Kimberly Cushman Receives Academic Achievement Award

2017 May 25

Kimberly Cushman of Baldwinsville, NY, was one of 54 outstanding SUNY Oneonta students selected to receive a 2017 Academic Achievement Award this spring. Each academic department or program selected one to three outstanding seniors to receive the award.

Cushman received the Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics Department award.

To be considered for the award, a student must have a minimum grade-point average of 3.5 in his or her major and must demonstrate exceptional academic improvement over four semesters, as well as excellence in research; leadership and involvement in department, campus and community activities; and/or participation in academic and/or professional situation outside the college.

A double major in physics and mathematics, Cushman has received numerous honors for academic excellence, including the James L. and Gladys T. Alex Mathematics Scholarship Award, as well as Physics and Astronomy Department scholarships throughout her years at Oneonta. She has spent the last two summers conducting physics research at the University of Notre Dame through a Research Experience for Undergraduates program and at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. Cushman did independent studies with Dr. Jonathan Brown and presented their work at two math conferences. After the first presentation, she was invited to speak during a math department seminar at Colgate University. In January 2017, she and Brown and presented talks at the Joint Mathematics meetings in Atlanta. In March 2017, she presented results from her summer research at a physics conference in Austria. Cushman is doing a theoretical physics research internship at the University of Adelaide in Australia this summer before beginning a Ph.D. program in physics at Yale University.