Tom McCoy awarded Alpheus Henry Snow Prize

Richard Thomas McCoy

Described as a “once-in-a-generation talent,” Tom McCoy has a truly outstanding record at Yale. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year, and winner last fall of the Hart Lyman prize, awarded to the most distinguished member of the junior class, Tom graduates summa cum laude and with Distinction in the Linguistics major, having earned a 4.0 GPA and straight As in all of his 36.5 credits. His studies demonstrate the breadth and depth of his intellectual interests, both in Linguistics and in a range of other subjects, from Computer Science and Mathematics to Old Norse literature and mythology. Next year, he goes on to pursue a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University.

At Yale, Tom has been tireless in his dedication to teaching and mentoring middle and high school students in New Haven. His professors applaud his work as an organizer and teacher for the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad, which he introduced to Yale’s Department of Linguistics. In this way, and through his participation in numerous outreach initiatives, they commend him for his remarkable impact “on students at underperforming New Haven Public Schools, as well as on our own students and faculty.” 

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