Select Juniors Elected to Phi Beta Kappa

Harvard's chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) Society, Alpha Iota, will induct 24 new members of the class of 2001 tomorrow.

The group was selected based on two letters of recommendation, as well as their performance in a wide range of courses. They were chosen from a pool of 48 juniors nominated on the basis of their grade-point-averages (GPAs).

Andrew J. Kin '01, a newly elected PBK member, said that he is excited about the honor.

"I just think it's an exciting opportunity to be recognized, and I'm really thankful that God got me through the past three years," Kin said.

Three committees comprised of Faculty and previously elected students were in charge of the selection process.

Chapter President and co-Chair of the Social Science Election Committee Everett I. Mendelsohn, professor of the History of Science, said the nominees' GPAs were often indistinguishable, forcing the committee to use the quality and diversity of the courses taken as a tiebreaker between candidates.

"We give greater weight to those who took the more rigorous courses or who went into greater depth versus those who skimmed through a series of introductory courses," Mendelsohn said.

"We also look for diversity, for the ability of students to not only take an intense group of economic courses but to do well in things outside their own field," he added, citing as an example a student who took an advanced literature course although he primarily concentrated in microeconomics.

Mendelsohn, who has been involved with the selection process on and off for the past six years, said he was looking forward to meeting the new members.

"I'm always fascinated by how much I learn from new PBK students as I meet them at receptions and dinners. They're a stunning group of students," he said.

This round of elections is the first of three PBK holds for each class. Forty-eight members of the class of 2001 will be elected in the fall of their senior year, and about 100 students will be elected just before graduation. In all, the chapter accepts the top 10 percent of each graduating class.

The new members are Jesse M. Shapiro and Benjamin D. Tolchin of Adams House; Eli L. Diamond, Angie D. Heo, Andrew J. Kin and Michael K. Thomas Tan of Cabot House; Andreea S. Balan, William H. Kitchens and Ciprian Manolescu of Currier House; Andrew J. Heckerling and David M. Shapiro of Eliot House; Peter Ciganik, David E. Landau, Kevin S. Schwartz, Shanyah A. Wang and Dorothy Weiss of Kirkland House; Michael A. Levin of Leverett House; Margaret S. Soper of Lowell House; Paola Y. Tartakoff of Mather House; Nadarajan Chetty of Pforzheimer House; Emma R. Burbank-Schmitt and Davesh Maulik of Quincy House; Jennifer Belli and Catherine M. Taylor of Winthrop House.

Founded in 1781, Harvard's Alpha Iota chapter is the oldest continually operating chapter in America. Iota was originally the PBK chapter of Radcliffe College, but merged with Harvard College's Alpha chapter five years ago.

The induction ceremony will take place tomorrow at Dudley House at 5:30 p.m.