Alex Del Franco, Watson Fellow and 3MT Finalist

Congratulations to recent lab graduate Alex Del Franco ‘24, who has been awarded a prestigious Watson Fellowship, which will take him abroad for all of next year to study the educational systems of Finland, Germany, and India. See the Amherst College magazine’s excellent article about him here (see also the following article about Cailin Plunkett’s Apker award - a 2pg. spread of Follette labbers!)

Alex is a brilliant scholar and educator, and I’ve been predicting for years now that he’ll be the first lab alum to become famous. Remember us when you make your first few millions Alex! The Del Franco Astronomical Observatory has a nice ring to it…

Racking up the honors, Alex was also selected for the Amherst College Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition in April, where he delivered a brilliant talk about the power of science to inspire young people and his thesis work in physics/astronomy education, which aims to understand how to best engage students with dynamic, interactive visual simulations of physical phenomena.

Congratulations Alex!