News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301

Contact: Justin Harmon (609) 258-5732
Date: March 24, 1999
 

Senior Ron Fertig Wins Churchill Scholarship

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Mathematics major Ron Fertig '99 of Cherry Hill, N.J., has won a Winston Churchill Scholarship for 1999-2000. Churchill Scholarships, of which about 10 are awarded nationally in the U.S., fund a year of graduate study at Churchill College, Cambridge University, for students in mathematics, the physical and natural sciences, and engineering.

"Many people see math as formulaic-cut and dried," says Fertig, "but, in fact, it truly allows one to think creatively." He is writing his thesis on "a problem in number theory, namely that of excess rank in families of elliptic curves."

At Cambridge, Fertig will enroll in a one year master's course in math, which culminates in the certificate of advanced study in mathematics. The program, he says, "has a wide variety of options, including courses in mathematics, physics and computer science."

At Princeton, Fertig has been active with the Student Volunteers Council and has been a volunteer in the emergency room of the Princeton Medical Center.

Among the qualifications for the scholarship are "capacity for original, creative work" and "character, adaptability and a demonstrated concern for the critical problems of society."

 

---