Goals

To reward the very best, motivated and advanced science students, and challenge them to get the most from themselves and Penn. The Award will pay the tuition and general fees in the third and/or fourth years, INDEPENDENT of financial need. Up to five new Awards will be made each year.

Selection Criteria

The College student who submatriculates in the Physics or Chemistry graduate groups will be eligible for the Award when he/she completes 15 credit units (about 80%) of the required mathematics and science courses (including advanced placement credit) for the Physics, Chemistry, Biophysics or Biochemistry majors. In addition, science and mathematics grades must be in the upper 25% of the College grade point average distribution (about 3.7 out of 4.0).

The Award Committee consists of Graduate Group chairs of Physics and Chemistry with the Undergraduate Chairs of Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics, all members of the standing faculty.

At the end of four years at Penn, the student will earn a B.A. and a M.S. Alternatively, the student may continue with research directly towards a Ph.D. in Physics or Chemistry at Penn. In either case, a B.A. is awarded only if the language and distributional requirements are satisfied.

Awardees

It is expected that recipients will pursue careers in science and technology including medicine. Two years of tuition and fees will total about $80,000 for 2010-2012.

The typical student (between 10 and 20 any given year) in the submatriculation program will qualify during the third academic year. A significant number of the students can qualify after the second year.

Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Challenge Awardees, Graduation Year, Major(s) and Graduate School

2005 Awardees

Jason Beiger, '06, Chemistry, Biochemistry; Harvard Chemistry PhD Program
Lauren Zeitels, '06, Biochemistry; Gates Scholar Cambridge UK; Johns Hopkins MD/PhD
Elisabetta Matsumoto, '07, Physics; Penn Physics PhD Program
Adam Roth, '07, Physics; Penn Physics PhD Program

2006 Awardees

Sujit Datta, '08, Physics; Harvard Physics PhD program.
Steven Hershman, '08, Biochemistry; Harvard Systems Biology PhD program
Tara Kaufmann, '07, Biochemistry; UCSF MD/PhD program

2007 Awardees

Chenghong Huang, '09, Biochemistry, Chemistry; Harvard Chemistry PhD Program
Benjamin Stinson, '09, Biochemistry; MIT Biology PhD Program
Lauren Wozniak, '08, Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy; UCLA Physics PhD Program

2008 Awardees

Jarad Mason, '09, Chemistry; UCBerkeley Chemistry PhD Program
Phillip Benedetti, '10, Biochemistry, Chemistry; U. Cambridge, UK, Ph.D. Chemistry
Matthew Berck, '10, Biochemistry, Physics; Harvard Physics, Ph.D.

2009 Awardees

Kevin C Axelrod ‘11, Biochemistry, Physics 
Edward F Kreider, ’10, Biochemistry; Penn, MD/PhD Program
Aaron M Levy, ’11, Physics; Cambridge, UK, Mathematics Tripos, Princeton Physics, Ph.D.

2010 Awardees

David Lee, ’12, Biochemistry, Physics
Steven Plimpton, ’11, Physics; U. Colorado, Denver, Applied Physics, Ph.D.
Ashley Reichardt, ’12, Physics

2011 Awardees

Ioana Aron, '12, Chemistry
Nabil Darwich, '13, Biochemistry
Adam Haque, '12, Math, Physics
Alexander Sun, '12, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Biology
Hejia Wang, '13, Biochemistry, Physics
Tian Yang, '12, Biochemistry