Student Awards and Accomplishments

What began as a summer side project in 2020 grew into a yearslong collaborative study in the Lafontant laboratory. Now, Lafontant, professor of biology, is proud to have his name listed after not one, but four, Grinnell alums on a paper published in Zebrafish.

Mikey O'Conner and Maddy Thompson receive the Robert N. Noyce Senior Student Award, and Jemzy Alabi, Micah Cantor, Mia Hines, and Tanmaie Kailash named winners of the Henry M. And Theresa P. Walker Endowed Prize for Excellence in Computer Science.

Luke Bryson ’25 received an honorable mention for his short story, “The Last 2,500 Miles of Cataract Jack,” in the 2024 annual ACM Nick Adams Short Story Contest for his stories short story.

This year the distinguished recipient is Grinnell College Student Ekta Shaikh ’24, whose collaborative project promises to make a significant impact with the transgender community in Karachi, Pakistan.

Sira Nassoko ’24 has been awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for 2024–25 to explore music and soundscapes of the environment to reveal a lineage of hope and resilience across four countries.

After sweeping the Iowa College Media Association (ICMA) awards, the S&B co-editors in chief Eleanor Corbin ’24 and Nick El Hajj ’24 reflected on the newspaper’s accomplishments and the unseen work that drives its success.

Eric Autry, Anthony Schwindt ’25 and Tanmaie Kailash ’24 are analyzing traffic stop data and helping Iowa civil rights organizations shed light on trends in racially biased policing.

Grinnell College is named one of the top producers of 2023–24 U.S. students in the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges. 

Christian Cardenas recently wrote an op-ed about how residential zoning laws in Minneapolis contribute to inequality. His was published on the Minnesota Reformer website. The article was his final project for The Sociology of Law course last fall.

The Nov. 16 event offered a forum for students to present work from research, internships, and independent projects.