2006 Of Rhodes and Nobels
Tafadzwa Muguwe '05, left, with Professor of Biology Amy Cheng Vollmer.
Biology major Tafadzwa Muguwe '05 is named a Rhodes Scholar, becoming the third science major since 2000 to receive this honor. Jacob Krich '00 and Matthew Landreman '03, who majored in physics, won the coveted prize not long before.
As a freshman, Muguwe lived in the same dorm as Landreman and remembers congratulating him when he won. "Matt was a major inspiration to me," Muguwe says. "For some reason at that time I thought you had to be into politics to win the Rhodes. Seeing him do it as a scientist, I thought maybe I could do it."
Subsequent winners of the Rhodes include Rebecca Brubaker '06 in political science, Andrew Sniderman '07 in political science and philosophy, Mark Dlugash '08 in psychology and education, and Caitlin Mullarkey '09 in biology.
Further exemplifying Swarthmore's long tradition of educating talented scholars are five graduates who won the Nobel Prize. Christian Anfinsen, Jr. '37 won for chemistry in 1972. Three years later, Howard Temin '55 shared the prize in physiology or medicine with David Baltimore '60. Edward Prescott '62 received the prize for economics in 2004, and, two years later, John Mather '68 won for physics.
