2020 MITx Philosophy Award Winners

Congratulations to the four winners of the MITx Philosophy Award.

Erin Choi

Course: 24.02x Moral Problems and the Good Life

Erin Choi is a senior at Phillips Exeter Academy from Seoul, South Korea. She’s an avid violinist, Social Network fan, and classics student. Studying Latin literature in high school led to her interests in philosophy and psychology—she wants to learn more about how people think and communicate. Meanwhile, also passionate about social justice and service work, she took this Intro Ethics course for more perspectives on what she owes to her community and how she should balance personal and collective interests. She’s so excited to continue exploring all these questions as she carves out her space in college and beyond. You can reach her at 36erinchoi@gmail.com!

Erin Choi

Course: 24.02x Moral Problems and the Good Life

Erin Choi is a senior at Phillips Exeter Academy from Seoul, South Korea. She’s an avid violinist, Social Network fan, and classics student. Studying Latin literature in high school led to her interests in philosophy and psychology—she wants to learn more about how people think and communicate. Meanwhile, also passionate about social justice and service work, she took this Intro Ethics course for more perspectives on what she owes to her community and how she should balance personal and collective interests. She’s so excited to continue exploring all these questions as she carves out her space in college and beyond. You can reach her at 36erinchoi@gmail.com!

Robert Markwick

Course: 24.02x Moral Problems and the Good Life

Robert is currently a PhD Student in Astrophysics at the University of Rochester, having previously studied Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Philosophy at St. John Fisher College. Their interests in philosophy include metaethics, philosophy of time, and philosophy of science, while their nonacademic interests include music (they play bass, guitar, and more recently drums) and sailing. Robert has enjoyed taking MITx Philosophy courses and appreciates the opportunity that these courses have provided for engaging with the material.

Robert Markwick

Course: 24.02x Moral Problems and the Good Life

Robert is currently a PhD Student in Astrophysics at the University of Rochester, having previously studied Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Philosophy at St. John Fisher College. Their interests in philosophy include metaethics, philosophy of time, and philosophy of science, while their nonacademic interests include music (they play bass, guitar, and more recently drums) and sailing. Robert has enjoyed taking MITx Philosophy courses and appreciates the opportunity that these courses have provided for engaging with the material.

Vlad Oles

Course: 24.118x Paradox and Infinity

After studying mathematics at Washington State University, Vlad is now a postdoc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research interests are network theory, metric geometry, and algebraic topology, as well as their applications to data analysis. Vlad likes open science, techno music, and pondering the Fermi paradox. His inspirations include Emily Riehl, Yuval Noah Harari, Robert Sapolsky, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, and other advocates for reason and enlightenment.

Vlad Oles

Course: 24.118x Paradox and Infinity

After studying mathematics at Washington State University, Vlad is now a postdoc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research interests are network theory, metric geometry, and algebraic topology, as well as their applications to data analysis. Vlad likes open science, techno music, and pondering the Fermi paradox. His inspirations include Emily Riehl, Yuval Noah Harari, Robert Sapolsky, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, and other advocates for reason and enlightenment.

Saran Sankar

Course: 24.118x Paradox and Infinity

I live in Kerala, a state in southern India. I am now about to complete my bachelors degree. I love to think about the nature of reality, reason and life. Appreciation of art, literature and music is an important part of my life. Anything to which it is possible to attribute meaning and is beautiful interests me, and it has always been hard for me to choose between them when I had to. However I have made it my decision to make mathematics and theoretical physics my primary focus since what I really want to see is a convincing theory of quantum gravity, and I want to contribute to the amazing community that is working towards it with whatever I can give.

Saran Sankar

Course: 24.118x Paradox and Infinity

I live in Kerala, a state in southern India. I am now about to complete my bachelors degree. I love to think about the nature of reality, reason and life. Appreciation of art, literature and music is an important part of my life. Anything to which it is possible to attribute meaning and is beautiful interests me, and it has always been hard for me to choose between them when I had to. However I have made it my decision to make mathematics and theoretical physics my primary focus since what I really want to see is a convincing theory of quantum gravity, and I want to contribute to the amazing community that is working towards it with whatever I can give.