Seniors Varun Phadke and Graham Phillips were named valedictorian and Latin salutatorian, respectively, at the University faculty meeting Monday. The choice of Phadke makes this the third year a molecular biology major has been named valedictorian.
The two will speak at the Class of 2005's commencement ceremonies on May 31, Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel said.
Speaking on behalf of the Committee on Examinations and Standing, Malkiel praised the two students as "young men who do us proud and represent the Class of 2005 in an exemplary fashion."
After Malkiel spoke, the faculty voted unanimously in favor of the selection.
Born in India, valedictorian Phadke immigrated to the United States at age nine with his family and attended high school near Syracuse, New York.
Though professors who have worked with Phadke praised him for his work in the molecular biology department and beyond, the senior "really wasn't expecting" to be chosen as valedictorian, he said.
When he went to a meeting with Associate Dean of the College Richard Williams last week, Phadke expected to be notified of receiving departmental honors and not a larger honor, he said.
Phadke's selection as valedictorian is not the first time the University has honored him for his academic achievement.
He won both the Freshman First Honor Prize and the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence for the grades he earned in his first year at Princeton, and won the Shapiro Prize again after his sophomore year. At the end of junior year, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
His senior thesis adviser, molecular biology professor Sam Wang, wrote that Varun's work represented "a first-rate body of scholarship that runs the gamut of biological questions and methods," Malkiel said.
In November, soon after Phadke begins classes at Harvard Medical School, Phadke and Wang will present the findings of his thesis research comparing the cerebella of different animals at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Though interested in teaching and research, Phadke said his primary interest is clinical medicine with a focus on neurobiology "because that's the lab I'm in right now."
The career of Latin salutatorian Phillips will likely take a different direction. The history major from Brookfield, Mass., has enlisted in the U.S. Army and will begin basic training at Fort Knox, Ky., this July.
Dedicated to public service, Phillips said he believes there is "a need for qualified people from many backgrounds" in the military and decided to enlist for that reason.
He wrote his thesis on the development of American armed forces from the time the United States entered World War I in 1917 until the end of World War II.
Phillips also won two Shapiro Prizes and joined Phi Beta Kappa after junior year.
Most importantly for a student who will give a speech in Latin, Phillips has earned "excellent" grades in elementary and advanced Latin classes at Princeton, Malkiel said.
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