire graduating class at the May 11 Commencement ceremony. On Thursday, April 24, the scholars will take part in a reception at the Chancellor’s residence hosted by Chancellor Kent Syverud and Dr. Ruth Chen, at which they will receive special medallions to be worn at Commencement.
The Syracuse University Scholars Committee, a University-wide faculty committee, selected the 2014 scholars using criteria that included coursework and academic achievement, creative work, a personal statement and a faculty letter of recommendation.
“This year’s University Scholars are an exceptional group of individuals whose curiosities and passions have taken them to all corners of the globe, and led them inside the smallest particle as seen by an electron microscope,” says Peter Beasecker, associate professor of ceramics in the Department of Art in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and chair of the selection committee.
Alysen Demzik
Demzik is graduating from the College of Engineering and Computer Science with a bachelor of science degree in biomedical engineering and minors in biology and painting. She is a Founders Scholar, College of Engineering and Computer Science Student Marshal, member of Tau Beta Pi and the Renée Crown Honors Program, and a recipient of the Renée Crown Honors Program’s Crown Wise Award. She has conducted bone cement and nerve regeneration research projects in the laboratory of Professor Julie Hasenwinkel of the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, and investigated the drug delivery of anti-HIV microbicide gels at the University of Kansas. She is captain of the Syracuse Women’s Club Volleyball team and a sister of Kappa Alpha Theta. Demzik will begin her medical studies this fall at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
David Wilson
Wilson will graduate from the College of Engineering and Computer Science with a major in biomedical engineering. He has done extensive drug delivery research in the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute under the guidance of Professor Rebecca Bader, including as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates student in the summer of 2012 and as a research assistant in the summer of 2013. Additionally, he has served as a research mentor as part of the NSF Research Experience and Mentoring Program and has tutored for three years at the Stevenson Academic Center. Outside of the classroom and lab he has competed on the SU Division I cross country, indoor track and outdoor track teams. Wilson is an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship winner and will be pursuing a Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University this fall.