Thirty-six exceptional MIT students selected as Burchard Scholars for 2026

The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) and the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC) are pleased to announce that 36 MIT undergraduate sophomores and juniors have been named Burchard Scholars for 2026.

Elected by the Burchard Scholars Committee from a large pool of impressive applicants, all students chosen for the program have demonstrated excellence and engagement in the humanistic fields, but may major in science, design, management, and engineering fields as well as the humanities, arts, and social sciences.

In the course of this calendar year, the Burchard Scholars will attend seminar dinners with members of the SHASS faculty, during which they will have the chance to engage with the faculty and one another. The program is designed to both broaden horizons for promising students and provide scholars the chance to engage in friendly but challenging discussions where they hone skills for expressing, critiquing, and debating ideas with peers and mentors.

The scholars also attend several cultural events in the Boston metropolitan area.

The key features of these dinners are presentations by SHASS’s faculty on topics ranging from nuclear security to an economic view of artificial intelligence to cross-cultural histories in centuries-old manuscripts. Drawing on the school’s vast and varied fields of expertise, the seminars offer near-endless avenues of exploration for ambitious scholars.

It is perhaps no surprise that a high percentage of the MIT students who receive Rhodes, Marshall, and other major scholarships and fellowships are former Burchard Scholars.

“The Burchard Scholars are a remarkable cohort of MIT undergraduates, for whom the humanities, arts and social sciences are essential, “says Charles Shadle, senior lecturer of music and director of the Burchard Scholars program. “They are curious, thoughtful, and eager to engage with faculty and fellow students.” 

The 2026 Burchard Scholars, their academic years, and majors are:

• Angelina Ayoubi, Biological Engineering and Philosophy ’28
• Matthew Barnett, Chemical and Biological Engineering ’27
• Charles Black, Computer Science and Molecular Biology ’27
• Jack David Carson, Electrical Engineering with Computing ’28
• Justin Cole, Climate Systems Science and Engineering ’27
• Vincent Do, Chemical and Biological Engineering ’28
• Arianna Doss, Biological Engineering and Political Science ’27
• Wendy Geng, Chemistry and Biology ’28
• Janet Guo, Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making ’27
• Eduardo Hernandez, Finance ’28
• Johnnie W. Jones VI, Mathematics ’27
• Sonia Kekeh, Aeronautics and Astronautics ’27
• Julia Li, Physics ’27
• Fiona Lu, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Mathematics ’27
• Valeria Mejia, Chemical and Biological Engineering ’27
• Veronika Moroz, Mathematics ’28
• Eleanor Murphy, Chemical and Biological Engineering ’28
• Paulitte Wanjiru Nganga, Electrical Engineering with Computing ’28
• Madeleine Noll, Chemical and Biological Engineering ’28
• George Obongo, Chemistry and Biology ’27
• Vlad Stefan Oros, Physics ’27
• Carl Osborne, Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making ’28
• Jordan Prawira, Aeronautics and Astronautics ’28
• Mercedes Randhahn, Chemical and Biological Engineering ’27
• Noah Roberts, Economics and Urban Studies and Planning ’27
• Cayetano Sanchez IV, Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science ’27
• Maria Santos, Computation and Cognition ’27
• Daniz Sattarli, Chemical Engineering ’28
• Christine Sinn, Economics and Finance ’27
• Ruben Stephen, Engineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ’27
• Annabel Tiong, Chemistry and Biology ’27
• Michael Turmilov, Biology ’27
• Jonah Xu, Biological Engineering ’27
• Tina Zhang, Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making and Mathematics ’27
• Ivy Zheng, Computer Science and Engineering and Economics ’27
• Megan Zhu, Biology ’27