Squire ’08 named valedictorian

Squire, who hails from New York City, began his study of Latin and Greek in grade school and chose to pursue classics in college to combine his interests in the arts, nature, history and politics. Squire’s diverse academic interests have led him to take courses in economics, electrical engineering, geosciences and physics as well.

Associate Dean of the College Claire Fowler “sent me an e-mail saying, basically, there’s something I need to tell you,” Squire said.

“The same day, I ran over to her office, and she informed me that I had been nominated for valedictorian,” he said. “I was basically floored.”

Brent Shaw, the Andrew Fleming West professor in classics and Squire’s thesis adviser, called Squire’s senior thesis, which is titled “Property and the Conception of the State in Cicero,” work on par with that of leading scholars in the field.

“He showed great initiative in getting the whole project defined and off the ground,” Shaw said, noting “the huge amount of effort he put into planning and organizing the subject itself and the efforts that he put into acquiring contacts with senior scholars in the field.”

Squire, too, is proud of the outcome of his thesis. “I think my senior thesis ... was something I spent the most effort on and something I got a lot out of,” he said.

“He has really taken the analysis of this very important subject ... to a level really that you would only expect of someone who was doing a doctoral dissertation on the subject,” Shaw said.

Departmental Representative Harriet Flower called Squire “a stellar classicist” and “an exceptional student even by the standards of Princeton,” according to a statement read by Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel.

Squire’s academic achievements include the Quin Morton ’36 Writing Seminar Essay Prize, the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence, the George B. Wood Legacy Prize and the Stanley J. Seeger fellowship for the study of civic architecture in Greece. He is a member of the USG’s Undergraduate Life Committee, the policy director for Model Congress and an alternate for the Honor Committee.

Squire will work for D.E. Shaw & Company, an alternate investment strategies firm, in New York City next year.

“These are extraordinary students that rise to the level of valedictorian at this University,” President Tilghman said, citing as an example last year’s valedictorian Glen Weyl ’07, who has finished his Ph.D. and will be joining Harvard’s society of fellows next year.

Morrison, too, impressed his department with his academic abilities. The chemical engineering department has had to write A+ justifications for more than half of his departmental classes.

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Jay Benziger, the chemical engineering department undergraduate representative, called Morrison “an outstanding intellect, a great student [and] a great leader,” according to the statement.

Andrew Feldherr ’85, an associate professor of classics, called Morrison’s final paper in an upper-level seminar he taught “probably the single best idea on a piece of Latin literature that I’ve heard from an undergraduate in 10 years of teaching here,” according to the statement.

Morrison was awarded the Shapiro Prize in his sophomore year and was nominated to the Phi Beta Kappa society in the fall of his senior year.

He has sung bass in the Chapel Choir for his four years at Princeton and is the vice president of the Princeton chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.

Morrison will be working in finance next year and expects to pursue a graduate degree in physics or applied physics.

Curriculum changes

The Faculty Advisory Committee on Policy also announced the creation of a new certificate program in sustainable energy. Students in the program will analyze the impact of current energy technologies on the environment and seek to develop technologies to promote sustainable economic growth, according to a statement by the committee. The program, to be directed by associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering Yiguang Ju, will require that students take six courses.

Malkiel also announced the addition of EGR 495: Special Topics in Entrepreneurship to the engineering school curriculum and the removal of WWS 305/ENV 335: Geography and Public Affairs from the Wilson School’s curriculum.