On Dec. 14, the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics (CAAM) at Rice University honored the accomplishments of five seniors.
Receiving the CAAM-Chevron Prize were Anthony Kang, Robert Schellenberger and Madeleine Tumbarello. All were recognized for “particularly outstanding performances in a class, notable contributions in undergraduate research, or excellence in outreach activity.”
Each received a $750 as part of the prize, which was established in 2009.
Receiving the Michael Ross Franco Awards were Joshua Washington and Matthew Brun. The award carries a prize of $1,000 and is named for Michael Ross Franco, who graduated from Rice with a B.A. in CAAM and mathematics in 2014.
In his senior year, Franco was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He underwent chemotherapy for eight months, completed his course work and graduated on time. The award was established by the Franco family to annually recognize exemplary senior undergraduate majors in the CAAM Department.
After graduation and for the remainder of his cancer treatment, Franco worked at BP’s Center for High-Performance Computing, focused on improving parallel methods for acoustic-wave propagation. He is a doctoral student in applied mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.
