2023 Award Winners

The Dean’s Award for Distinguished Achievement recognizes accomplished recipients for their profound impact not only on academia, but on the world at large. This award has been presented annually since 1997, and in each year since 1998, it has been presented to one doctoral graduate and one doctoral graduate.

Colin H. Kahl (’00PhD, Political Science)

Colin H. Kahl became the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy for the U.S. Department of Defense in 2021, where he is a key advisor on national security and defense issues. Dr. Kahl was most recently the co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation, the inaugural Steven C. Házy Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and a Professor, by courtesy, in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. Dr. Kahl served as Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President from October 2014 to January 2017, where he advised President Obama and Vice President Biden on matters related to U.S. foreign policy and national security affairs, and represented the Office of the Vice President as a standing member of the National Security Council Deputies’ Committee. Dr. Kahl formerly served in the Department as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East. In 2011, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service by Secretary Robert Gates. Dr. Kahl was previously an assistant and associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. He served as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he worked on issues related to counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and responses to failed states. Dr. Kahl received his BA in political science from the University of Michigan (1993) and his PhD in political science from Columbia University (2000).

The Dean’s Award for Distinguished Achievement recognizes accomplished recipients for their profound impact not only on academia, but on the world at large. This award has been presented annually since 1997, and in each year since 1998, it has been presented to one doctoral graduate and one Master’s graduate.

Lauren Faber O’Connor (’05MA, Climate and Society)

Lauren Faber O’Connor spent the last eight years as the Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Los Angeles where she brought stakeholders together to devise LA’s Green New Deal, a UN-recognized global model for local action to address climate crisis and build an inclusive and equitable green economy. She teaches Tools, Methods, and Methodologies in Urban Sustainability at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. While her Columbia University network helped launch her early professional life at the British Embassy in Washington, DC,  Lauren has spent her career working on environmental issues from serving as West Coast Political Director for the Environmental Defense Fund to being appointed Assistant Secretary for Climate Change at the California EPA. Lauren serves on the Boards of California Environmental Voters, WRI Ross Center for Cities, National Renewable Energy Laboratory Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems, and USC Center for Sustainability Solutions. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Earth Systems and Economics from Stanford University, and a Master’s degree in Climate and Society from Columbia University.

John Francis Clauser (’70PhD, Physics)

John Francis Clauser (’70 PhD, Physics) is an American experimental and theoretical physicist. He shared the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for his experimental work testing predictions of quantum mechanics. Quantum Mechanics, formulated in the early part of the 20th century to explain the properties of light and atoms, precisely predicts the behavior of physical systems and has never been seen to be violated. However, it gives precise predictions for probabilities, very different from predictions for the motion of objects, such as a baseball, that come from Newton’s laws of Physics. Quantum mechanics also predicts that measurements of the spin of one of two widely separated photons, both created appropriately, immediately determines the spin of the other. This property, called entanglement, while implicit in quantum mechanics, had not been seen directly in an experiment. Starting with the Freedman-Clauser experiment in 1972, which built on Clauser’s earlier theoretical work regarding the predictions of quantum mechanics, he performed a series of experiments whose results agreed with quantum mechanics and which could not be explained be modified Newtonian-like theories. Entanglement is a foundational idea in the modern push to develop quantum computers. He performed many other important experiments on light and matter, including some with applications to medical imaging. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he was also awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics in 2010. 

The Dr. Devon T. Wade Mentorship, Service, and Advocacy Award is presented annually to a Master’s or doctoral student in any Arts and Sciences discipline who most exemplifies a commitment to community-building and mentoring as demonstrated by the late Dr. Devon T. Wade. Recipients receive a $1,500 prize in recognition of their achievements.

About Dr. Wade
The award was established in 2018 in honor of the life and work of Dr. Devon T. Wade. Wade enrolled in the PhD program in sociology at Columbia University in 2011 and came to be recognized as being among the University’s most gifted doctoral students. Wade’s dissertation research focused on stigma, trauma, and discipline in the school setting. He received multiple awards for his promising scholarship, including the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. 

Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts of Sciences awarded the doctoral degree to Devon Wade posthumously, in recognition of his scholarly achievements and of the impact he made on others through his research, mentorship, service, and advocacy. Dr. Wade was passionate about teaching and creating inclusive learning environments, and advocating for those who experience marginalization in society. In his work he was particularly focused on the collateral consequences of incarceration on individuals and communities.  Dr. Wade was also deeply devoted to building networks of support and mentorship for students from groups that historically have been underrepresented in the academy. He was a founding member of the Columbia University Graduate Students of Color Alliance (SoCA). 

Tyler Campbell (’23MA, African-American Studies)

Tyler Campbell is an educator, writer, and community organizer hailing from the city of Philadelphia. He is a second-year MA student in the African American and African Diaspora Studies department. Tyler has worked at Columbia’s Center for Justice since he was a first-year student in Columbia College, where he now leads a Radical Black Consciousness Seminar inside Rikers Island. The seminar bridges Black Studies and Critical Race Theory, engaging gang-involved youth in a way that develops their understanding about these subjects and theories in relation to their own lives. Also at the Center For Justice, Tyler is the lead instructor for the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council. He leads a seminar that seeks to bring together justice-involved youth and city officials to create new policy ideas that will better support NYC's most vulnerable communities. Seminar participants work in small groups to create a project, policy proposal, or community initiative that they commit to helping implement with a community partner. One such initiative that came out of this seminar and has been implemented in Brooklyn is a pilot program funded by the Mayor’s office known as Project Restore Bed Stuy (PRB)— where Tyler also works.

Della Maggio (’23MA, Human Rights Studies)

Della Maggio is a recent graduate of the MA program in Human Rights Studies, where her work focused on the intersection of migration, queerness, and access to health. Her thesis examined the experiences of gender-variant migrants throughout the US immigration system–including at the border, in asylum interviews, and in front of immigration judges. She analyzed the illegibility of gender variance in the US government and its state-based institutions, as well as the effects that such illegibility has on gender-variant migrants’ self-perceptions and sentiments of refuge. Beyond Columbia, Della participates with non-profit organizations Unlock the Box and Don’t Call the Police, grassroots efforts to end solitary confinement and to promote alternatives to calling the police, respectively. As an immigration justice fellow at Project Rousseau, Della worked to secure legal representation and educational opportunities for undocumented teens. She is a self-identified abolitionist seeking creative tools to discuss, understand, and actualize racial justice, with a demonstrated history of community engagement and leadership.

The Faculty Mentoring Award recognizes senior faculty who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to faculty mentoring through their work with tenure-track and mid-career faculty in developing their careers. Exceptional mentoring can include offering advice, feedback and guidance on research activities, coaching on work-life balance issues, providing professional opportunities for mentees, and/or assisting in development of teaching skills. The Faculty Mentoring Award honors the outstanding mentoring legacy of Columbia Business School Professor Katherine W. Phillips.

Achille Varzi (John Dewey Professor of Philosophy)

Achille Varzi is a graduate of the University of Trento (Italy), and received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto (Canada). His main research interests are in logic and metaphysics. He is an editor of The Journal of Philosophy, a subject editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and an associate or advisory editor of The Monist, Synthese, Dialectica, The Review of Symbolic Logic, and other journals. Achille Varzi also writes for the general public and contributes regularly to several Italian newspapers. He has been teaching for the Prison Education Program sponsored by Columbia University’s Justice-in-Education Initiative. Achille Varzi was awarded the Mark Van Doren Teaching Award for the 2022-2023 academic year for his work as a John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University.

Naor Ben-Yehoyada (Assistant Professor of Anthropology)

Naor H. Ben-Yehoyada (Assistant Professor of Anthropology) examines unauthorized migration, criminal justice, the aftermath of development, and transnational political imaginaries in the central and eastern Mediterranean. His monograph, The Mediterranean Incarnate: Transnational Region Formation between Sicily and Tunisia since World War II (Chicago Press, 2017), offers a historical anthropology of the recent re-emergence of the Mediterranean. His current project follows perpetual debate about what the Mafia is and how anti-Mafia forms of inquiry (by magistrates, journalists, political activists, police investigators) encounter this dilemma. Ben-Yehhoyada’s work has appeared in many publications, including History and Anthropology, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Comparative Studies in Society and History, and Focaal - Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. He received his MA degree in Sociology and Anthropology from Tel Aviv University in 2005. He received his PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University in 2011.

The Outstanding Recent Alumni Award honors individuals who have graduated within the past fifteen years and have excelled in the early stages of their careers, exemplifying what GSAS alumni can achieve. Since 2015, this award has been presented annually to one doctoral graduate and one Master’s graduate.

Mia Nagawiecki (’16MA, American Studies)

Mia Nagawiecki is the Royce R. and Kathryn M. Baker Vice President for Education Strategy and Civic Engagement at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where she directs Colonial Williamsburg’s educational outreach programs, civics initiatives, and digital presence. From 2021-2022, she served as the Center for Civic Education’s Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, helping to bring meaningful civic and constitutional education to students and teachers around the world. She was previously Vice President for Education at the New-York Historical Society, which became a national history education provider under her guidance. Mia conceived and directed the Women & the American Story project, the first-ever comprehensive digital U.S. women’s history curriculum (wams.nyhistory.org). Mia holds a BA in history from Barnard College and an MA in American studies from Columbia University.

The Outstanding Recent Alumni Award honors individuals who have graduated within the past fifteen years and have excelled in the early stages of their careers, exemplifying what GSAS alumni can achieve. Since 2015, this award has been presented annually to one doctoral graduate and one Master’s graduate.

Adji Bousso Dieng (’20PhD, Statistics)

Adji Bousso Dieng is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University where she leads Vertaix on research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and the natural sciences. She is affiliated with the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Princeton Materials Institute, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI). She is also a Research Scientist at Google AI and the founder and President of the nonprofit The Africa I Know. Dieng has recently been named an AI2050 Early Career Fellow by Schmidt Futures and the Annie T. Randall Innovator of 2022 for her research and advocacy by the American Statistical Association. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University where she was advised by David Blei and John Paisley. Her doctoral work received many recognitions, including a Google Ph.D. Fellowship in Machine Learning, a rising star in Machine Learning nomination by the University of Maryland, and a Savage Award from the International Society for Bayesian Analysis, for her doctoral thesis. She hails from Kaolack, Senegal.

The Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student was established in 1996 to recognize and celebrate graduate students who exemplify excellence in teaching. To receive this award is a great honor, as it demonstrates commitment to excellent and often innovative teaching as recognized by the entire Columbia community. Prospective recipients are nominated by their students and peers. From that pool, the faculty members on the Teaching Awards Committee select the final awardees.

Ana DiGiovanni (’23MPhil, Psychology)

Ana DiGiovanni aims to help students from underrepresented backgrounds, and this is seen inside and outside the classroom. Ana DiGiovanni is a co-founder and one of the current coordinators of the SIPPS program, a psychology summer research program designed to equip students with little-to-no prior research experience with tangible skills and scientific literacy. One student noted, “Ana DiGiovanni not only teaches during this summer program, but she also goes to different classes in order to promote and motivate students.”

Charles Firestone East (’22MPhil, Italian)

Charles (Chas) Firestone East teaches literature, such as Dante’s masterworks. As one student described class discussion, “Chas displayed an erudition and insight into the text and its founding philosophies that I would never have discovered on my own. They unveiled the references, the metaphysics, and the mathematical principles underlying the literary giant, showing a much deeper and more multidimensional authorial mind than I had previously seen. I never missed a Wednesday evening when I met with Chas and my classmates to review and delve into the texts we had read. Though the recitation was slated as an hour, we always stayed for several more, as long as it took for us to feel like we sufficiently grasped the text.”

Connor Martini (’21MPhil, Religion)

Connor Martini is a PhD Candidate in North American religions at Columbia University. He is interested in questions at the intersection of religious studies, science and technology studies, and anthropology. One of his students recalled, “during the early weeks of classes this past semester, as I was overwhelmed with adjusting to a new environment and missing home, I reached out to Connor for an office hours meeting. During that meeting, I had never received such comforting advice, both personally and academically, in my academic career thus far.”