Princeton’s newest Ph.D. and master’s degree recipients were honored May 27 at the 2024 Hooding and Recognition Ceremony for completing their advanced degrees during this past academic year. Because of the rain, graduates gathered indoors at Jadwin Gym, where they were surrounded by family, mentors and loved ones.
“This ceremony is a welcome opportunity for all of us — your families, friends, teachers, mentors and colleagues — to recognize the dedication, effort and intellect that you have brought to your work here,” said Princeton University Provost Jennifer Rexford. “Your graduate degree is a testament to your talent and commitment as well as a mark of true excellence in scholarship and research.”
Graduate School Dean Rodney Priestley,the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, urged the graduates to savor the moment.
“This is a pinnacle moment of your life,” he said. “A moment you have been working for years to achieve. A moment that will be part of your life story forever. We don’t get too many of these moments, so pause and take it all in.”
At the ceremony, 188master’s degree recipients and 288 Ph.D. honorees were recognized by name as they walked across the stage. ThePh.D. recipients were hooded either by their faculty advisers or by Sandra Bermann, chief marshal for the University Convocations and the Cotsen Professor in the Humanities and professor of comparative literature.
The colorful gowns and hoods of academic regalia trace their history to medieval Europe, where heavy woolen robes were necessary in the cold stone halls of universities. Modern hoods distinguish the wearer both by rank and academic discipline. Each hood is bordered by a colored velvet band: royal blue for philosophy (as in doctor of philosophy, or Ph.D.); peaco*ck blue for public affairs; gold for engineering; white for arts and letters; brown for architecture; and light brown for finance. The hood lining shows the university’s own colors — at Princeton, orange with a black chevron.
A journey of scholarship and mentorship
At Princeton, every Ph.D. candidate works closely with one or more advisers.Priestley acknowledged the 164faculty members who were there to hood their advisees and mentees. “Their presence reminds us that the journey to an advanced degree is only possible with the encouragement and guidance of a supportive faculty,” he said.
Rexford is a professor of computer science and theGordon Y. S. Wu Professor in Engineering. At the ceremony, she was the very first professor to hood her students:Xiaoqi Chen and Mary Hogan. BothChen and Hogan already have faculty appointments for the fall, Chen at Purdue and Hogan at Oberlin College.
“One of the joys of faculty life is supporting graduate students as they grow from a student to a junior researcher and ultimately into a colleague and friend,”Rexford said.“I enjoy helping students as they discover and develop their own taste in selecting research problems, and hone their abilities to crack hard problems and communicate their ideas to others.”
“Jen has always provided me unwavering support and complete autonomy,” said Chen. “She encouraged my deep exploration into unorthodox methods and unconventional ideas, even when she disagreed with those choices. Of course, most of these explorations were not fruitful, but the ones that were became the defining moments of my Ph.D. journey.”
New psychology Ph.D. Mira Nencheva, who last year won Princeton’s highest award for a graduate student, has had an unusually long relationship with adviser Casey Lew-Williams, because she joined his lab as a visiting researcher a year before she enrolled at Princeton.
“I first connected with Casey at a time when I wasn’t sure if this whole grad school thing was going to work out for me, and he built up my love for research again,” said Nencheva at her recent dissertation defense. “He found research strengths in me, and he pushed me to find research that I feel excited about— that I feel proud of. I think the most magical thing about Casey is that he is an incredible, big-picture thinker who creates a community of amazing people around him.”
“In my experience, advising isn’t really ’advising,’” Lew-Williams said. “That’s the wrong metaphor. It’s best thought of as collaborating, where we co-create ideas and take turns learning from each other. It’s a privilege in life to collaborate with graduate students like Mira, as with every current and former student in the Princeton Baby Lab.”
Genevieve Allotey-Pappoe, a newly minted Ph.D. in music, is a Ghanaian researcherand composer born and raised in Nigeria.She plays the piano, djembe and West African gyilxylophone, and she will begin as an assistant professor of music at Brown on July 1.
“Over the past six years, I have come to know Genevieve as a scholar, mentee and friend,” said her adviser Gavin Steingo, professor of music.“I saw her grow from a first-year seminar student to an extraordinary ethnographer in Barcelona, and then to a wonderful writer and teacher. The advisor-advisee relationship can be lifelong, and I hope it will be in this case. Advising Genevieve’s dissertation has been an honor, and has truly been one of the highlights of my time at Princeton.”
“Gavin created a space for me to thrive and succeed during my time at Princeton,” said Allotey-Pappoe. “As a mentor and advisor, he has been a pillar and constant source of inspiration, guidance and support.”
In addition to presiding over the event in his role as dean of the Graduate School, Priestley hooded his own student Yejoon Seo. “As a mentor, I support and motivate students in my group as they seek to push the boundaries of research in the generation of new knowledge,” Priestley said before the ceremony. “But more importantly, I cherish the personal relationships I’ve been able to form with all my graduate students.”
The advanced degree recipients were honored Monday, and their degrees are formally awarded at Princeton’s 277th Commencement on Tuesday, May 28. The 609 graduate degrees granted during this academic year include:
- 403Doctorof Philosophy
- 35 Masterof Architecture
- 29 Masterof Engineering
- 25 Masterin Finance
- 25 Masterin Public Policy
- 63 Masterin Public Affairs
- 29 Masterof Science in Engineering
The Hooding and Recognition Ceremony also recognized the 2024 recipients of theGraduate Mentoring Awards, presented by Katherine Stanton, director of theMcGraw Center for Teaching andLearningand associate dean of the college. These awards annually recognize faculty members for their exceptional contributions as mentors to Princeton graduate students. Stantoncited the importance of the mentors’ wise counsel as well as their “unstinting dedication to their students.”
This year’s winners are Maria DiBattista, the Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English (who received her award in absentia);Alison Isenberg, professor of history; Tania Lombrozo, the Arthur W. Marks’19 Professor of Psychology; and Andrés Monroy-Hernández, an assistant professor of computer science.
“Princeton’s graduate alumni continue to play leadership roles in academia, America and the world,” Rexford said in her remarks. “Your membership in this alumni community is at once an accomplishment and a call to action. Iknow that each of you will find your own paths of service to the nation and to humanity.”
