The George Wendell Memorial Medal was established in 1924 by the alumni and faculty friends of the late Professor George Vincent Wendell to honor and perpetuate his memory. Each year, the SEAS faculty nominate one student from each department who they believe best exemplifies his ideals of character, scholarship, and service. The nominees are then presented to members of the SEAS senior class who vote to determine the winner.
Alexander Liebeskind is currently an ORISE Fellow at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He held various software engineering roles and research positions during his time at Columbia and also worked as a volunteer EMT for Columbia University Emergency Medical Service and as a medical responder in the summer of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
His writing has been published by USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. In his free time, Alex makes crosswords, which have been run by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times.
He is an Egleston Scholar (an award granted to the top one percent of Columbia Engineering applicants), Tau Beta Pi (engineering honor society) inductee, and recipient of the Tau Beta Pi scholarship for 2021-2022.
"I am immensely honored to receive the 2022 George Wendell Memorial Medal and would like to express my gratitude to the Computer and Electrical Engineering faculty and to my classmates. I am fortunate to have spent four years learning from the remarkable people that comprise the Columbia community," Alex said.
