Each year, cognitive science faculty members nominate a graduating cognitive science major with the strongest combination of academic excellence, sustained and outstanding involvement in research, significant contribution to the undergraduate environment of the JHU Cognitive Science Department, and involvement in increasing awareness of cognitive science at JHU and beyond.

The Cognitive Science Department at Johns Hopkins University is proud to announce Kwanlada (Kwan) Srijomkwan as the recipient of the 2025 Glushko Outstanding Undergraduate Cognitive Scientist Prize. Kwan will give a talk surrounding her undergraduate research on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 during our Commencement celebration which will begin at 12:30 pm.

Kwan, a Cognitive Science major with minors in Linguistics, Computer Science, and Writing Seminars, has demonstrated remarkable excellence in both coursework and research. In Dr. Michael McCloskey’s lab, she has played a leading role in studies of the mental representations and processes underlying handwriting ability, and she is co-author of a publication that appeared recently in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. In Dr. Colin Wilson’s Phonetics and Phonology Lab, she studied the role of tone in Thai automated speech recognition, as well as tone assignment for English loanwords in Thai. In addition to this remarkable work, Kwan also examined Thai language datasets for use in machine learning and translation, in a project at the Center for Language and Speech Processing.

On the dean’s list every semester of her academic career, Kwan has earned stellar grades throughout her academic journey. She has also served as an undergraduate teaching assistant every semester since her sophomore year, in both cognitive science and computer science courses. Kwan has consistently received outstanding evaluations for her teaching, in courses including Cognitive Development, First Language Acquisition, and Data Structures.

Kwan has also been active in the JHU undergraduate cognitive science society Omega Psi, serving as the society’s president, event coordinator, and senior advisory member. Through these leadership roles, she has contributed significantly to the undergraduate environment of the Cognitive Science Department, as well as increasing awareness of cognitive science at JHU and beyond. 

Among Kwan’s other honors is the Royal Thai Scholarship, a scholarship awarded by the Thai Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation. This scholarship, given each year to a single cognitive science student in Thailand, supports study abroad from undergraduate through doctoral training.

In Fall 2025, Kwan will enter the Cognitive Science Ph.D. program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where her research will focus on symbolic artificial intelligence.

We look forward to following the next stages of her academic journey!