Phi Beta Kappa Elects 48 Seniors

A student in biochemical sciences and a Chinese literature scholar were among the forty-eight seniors with a little extra to be thankful this past weekend after they were inducted into Harvard’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

They join the twenty-four members of the Class of 2008 who were elected last semester.

The oldest continuous chapter of the national organization, Harvard’s Alpha Iota of Massachusetts elects students in three sets: twenty-four are selected during junior spring, forty-eight during senior fall, and approximately ninety at the end of senior year—totalling nearly 10% of the graduating class.

“It’s a huge honor, given the incredible amount of talent at Harvard, to be among this group and to have been honored by the Phi Beta Kappa Committee,” said Matthew R. McFarlane ’08, a concentrator in biochemical sciences and one of the students selected for induction.

The scientist said he enjoyed classes outside of his field, including Foreign Culture 22, “La critique sociale à travers l’humour,” taught by Senior Preceptor Marlies Mueller.

Tony D. Qian ’08, a Literature concentrator and new inductee, pointed to graduate seminars that he took on Chinese literature as being among the most fulfilling courses he has taken during his time at Harvard.

“They taught me how to do close readings, think critically, and expand my mind when it comes to how I think about literature and the world,” Qian said.

Qian also credited his thesis adviser David Der-Wei Wang, a professor of Chinese literature, for much of his success. “He has been a real model to me, and I don’t know where I would be without him.”

Harvard’s selection process differs from those of most universities, according to James F. Coakley ’68, secretary of the chapter and senior lecturer in Near East languages and civilizations.

“Other universities have a GPA cutoff, but we don’t do it that way,” Coakley said.

The top ninety-six students are chosen for consideration based on grade-point average, but then each of the students has to submit two letters of recommendation to one of three selection committees, divided into the disciplines of the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Natural Sciences.

“These committees look at the spread of courses,” said Coakley. “Are they hard or are they easy? Are [students] doing independent research that doesn’t come up on the transcript?”

Coakley also pointed to quotas for each general topic area, based on the number of Harvard students in that area, to ensure that a wide variety of Harvard students are selected. This year, 10 of the forty-eight students selected were in the humanities, twenty-two were in the social sciences, and sixteen were in the natural sciences.

The Inductees

Eli Osterweil Anders, Marco Perry Basile, Maureen Eleise Boyle, Ecaterina Ruth Burton, Joyce Chun-Ling Chang, Frederic Nolan Clark, Eva Lopatin Dickerman, Bradford James Diephuis, Harrison Ross Greenbaum, Samantha Lauren Groden, Elizabeth Maryanne Grosso, Adam Michael Guren, David Kautsky Hausman, Nicholas Christian Hayes, Amy Patricia Heinzerling, Erika Christine Helgen, Miriam Reisner Hinman, Stephen Ho, Tin-Yun Timothy Ho, Anthony John Inguaggiato, Kathleen Elizabeth Jacobs, David Jiang, Rohan Kekre, Alyssa Elizabeth Stimson King, Ajay Ganesh Kumar, Benjamin Jiawei Lee, Luke Xiru Li, Yin Li, Paul Peter Linden-Retek, Karan Lodha, Matthew Ryan McFarlane, Taylor Mayly Owings, Aadhithi Padmanabhan, Allen James Pope, Tony Dahao Qian, Adam Emanuel Adatto Sandel, Meike Katharina Schallert, Samuel Conrad Scott, Mark Abraham Shepard, Yen-whei Shih, Melissa Yuwono Tjota, Catherine Lin Vaughan, Amanda Lee Willis, Yoshitaka Yamamoto, Crystal Yang, Andy Han Yuan, Elena Yudovina, Rocksheng Zhong