The Asian Columbia Alumni Association, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in April with a black-tie gala at Low Library, has awarded Victor Cha ’83CC, ’93SIPA, ’94GSAS the Alumni Achievement Award. Cha, a Columbian from birth (his parents met at a mixer for overseas students in Earl Hall), is a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and an expert on security issues in Japan, South Korea, and the United States.
Jack Starcher ’14LAW was selected to serve as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General, where he will assist attorneys representing the federal government before the Supreme Court. Starcher, who graduated first in his class at Columbia, plans to pursue a career in public-interest law. Before attending law school, he taught remedial math in Phoenix as a part of the Teach for America program.
Séverine Autesserre ’00SIPA, an associate professor of political science at Barnard College, was awarded a $200,000 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. The award will support her analysis of the effects of international peace-building efforts in the eastern Congo.
Two Columbians appeared on Crain’s New York Business’s “40 Under 40” list. Julian J. Moore ’01LAW was honored for his work investigating and prosecuting white-collar crimes. He was the lead prosecutor in the Bernie Madoff case and served as deputy chief investigator on the Moreland Commission, which reported on public corruption in the New York state government. Joseph L. Mayer ’11PS, a psychiatrist, was recognized for developing Cureatr, an app that helps doctors and other clinicians keep in touch with all their patient’s caregivers.
Two Columbia playwrights have been awarded major theater residencies in New York. Paola Lazaro-Muñoz ’13SOA will be a Tow Foundation playwright in residence at the Atlantic Theater Company, and Rehana Lew Mirza ’07SOA will be a Mellon Foundation playwright in residence at the Ma-Yi Theater Company.
Joshua Jih Pan ’67GSAPP has won Taiwan’s National Award for the Arts, the highest artistic honor in that country. Pan is the founding principal at J. J. Pan and Partners, a 250-member architecture firm in Taipei known for sustainable design.
