Mark Shirfan is a mathematics, economics, and mechanical engineering triple major(!) who stands out in coursework and extracurricular mathematics activities. He modestly says "I really have only one major, namely applied mathematics. It intersects those three fields, that's why it looks as though I had three majors." In classes he has shown an inquisitive mind, and his professors perceive him as a first-rate intellect to whom the other students look as a leader.
He also represented Tufts in a famous nationwide mathematics contest, the William Lowell Putnam Competition, for which Tufts fielded a team, and he won the Lt. Commander R. J. Manning Memorial Prize (for engineering undergraduates who are industrious, competent, enthusiastic, and who show the same commitment to excellence that Lt. Commander Manning, class of 1970, demonstrated throughout his life).
He worked with Professor Börgers in the summer of 2005 on a project on neuronal mechanisms underlying attentional processing, which may become a publication with him as a co-author. This summer he works in Morgan Stanley's Fixed Income Division in Manhattan.
His senior year includes both a senior honors thesis in economics (on federal reserve interest rate policy) and a senior design project for mechanical engineering. The latter is to design a pen for left-handed people -- when writing, a righty 'pulls' the pen towards his hand, while a lefty 'pushes' it away from her hand, which causes a number of minor irritations he and his collaborator are hoping to correct.