Two graduating seniors were awarded the College’s top academic honors at Commencement. Kathryn Joanne Dunne Smith (above) received the Argonaut Award, given to the senior with the highest grade point average, and Matthew Copeland received the Edith Farr Ridington Phi Beta Kappa Writing Award for the most well-written thesis.

Smith, a Chemistry and Biochemistry dual major, earned a more-than-perfect 4.2 GPA.

“She is an absolutely outstanding student,” said her adviser, Chemistry Professor Rick Smith. “She has worked in research with me for two years. She is incredibly insightful, a dedicated worker, with careful attention to detail but is able to see the broad picture in order to come up with new ideas and concepts.”

Smith was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa this spring. She earned an award for Excellence in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Senior Investiture and Honors Convocation, as well as the Maria Leonard Senior Book Award and the Eloise B. and Lowell S. Ensor Memorial Award for Graduate or Professional Study. After being accepted to graduate programs at ten prestigious schools including Harvard, Smith will enter a Ph.D. program this fall at Yale.

The Argonaut Award was named for the College’s original honor society founded in 1935 and superseded by formation of a Phi Beta Kappa chapter in 1980.

Smith and her husband, Ethan, live in Reisterstown. Her parents are Thomas and Holly Dunne from Damascus, Md.

Matthew Copeland (right), a Biochemistry major with a minor in Art History, won the Ridington award for his paper entitled: “Functional analysis of tentacle deletions in the L4 ribosomal protein of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.” His research explored the basic structure of a ribosomal protein in yeast.

“Matt is conscientious and highly skilled in the lab,” said Associate Biology Professor Randall Morrison. “He can think on his feet and is good at deciding the next step in an experiment. He’ll be an asset to any graduate program he chooses.”

Copeland was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa this spring and won the H.P. Sturdivant Biology Award at the Senior Investiture and Honors Convocation. He will enter an integrated Ph.D. program in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in the fall.

Established by the College’s Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) chapter in memory of Dr. Ridington, a longtime faculty member, the writing award honors her work as a charter member and historian of the Delta of Maryland Chapter of McDaniel.

Copeland is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Copeland of Mt. Airy, Md. His paper will be available in McDaniel’s Hoover Library along with those of past award winners.