Savani wins Beinecke scholarship

Krishna M. Savani, a junior mathematics and economics double major with a psychology minor, was one of 18 students nationwide chosen for the 2004 Beinecke Scholarships.

The scholarships, a program of the Sperry Fund, were established in 1971 for students of exceptional promise who plan to pursue graduate education in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Each scholar receives $2,000 immediately prior to entering graduate school and an additional $30,000 while attending graduate school.

There are no geographic restrictions on the use of the scholarship and recipients are allowed to supplement the award with other scholarships or grants.

Savani, who was born in New Jersey but raised in India, said he was surprised and excited when notified about the scholarship. "It felt great," he said. "It's not an easy scholarship. I was very happy and excited."

Savani said he will apply to top graduate programs in economics at Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, the University of California-Berkeley and Yale in the hopes of studying how cultural psychology integrates with economics. Savani said his work will fall within the expanding field of behavioral economics, which uses "more realistic" assumptions of people's behavior when creating economic models.