Shonit Sharma, 2019 UHP graduate and 2018 Chancellor’s Award recipient, has recently been awarded the 2019 Ghausi Medal.

The Ghausi Medal, named for the former engineering dean and Dean of Graduate Studies, Mohammed S. Ghausi, is an award given to an outstanding graduating senior from the UC Davis College of Engineering. It is the highest honor bestowed upon an undergraduate in the college.

Shonit has completed a vast amount of research among various disciplines while at UC Davis. Some of his research includes working on a rigorous mathematical and physical study of the vertical Parkour jump with Dr. David Cherney in Mathematics, completing a study of the mechanical properties of degradable alginate hydrogels for optimizing their use as gene therapy delivery tools with Dr. Eduardo Silva in Biomedical Engineering, and doing an analysis of body acceleration data for use in characterizing the lower extremity loading profiles for UC Davis distance runners with Dr. David Hawkins in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior.

In July, Shonit will be attending medical school at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. It is the world’s first engineering-based college of medicine. He is excited for his next academic chapter as his one at UC Davis comes to an end.

I have been extremely grateful for my many opportunities at UC Davis to pursue my multidisciplinary passions. I now look forward to new opportunities in medical school that will prepare me to become an academic physician poised to face medicine of the future and bring innovation to the bedside.