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Release: February 27, 1995
Contact: Tom Krattenmaker (609/258-5748)


Princeton Names Winners
of Pyne Prize

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Jennifer Babik of Piscataway, N.J., and
Benjamin Felt Jones of Falmouth, Mass., have been named winners of
Princeton University's M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest general
distinction conferred by Princeton on an undergraduate.

President Harold Shapiro made the presentation to the winners on
Feb. 25 at the annual midwinter meeting of the university's alumni
association on Alumni Day.

Babik and Jones were selected as the seniors "who most clearly
manifested excellent scholarship, character and effective
leadership in the best interests of Princeton University." The
prize is a memorial to Moses Taylor Pyne, a member of the Class of
1877 known for a lifetime of exemplary service to Princeton.


Jennifer Babik

Babik, a molecular biology major, earlier this year won the Rhodes
Scholarship, which she plans to use to pursue a D.Phil. in
immunology at England's Oxford University. Now writing her senior
thesis on protein design, she hopes to do medical research during
her time in England and then return to the United States to attend
medical school. Babik hopes eventually to pursue a career "in
which I can balance medical research with practice."

Babik has spent the last three summers working in the laboratory
with assistant chemistry professor Michael Hecht, who is also her
senior thesis adviser. Babik, Hecht and three others co-authored a
paper on protein design that was published in the journal Science.

Babik, who plays alto saxophone in the Jazz Ensemble, is a member
of the varsity field hockey and softball teams. She was first-team
Academic All-American in softball in 1994 and Academic All-Ivy in
field hockey in 1993 and 1994.

The Piscataway High School graduate is the daughter of William and
Marie Babik of Piscataway.


Benjamin Jones

Also a Rhodes Scholar, Jones next year will begin studies in the
engineering research program at Oxford University, continuing the
work he's begun at Princeton in the area of environmental
technology and policy. After Oxford, he plans to return to the
United States to pursue a career in the renewable energy field.

Jones is majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering while
pursuing a certificate in the Program in Russian Language and
Culture. As a winner of the Martin Dale '53 Award, he received
funding to travel to Russia between his sophomore and junior years
to study the language and tour northwestern Russia. Jones spent
last summer in Siberia, where he worked with a conservation group
to preserve Lake Baikal.

As extracurricular activities at Princeton, Jones directs the
Student Volunteers Council's Prison Outreach Program, tutoring
inmates at the Mercer County Correctional Facility. A member of
the national engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi, he also leads
rock-climbing trips and teaches rock-climbing safety and technique
for the Outdoor Action program and works as a student consultant
at the university's Computing and Information Technology office.
In addition, he plays piano and guitar.

Jones attended Falmouth High School through his junior year, and
then spent the next two years at the United World College of the
Atlantic in Wales, U.K. During his time at Atlantic College, Jones
was a volunteer member of Her Majesty's Coast Guard, serving on a
unit specializing in cliff rescues.

Jones is the son of Barbara Jones of Falmouth.

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