MEDIA RELEASE
High-Achieving Students to Receive Awards at
Cal State Northridge’s May 19 Honors Convocation
(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., May 12, 2008) — One of Ronik Khachatoorian’s recent papers is called "A Nonalkaline Method for Isolating Sequencing-Ready Plasmids." Another is "Representations of Death in Emily Dickinson." One sprang from the right side of his remarkable brain, the other from the left.
An interest in cultivating both sides led Khachatoorian to complete a double major in biology and English literature with an overall 3.99 GPA, and ultimately to his selection as the 2008 Wolfson Scholar. Since 1963, this academic honor has been reserved for the top achiever in Cal State Northridge’s graduating senior class.
"His willingness to cross the borders separating what C.P. Snow called the ‘Two Cultures’ (i.e., the literary and the scientific) in order to pursue advanced studies on both sides" demonstrates the Northridge resident’s sheer "intellectual bravery," wrote English professor John Peters when nominating Khachatoorian for the honor.
Khachatoorian, 27, will accept his award at CSUN’s May 19 Honors Convocation scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. on the lawn of the Oviatt Library.
The American dream of a better education and career opportunities drew Khachatoorian to California from Tehran, where he had immersed himself in Shakespeare, the lyric poet Sadee and the great Persian poet Ferdowsi while studying at Azad University. But he had never been able to forget the death of his elementary school friend from cancer years before.
"When I was a child, I always thought cancer was a death sentence," Khachatoorian recalled. "But I always wanted to do something about it." An introduction to genetics in high school convinced him that genetics and molecular biology would give him the means.
Azad University did not offer the coursework he needed. "I knew I would end up coming to the U.S., so I decided to master English." When Khachatoorian enrolled at CSUN as a transfer student in 2004, he quickly became what one professor described as the most gifted student of English literature he has taught in his 24 years at CSUN.
His eye still fixed on cancer research, Khachatoorian applied for the biology major as well. "I didn’t worry about the course load. I felt comfortable with that," he said with typical understatement. "I knew enough English for my biology courses."
He evidently knew enough to conduct research in biologist Stan Metzenberg’s lab on the C-reactive protein of humans, to co-author with Metzenberg the soon-to-be published piece on isolating plasmids, to complete the requirements for both the cell and molecular biology as well as the bio¬technology options for the B.S. degree, and to participate in the National Scholars, Golden Key International and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies.
Khachatoorian begins summer lab rotations at UCLA toward the end of May, on his way to a doctorate in molecular biology or human genetics.
Other convocation presentations will include the 2008 Nathan O. Freedman Memorial Award for Outstanding Graduate Student, to Rachel Levitt of Granada Hills, a communication studies major and champion debater with an overall 3.94 GPA.
A panelist in women’s studies and communications workshops from Chicago to Oakland, she has accumulated more than 35 honors and awards to date, a number of them for her successful performances in statewide policy debates.
Association of Retired Faculty Memorial Awards will be presented to:
• Archaeology/anthropology major Erika Brant of Los Angeles, who compiled a 4.0 GPA while conducting a research project entitled "Following the Caravan: Toward an Understanding of Trade, Ideology, and Rock Art in the Tarapaca Valley, Northern Chile."
According to anthropology professor Cathy Costin, Brant’s high-level research will contribute substantially to the understanding of Andean prehistory.
• Chemistry major Louis Carlson of Tujunga, a graduate student whose work with chemistry professor Gagik Melikyan is aimed at developing "a new generation of therapeutics for a breast cancer cure." Carlson maintained a 3.77 GPA while holding down a full-time job, supporting a family and keeping up a CSUN lab schedule that usually stretched from 4 p.m. to midnight.
• Mathematics major Cynthia Flores of Tujunga, who has earned a 3.9 GPA in pursuit of her graduate degree. Flores recently presented a non-trivial theory of mathematics at the Ninth Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics at the University of Nebraska, and was selected for the Princeton University’s Summer Program for Women in Mathematics, organized by the country’s best female mathematicians.
Flores has worked on a fluid dynamic research problem at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and teaches public school students in a math program funded by the National Science Foundation.
• Curriculum and instruction major Morris McCormick of Palmdale, a full-time teacher whose authorship of an innovative research project using grounded theory—generating theories from data—is aimed at helping young math students learn how to help themselves.
An accomplished academic writer with a 3.95 GPA, Morris is expected to present his original work on students’ self-questioning techniques next year at the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting.