Harvey Mudd College

Harvey Mudd College mathematics and life sciences professor Heather Brooks has received the American Mathematical Society Simons Research Enhancement Grant for Primarily Undergraduate Institution Faculty. Understanding the dynamics of large networks of interacting particles or agents in biological and social systems can be analytically and computationally challenging, but Brooks sees recent advances in graph limits as providing a promising avenue for studying such systems. Read more on how Brooks plans to use this highly competitive national award to advance work on her project, “Using Continuum Models to Understand Opinion Dynamics on Networks,” at https://uqr.to/hb-ams.

Kevin Xia ’28, Daniel Zhu ’29 and James Gómez CMC ’27 took first place in the spring 2026 SageTank pitch competition, an event in which teams from across the five Claremont Colleges pitch their startups to a panel of venture capitalist partners and investors in front of a live audience. The team's project, Whistle, is an agentic NCAA compliance software designed to help athletic departments stay compliant with NCAA regulations, an often complicated and time-intensive process. The software allows anyone within an NCAA athletic department to ask a compliance question and receive precision answers, citing exact bylaws, within 30 seconds.

“We love competition and winning, and entrepreneurship is a domain in which you are directly competing with others,” said Xia. “There is nothing else like it." Read more on our website at https://uqr.to/hmc-st26.

HMC Building Attendant Gracie Alvarez, who has 33 years of service at the College, was given the 2026 Mary G. Binder Prize, which recognizes outstanding support staff. Nominators praised Alvarez for her care and dedication. One nominator noted, “Gracie has a very kind soul. She always smiles when she sees me, asks me about my day and is really interested in how I am doing.” The Binder Prize was presented to Alvarez at the College's annual Service Recognition Awards and Luncheon which honors the dedication and commitment of our faculty and staff. Enjoy some of our favorite pics from the luncheon and ceremony.

Read more about Alvarez's prize on our news page https://uqr.to/alvarez-binder.

Karen Angemi, chief of staff and secretary to the board of trustees, and Bill Alves, Louisa and Robert Miller Professor of the Humanities, were presented with the 2026 Henry T. Mudd Prize during the College's Commencement ceremony last week by HMC President Harriet Nembhard. The prize recognizes faculty and staff members whose extraordinary service has significantly benefited the College.

Angemi was recognized for her extraordinary and sustained service to Harvey Mudd. Her accomplishments include supporting the College through periods of growth, change and transition; helping ensure continuity, clarity and excellence at the highest levels of administration; and advancing major institutional priorities with precision, discretion and care.

Alves was recognized for a lifetime of devoted service to Harvey Mudd and for his role in expanding the place of the arts within the College’s academic and cultural life. He has shaped programs, curriculum and artistic opportunities that connect intellectual rigor with creative expression, helping students see the arts as an essential part of a Harvey Mudd education.

Read more about the receipiencts’ extraordinary commitment to HMC on our news page. https://uqr.to/kaba-mudd.

Every year, HMC's offices of Career Services, Institutional Diversity and Wellbeing collaborate to release the Dress to Express Mudd Lookbook. This year's edition highlights students, staff and faculty who celebrate identity, confidence, authenticity and self-expression through personal style and meaningful accessories. Check out some of our faves.

Harvey Mudd College has received the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge's Highly Established Action Plan Seal for 2026, recognizing institutions with strong, nonpartisan strategies to support civic learning, political engagement and student voter participation.

“The Highly Established Action Plan Seal represents a strong institutional commitment to civic and democratic engagement,” said Ayah Hamdallah, assistant director of civic and community engagement. “For the Mudd community, it signals that civic engagement is not just an add-on but an integrated part of the student experience.”

Led by HMC's Office of Civic and Community Engagement, the College has participated in the challenge since fall 2020, expanding programming and voter registration efforts across campus. Read more on our news page at https://uqr.to/hmc-allin.

HMC engineering student Soon Young Kwon ’29 earned two prestigious international recognitions from the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) this spring. In March, Kwon secured the first-place award in the Technical Poster category at the ASME 2026 E-Fest. Just one month later, Kwon was named the winner of the Best Technical Execution/Innovation award at the ASME E4C AI Pilot Hackathon. Kwon's prize winnings total $2,800, which he plans to use toward independent research in piezoelectric actuators. Read more on our news page at https://uqr.to/syk-asme.

Congratulations to HMC's Class of 2026! We are inspired by your dedication, accomplishments and kindness here at Harvey Mudd and look forward to the impact you'll make in the future. We also wanted to uplift HMC graduates Andrew Blackett, Bryce Didrickson and Slader Spoor who could not attend Commencement because they were busy winning the NCAA Regional Title for the CMS men's baseball team. Best of luck in the Super Regionals!

On Sunday, Bee Lab researcher Diya will be graduating from Harvey Mudd College -- an exciting, though slightly scary, event! In her last HMC Bee Lab blog post, she writes about a much more painful rite of passage practiced by the Sateré-Mawé people of Brazil with Bullet Ants: https://hmcbee.blogspot.com/2026/05/coming-of-age-with-ants-satere-mawe.html

Mithra Karamchedu ’26, Marika Ragnartz ’26, Madeline Reeve ’26, Lilian Zhu ’26 and five recent HMC graduates have been awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships. Lev Gruber ’26 and Ananya Venkatachalam ’26 received honorable mentions.

From phase transitions to climate modeling, read how these four seniors spent their time at Mudd and where they plan to pursue their doctoral degrees: https://uqr.to/nsfgrf26.

We are just days away from celebrating the Class of 2026. Visit HMC's Commencement web page for helpful information, including the schedule of events, graduate checklist, livestream information and map: https://uqr.to/hmcgrad. Photo by Lindsey Sands ’27.

You've probably stumbled across an ant nest before, but maybe you never stopped to look: what are they doing there, right around the nest entrance? Su writes about what harvester ants do, and how we can tell, in her latest student blog post: https://hmcbee.blogspot.com/2026/04/here-at-social-insect-behavior-lab-one.html Harvey Mudd College

HMC senior Ananya Venkatachalam was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant to conduct research on liquid-liquid phase separation using physics-informed machine learning at Universität Heidelberg in Germany.

“I’m really looking forward to making connections in Germany, both through my research and through campus and community outreach,” says Venkatachalam. “One of the things that drew me to The Fulbright Program is the chance to engage in meaningful conversations across diverse backgrounds and experiences to share my perspective while learning about others.” Visit our news page to read more about Venkatachalam's research and how her time at HMC helped her imagine a future in science: https://uqr.to/av-fg.

Last March, students from across The Claremont Colleges gathered at the Pitzer College basketball courts to watch the third annual Dean Chris Classic (DCC). The DCC featured a 16-team, single-elimination basketball tournament alongside fan events like a dunk contest and a beach volleyball tournament.

The DCC drew inspiration from the physical education course “Dean Chris’s Thursday Night Basketball,” which was started nearly 25 years ago at Harvey Mudd by Chris Sundberg, HMC associate dean of students and campus life director. Photos by Daniel Liu ’29.

Max Schernikau ’27 earned an Outstanding Student Poster Award this spring from the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Physical Chemistry for his research on carbon dioxide reduction.

“For Max to be recognized for his exemplary research ... at the ACS Meeting is a testament to his hard work and wonderfully highlights the high caliber of undergraduate research we do here at Harvey Mudd,” says HMC chemistry professor Maduka Ogba. Read more on Schernikau's award and research on our news page: https://uqr.to/ms-acs.

Johnson Ho ’27, Cole Plepel ’27 and Elio Thadhani ’27 have received the 2026 Barry Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious national award for undergraduate researchers in science, technology, mathematics and engineering. Read more about their accomplishments and post-graduation plans on the HMC news page https://uqr.to/hpt-gw.

Early last month, Engineering Clinic teams gathered in the basement of Parsons Engineering Building to exhibit the prototypes for their Clinic projects. HMC's Clinic Program engages juniors and seniors in solving real-world, technical problems for companies and organizations. This year's Clinic sponsors included companies and organizations like AirMyne, Exolambda, Indomo, Ohmium and Sandia National Laboratories. To learn about the College's Clinic Program, visit hmc.edu/clinic. Photos by Lindsey Sands ’27.

HMC computer science and physics major Chengyi Tang ’27 is the winner of the prestigious 2026 Rudolph Polk Memorial Award in Music. Tang received a $1,200 prize intended to further musical study. The Polk award follows another significant achievement for Tang, who also won this year’s Claremont Concert Orchestra Concerto Competition. Read more about Tang's accomplishments and about Lucy Wen-Xin Will ’28, who received an honorable mention for the Polk Award. https://uqr.to/tang-rpma.

That's another alumni weekend in the books! Every year we welcome alumni back to campus for academic receptions, campus tours, networking events, dessert socials, luncheons, class reunions and more. We hope you enjoyed reminiscing on the time spent and relationships forged at Harvey Mudd College.

HMC humanities professor David Wilson has been awarded a prestigious research grant from the Center for Chinese Studies at the National Central Library of Taiwan. This research will allow Wilson to examine the National Day Projection Mapping Show, which uses cutting-edge projection technology, original soundtracks and narration to transform the Presidential Office Building in Taipei into a canvas for contemporary Taiwanese identity. Read more on our news page at https://uqr.to/wilson-ncl.