Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School’s Class of 2013 Valedictorian, Zachary Hulcher has been named a 2017 Marshall Scholar.
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| Zachary Hulcher named 2017 Marshall Scholar. Photo Credit: Casey Atkins |
Funded by the British government, the Marshall Scholarships provide exceptional young Americans the opportunity for two years of graduate study in any field at a U.K. institution. Up to 40 scholarships are awarded each year in the rigorous nationwide competition. Scholars are selected on the basis of academic merit, leadership potential, and ambassadorial potential.
Zachary is pursuing a dual major in electrical engineering and computer science and physics, with a minor in mathematics. As a Marshall Scholar, he will study and perform research in high-energy physics at Cambridge University, following in the footsteps of such luminary physicists as Newton, Maxwell, and Hawking. Hulcher plans to earn a PhD and, as a professor of physics, make contributions to expand the field of high energy physics.
Hulcher spent his sophomore summer conducting research with Professor Yen-Jie Lee at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. He returned to CERN his junior summer to continue with and present on his research. Since the fall of 2015, he has been a research assistant in the group of professor Krishna Rajagopal of MIT’s Department of Physics and Center for Theoretical Physics, which is part of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science. Hulcher has been improving the analysis and modeling of how CMS measurements can be used to probe quark-gluon plasma, a substance connected to the Big Bang that may lead to greater understanding of the formation of the universe. “Zach took on, mastered, and then drove a theoretical physics research project,” observes Rajagopal. “He will be the principal author of a paper describing an important advance, and he showed fearless confidence in giving a talk at an international workshop in which he showed new results (some only hours old) that garnered much attention. All the while, he is both well-grounded and well-rounded.”
Hulcher is also motivated by a desire to teach others. He has been a teaching assistant for the physics department at MIT, a grader in the mathematics department, and a tutor for MIT’s chapter of Eta Kappa Nu, the national honor society for electrical engineering and computer science. Through MISTI’s Global Teaching Labs, he traveled to Xalapa, Mexico, to assist with courses focused on mobile and internet technologies, and he taught courses on physics to high school students in Italy and Israel.
Since his freshman year, Hulcher has been an offensive lineman with MIT’s varsity football team and was named this year to the NEWMAC all-academic team for his outstanding scholarly and athletic performance. Hulcher also serves on the executive board for the MIT chapter of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society.
Hulcher went to Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School from Kindergarten to 12th grade where he graduated top of his class and received a scholarship to attend MIT. He is the son of Richard and Vickie Hulcher of Montgomery.
His parents said, “We are very proud of what Zach has accomplished and very excited for the adventure and promise ahead for him!”
View the full press release here: http://news.mit.edu/2016/four-
Learn more about the prestigious Marshall Scholarship here: http://www.marshallscholarship.org/
