This year, the Williamson Medal — the highest student award for character, leadership and scholarship presented each year at Franklin & Marshall’s Commencement for more than a century — was awarded to Menelaos Raptis.

Raptis, who has dreamed of becoming an astronaut since childhood, is originally from Thessaloniki, Greece. When he was a boy, he promised his mother that one day he would someday bring her a rock from the moon. He says it was the kind of promise only a child could make — and the kind only a scientist, a dreamer and an explorer would spend his life trying to keep.

Raptis majored in astrophysics and minored in applied mathematics, and is graduating summa cum laude. His honors thesis, titled “CECILIA: Chemical Enrichment and Physical Conditions in Faint Galaxies at Cosmic Noon,” centers on his research into some of the smallest and faintest galaxies ever observed. CECILIA, which is a survey Raptis’s research was part of, stands for “Chemical Evolution Constrained using Ionized Lines in Interstellar Aurorae.”

“Why do we do this research on these particular, more distant galaxies? Well, if we can see the past, and we can see the present, then we can predict the future,” Raptis explains. “We can use these far distant systems to predict the future of other galaxies.”

 

Raptis knew he wanted to attend college in the United States. He chose to attend Franklin & Marshall College because he wanted to experience more than just science.

“I was interested in developing a more holistic personality,” he says. “At F&M, students are treated as unique personalities, not just a number. I felt that students were allowed to be protagonists. And, I can say, everything I thought and hoped has proven to be true.”

Raptis spent a great deal of his time with his research, much of it alongside one of his mentors, Associate Professor of Physics Ryan Trainor. He spent his first summer as a Hackman Scholar on campus, his second summer with CIERA (Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics) at Northwestern University, and his third summer with CASSI (Carnegie Astrophysics Summer Student Internship) at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, Calif.

He also worked with F&M Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics Thomas Hull on research studying the mathematics of origami, what Raptis calls a “combination of math, art and physics.” He then researched the aerodynamics of airplanes and the physics of magic with F&M Professor of Physics Ken Krebs. But, just as Raptis planned, the college experience hasn’t orbited entirely around science and research.

He plays badminton (he admits he did originally get involved with it because “the birding moves involve physics”). He’s active in several academic clubs. And, he’s a staff member at the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House on campus.

“I am staff, but I also enjoy the programs of the Writers House,” he says. “I help with organizing events. I love going to New York City for trips we take to see shows and museums. We have events where we combine art with science. The Writers House really is my home away from home. It gives me a chance to interact with all sorts of students and the wonderful director, Kerry Sherin Wright. I have found that being more creative helps me with my science.”

Raptis is grateful for the many research experiences he has been privileged to learn from, and for all the encouragement he has received as a student. What is next for this Williamson Award winner?

“I’m headed home to Greece for the whole summer,” he says with a smile. “After graduation, I am going first to China with my girlfriend (fellow F&M graduate Lerong Sun ’24; they met on the badminton court when both were students), and then Greece for the summer.” In the fall, he will start a PhD program at Princeton University. At Princeton, he says he will be diving deeper into research and working “at the intersection of observational, computational astronomy and theoretical astrophysics, to study and understand the early universe.”

“At F&M, students are treated as unique personalities, not just a number. I felt that students were allowed to be protagonists. And, I can say, everything I thought and hoped has proven to be true.”

— Menelaos Raptis '26, Williamson Medalist

“We grew together — in knowledge and in character.”

At F&M's 239th Commencement ceremony for the Class of 2026, Henry S. Williamson Medalist Menelaos Raptis ’26 said, “We grew together — in knowledge and in character. We made choices every single day of our college lives. And let me do a small calculation. Today, we are more than 400 graduates. If each of us made at least 1,000 meaningful choices, that is nearly half a million parallel universes created within this campus.”

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