Psychology major chosen as 2004 UW President's Medalist

Heather Knapp, Hansang Cho, Marie Ng and David Corina with Marie’s poster at the 2004 Undergraduate Honors Festival.

Psychology major Tan Hung “Marie” Ng was selected from among all non-transfer graduating seniors as the 2004 recipient of UW’s highest academic honor, the President’s Medal. The award was presented to Marie by UW President Lee Huntsman at the university graduation ceremony in Husky Stadium in June.

Marie, who grew up in Hong Kong, came to the U.S. specifically to attend UW. “I knew from the beginning that I was going to major in psychology because I have always been so fascinated with human behavior,” says Marie. She minored in both philosophy and mathematics and participated in the Psychology and University Honors Programs. She also received two Mary Gates Fellowships and served as Secretary of Psi Chi, the national psychology honor society.

“As the first person in my family to enter college, I cherish every opportunity given to me, and I always try my best to achieve my potential, both academically and beyond,” says Marie.

“Research has been one of the most crucial parts of my undergraduate experience at UW. During my freshman year, I assisted UW Psychology Professor Jacob Leonesio with literature research on metamemory. The following year, I had my first opportunity to conduct independent research with UW Psychology Professor Miriam Bassok on semantic alignment of divisional and multiplicative equations and presented the results at the annual McNair/EIP Spring Research conference and the Undergraduate Research Symposium here at UW.

“During my third year, I began working with UW Psychology Professor David Corina on a collaborative project with Dr. George Ojemann in the Department of Neurosurgery. In this project, I had the unique opportunity to learn [during patients’ brain surgery] how the behavior of single human brain cells is related to the behavior of the entire organism.

“My research training here has enabled me to attain many opportunities at other institutions as well.” These include summer programs at Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and Chinese University of Hong Kong. This fall, Marie begins the Ph.D. program in psychology at University of Southern California.

Marie also gained teaching experience working as a peer tutor and teaching assistant for UW Psychology Professor Geoff Loftus’ Psych 317/318 statistics classes.

“The UW has enabled me to learn to seek opportunities, to be bold, and to create my own unique path. That’s the advice I have for students starting out: Seize opportunities and make things happen. Don’t just wait for something to come along.”