Students interested in a research career need an undergraduate education of the highest excellence to gain admission to the top graduate schools. At Northwestern, our faculty have ready access to the world's greatest research facilities, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, thus providing our undergraduates with outstanding opportunities to participate in cutting-edge science. Northwestern is also a pioneer in innovative multi-disciplinary education, as demonstrated by our Integrated Sciences Program, which melds mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and computer science into a single curriculum.
Here is a partial listing of the graduate programs some of our more recent graduates have attended:
| Student | BA | University | Program/Notes |
| David Ackerman | 2010 | Cornell | Biophysics |
| Jeff Andrews | 2009 | Columbia | Astrophysics |
| Sean Andrews | 2001 | Hawaii | Astrophysics — Sean received his PhD in 2008 and is currently a Hubble Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Observatory. |
| Thomas Bay | 2000 | Stanford | Physics |
| Matt Bierbaum | 2009 | Cornell | Physics |
| Laura Blecha | 2005 | Caltech | Physics — Laura attended Cambridge University for one year on a Gates-Cambridge Scholarship before entering Caltech. |
| Semyon Blinstein | 2007 | UCLA | Mathematics |
| Sarah Braden | 2008 | Arizona State | Geological Sciences |
| Nicole Carlson | 2008 | UC Berkeley | Physics |
| Jeffrey Chilcote | 2008 | UCLA | Astronomy |
| James Chisholm | 1998 | Chicago | Physics — James received his PhD in 2005 and is now an Assistant Professor at Southern Utah University. |
| Janet Colucci | 2004 | Michigan | Astrophysics |
| Alexandra Cunliffe | 2009 | Chicago | Medical Physics |
| Samuel Eckels | 2007 | Wisconsin | Mathematics |
| Steven Ehlert | 2007 | Stanford | Astrophysics — Steve spent a year at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, before entering Stanford. |
| Julia Fang | 2009 | UCLA | Astrophysics |
| Matthew Gill | 2007 | UC San Diego | Mathematics |
| Andrew Gordon | 2010 | Northwestern | School of Medicine |
| Chris Greer | 2002 | Chicago | Physics — Chris received a three-year NSF graduate fellowship. |
| David Guarrera | 2003 | MIT | Physics — David also spent a year at Cambridge as an NSF Fellow. |
| Matt Haffner | 1993 | Wisconsin | Astrophysics — Matt received his PhD in 2000 and is now a Research Scientist at Wisconsin leading a large project to map the ionized gas in our Galaxy. |
| John Hewitt | 2004 | Northwestern | Physics — John is continuing his undergraduate research in astrophysics with Professor Farhad Zadeh. |
| Jennifer Hobbs | 2008 | Northwestern | Physics — Jennifer is continuing her Northwestern undergraduate research at Fermilab's Minerva neutrino experiment. |
| Mia Ihm | 2005 | UC Berkeley | Physics — Mia received a three-year NSF graduate fellowship. |
| Alex Jeffers | 2010 | Maryland College Park | Physics |
| James Kath | 2009 | Harvard | Biophysics — James is deferring entry into Harvard for one year to participate in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme. |
| Yoni Kahn | 2009 | MIT | Physics — Yoni will attend Cambridge University for one year on a Gates-Cambridge Scholarship before entering MIT. |
| Jeffrey Kaplan | 2007 | Caltech | Physics — Jeff was awarded a prestigious Feynmann Fellowship by Caltech. |
| Rachel Koltrun | 2010 | UC Santa Barbara | Materials Science and Engineering. She will be doing research on high-ZT thermoelectric materials |
| Daniel Krop | 2000 | Indiana | Dan received his PhD in high-energy physics in 2007 and is now a Research Associate in the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute. |
| Brandon Lane | 2008 | Aachen University | Physics |
| Aaron Lee | 2007 | UC Berkeley | Astrophysics — Aaron spent a year at Cambridge conducting advanced study in mathematics before entering Berkeley. |
| Timothy Linden | 2008 | UC Santa Cruz | Physics |
| Thomas Lippman | 2007 | Stanford | Physics |
| John Liu | 2010 | Brandeis | Biophysics, focusing on single-molecule research. |
| Jennifer Marshall | 2000 | Ohio State | Physics |
| Robert McElrath | 1998 | Wisconsin | Physics — Rob completed his PhD in 2003 and is now a CERN Fellow in theoretical particle physics. |
| Anne Metevier | 1997 | UC Santa Cruz | Astrophysics — Anne received her PhD in 2003, and is now an NSF Astrophysics Fellow in the Santa Cruz Center for Adaptive Optics. |
| Seth Meyers | 2008 | Stanford | Computational & Mathematical Engineering |
| Taejin (Lance) Min | 2007 | Illinois | Physics |
| Sasha Muratov | 2007 | Michigan | Astronomy |
| Ryan Murphy | 2009 | Washington (St. Louis) | Physics |
| Zack Nicolaou | 2010 | Cambridge | Applied mathematics and theoretical physics. He was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which will fund his stay. |
| Philip Nutzman | 2004 | Harvard | Astrophysics |
| Ryan O'Leary | 2005 | Harvard | Astrophysics — Ryan received a six-year Fellowship to attend Harvard. |
| Brian Patt | 1999 | MIT | Physics — Brian recently completed his PhD thesis, which was on string theory. His advisor was Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek. |
| Kathleen Ratcliff | 2002 | UC Berkeley | Biophysics |
| Robert Rettew | 2007 | Georgia Tech | Physics — Robert is a President's Fellow in Georgia's Center for Excellence in Photovoltaics. |
| Benjamin Rolfs | 2009 | Stanford | Computational & Mathematical Engineering |
| Adam Sefkow | 2002 | Princeton | Plasma Physics |
| William Shepherd | 2007 | UC Irvine | Physics |
| Mengkai Shieh | 2004 | Stanford | Medical School |
| Kent Shirer | 2009 | UC Davis | Physics |
| Ethan Siegel | 2000 | Florida | Physics — (As it happens, two graduates of our PhD program are members of the Florida physics faculty.) |
| David Smith | 2001 | Princeton | Plasma Physics |
| Dmitry Spivak | 2010 | Minnesota | Experimental condensed matter physics. |
| Jeffrey Tran | 2000 | Illinois | Physics |
| Matthew Turk | 2003 | Stanford | Physics |
| Brandon Walker | 2010 | Wisconsin | Medical Physics, and will conduct research on new proton therapies to battle cancer |
| David Westbrook | 2000 | Rochester | High-Energy Physics |
| Robert White | 2000 | Washington (St. Louis) | Planetary Science |
| Teresa Wong | 2010 | Washington (St. Louis) | Earth and Planetary Science. She intends to conduct research in planetary geology/geophysics. |
| Kenneth Yu | 2003 | Caltech/Southern Cal | Joint Program in Biophysics/Medicine |
| Geralyn Zeller | 1994 | Northwestern | Geralyn won the 2003 Tanaka Dissertation Award, sponsored by the APS for outstanding PhD research in particle physics. She is now a Director's Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. |
Other alumni who chose to enter research careers, but graduated a few years further back, include:
Professor Barbara Ryden (WCAS 1980, PhD Princeton 1987), now on the faculty at The Ohio State University. Professor Ryden has recently written a well-received textbook, "Introduction To Cosmology", published by Addison-Wesley.
Professor Steven Majewski (WCAS 1980, PhD Chicago 1987), now on the faculty at the University of Virginia. Professor Majewski has won several honors, including being named a Packard Fellow, a Cottrell Scholar, and a National Science Foundation Young Investigator.
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