Princeton students honored at Opening Exercises gather with President Christopher L. Eisgruber (back row, left) and Dean of the College Michael D. Gordin (far right). The students are (front row, from left) Braeden Carroll, Caroline Zhao and Ram Narayanan, and (back row, from left), Connie Gong, Akshat Agarwal, and Ian Henriques. Photo by Matthew Raspanti, Office of Communications
Princeton University celebrated the academic accomplishments of its students with the awarding of undergraduate prizes to six students at Opening Exercises on Sunday, Sept. 1. Caroline Zhao, a senior majoring in chemical and biological engineering, shared the George B. Wood Legacy Junior Prize for exceptional academic achievement during her junior year.
Zhao, of Westfield, New Jersey, attended Union County Magnet High School in Scotch Plains. A two-time recipient of the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence, she is a chemical and biological engineering major who is also pursuing minors in finance and computer science. She is a member of Butler College.
Her senior thesis will focus on developing biological enzyme system models to investigate the use of cellulose as a sustainable biofuel. Her adviser is Jerelle Joseph, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering and bioengineering.
Outside the classroom, Zhao is president of both the Princeton Engineering Council and the Princeton Bridge Club, a coxswain for the Princeton lightweight rowing team, a SHARE Peer, and a student manager of the Ultraviolet Recording Studio in Bloomberg Hall.
Zhao has been a precept assistant in computer science and will serve as an undergraduate course assistant in economics this fall. She is also a volunteer with Princeton’s Special Olympics Rowing program, a partnership between the Student Volunteers Council and Special Olympics.
She worked this summer at Bain Capital as a private equity summer analyst.
To learn about the full list of awardees, read the full article on the Princeton homepage.