On May 16, NYU Shanghai celebrated the achievements of the Class of 2026 at its University Awards and Honors Ceremony, marking the first time undergraduate and graduate students were honored together. A total of 168 students received recognition across seven award categories for excellence in academics, leadership, and contributions to the university community. University leadership, along with deans and faculty representatives from across the university, joined the event in recognition of the students’ accomplishments.
Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs Diane Geng delivered opening remarks, followed by Vice Provost for Academic Affairs John Robertson, who illustrated the selection criteria for each award category.
The ceremony began with the presentation of the NYU Shanghai Excellence Award, which recognizes the top 20 percent of seniors based on their cumulative GPA across seven semesters of coursework.
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs John Robertson then presented the Global Leadership Certificate to Ye Qianying ’26, recognizing her outstanding performance during study away, language study, and service work.
The deans from Arts and Sciences, Business, and Computer Science, Data Science, and Engineering honored students for their academic accomplishments and contributions to the university community. Among the distinctions presented were Major Honors, awarded to students who completed the honors track within their majors while maintaining a strong academic record. In keeping with NYU’s university-wide tradition, Latin Honors — summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude — were conferred based on students’ cumulative GPA across seven semesters. The Dean’s Awards additionally recognized graduates who paired academic excellence with meaningful involvement in campus life.
Dean of Arts and Sciences David Atwill presented the Dean’s Award in Arts and Sciences to Yolanda Huang Yiyue ’26, recognizing her interdisciplinary curiosity and academic rigor. Reflecting on Yolanda’s courseload balancing courses in Neural Science machine learning, music psychology, and Chinese literature, Atwill said she embodied “the archetype of the student we hope to cultivate” — one who resists narrow specialization in pursuit of connections across disciplines. Yolanda, who will continue her studies this fall in Boston University’s Biomedical Engineering master’s program, described her NYU Shanghai experience as “the intersection of seemingly different worlds.”
Dean of Business Chen Yuxin presented the Dean’s Award in Business to Zhang Leran ’26 for her academic excellence, and leadership across research, the arts, and athletics. Chen said Leran’s journey at NYU Shanghai reflected “the essence of our educational mission: to equip students to reach their full potential and turn their aspirations into reality.” Leran, who will pursue a Master’s in Financial Mathematics at the University of Chicago this fall, said NYU Shanghai taught her “to think critically and communicate academically” while helping her discover “what I truly want to pursue.”
Interim Dean of Computer Science, Data Science, and Engineering Nasir Memon presented the Dean’s Award in Computer Science, Data Science, and Engineering to Liu Yuhan ’26, praising her as “bright, humble, kind, and quietly imaginative.” As an undergraduate researcher, Yuhan published a first-author paper at a leading conference and will continue her PhD studies at NYU Shanghai this fall. She described her time at NYU Shanghai as “a journey of exploration,” where she learned “to sit with uncertainty, to find structure within complexity, and to pursue ideas with rigor and curiosity.”
Provost Bei Wu presented the Provost’s Award to Cao Yijia ’26 and Gremarianne Euvrard Mosquera ’26. Wu said Yijia embodied “the very best of NYU Shanghai” through her achievements in computer science research and community leadership, while praising Gremarianne for embodying “the spirit of a liberal arts education” through her academic rigor, global awareness, and commitment to service.
In her remarks, Yijia thanked NYU Shanghai for creating “an environment where curiosity is encouraged and exploration is supported.” Gremarianne, meanwhile, described her college experience as one of constant translation “between disciplines, between languages, [and] between the version of the world I arrived with and the one I was being handed every day.”
This year, a new graduate student honor, the Excellence in the NYU Stern – NYU Shanghai Master of Science Programs Award, was also introduced at the ceremony, to recognize graduate students’ academic achievement and engagement within their programs. The inaugural award was presented to Elijah VanderMolen of the Data Analytics and Business Computing program, Chia-chi Ma from the Marketing and Retail Science program, Janelle Manto from the Organization Management and Strategy program, and Oak Soe San from the Quantitative Finance program.
Congratulations to all the awardees from the Class of 2026 for their remarkable achievements.