Two Harvey Mudd seniors, Zara Seibel and Andrey Sergeivich Shur, recently won prestigious academic awards.

Seibel won the Daniel Garrad Prize, which recognizes excellence in the philosophy of science. She received the prize from Scotland’s University of Edinburgh, where she studied abroad and took a course in the philosophy of science.

“I believe I won the award mainly for performance on the final exam, which was a two-hour, essay-based examination worth three-fourths of my grade in the course,” Seibel said. “My final exam score was solidly an ‘A’ by British grading standards.”

Seibel expressed gratitude for the opportunity to study at Edinburgh.

“The University of Edinburgh has had a strongphilosophyprogram for hundreds of years—thephilosopherDavid Hume actually studied there—and it was exciting to study philosophy there,” she said.

“I was surprised to win the award,” she said, “partly because I didn’t know it existed and partly because, while I had done well, I didn’t realize that I had done that well.”

Shur received the Astronaut Scholarship, an award given out by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation to a select group of American undergraduate and graduate students who demonstrate proficiency in math, science, or engineering.

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, according to its website, “help[s] the United States retain its world leadership in science and technology by providing scholarships for college students who exhibit motivation, imagination, and exceptional performance in the science or engineering field of their major.”

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was founded in 1984 by the six surviving members of the United States’ first human spaceflight program and was originally named the Mercury Seven Foundation.

Shur is a double major in chemistry and biology and is studying for a career in biochemistry research.

“I plan on pursuing a career as a researcher at a biotech/pharmaceutical company,” Shur said. “I feel that the future is in biology.”