The Human Ecology Alumni Association (HEAA) presented its first Outstanding Senior Award to Eric Zember ’10, a human development major from Syosset, N.Y. The $500 award recognizes a senior who best exemplifies the College’s mission to improve the human condition through the integration of teaching, research, and outreach.

For three years, Zember was a teacher’s assistant for professor of human development Charles Brainerd’s course, “Memory and the Law,” for which he designed and taught classes, wrote exams, guided students one-on-one, and helped to adapt the course into an online format. Zember also conducted original experiments in Brainerd’s neuroscience memory lab for his senior honors thesis, which focused on true and false memory of words and their applications in the law.

“Professor Brainerd’s course, as well as his lab will have an influence on the rest of my life, personally, professionally, and academically,” Zember said.

In addition to his scholarly work, Zember served as Philanthropy Chair for Cornell’s Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. As a member of Der Hexenkries, Cornell’s chapter of the Mortar Board Senior Honor Society, he formed an annual grant competition to provide Cornell seniors with start-up funding for innovative research projects, community service ventures, and leadership initiatives.

The HEAA Honors & Recognition and Student Affairs committees selected Zember from a field of highly qualified candidates nominated by Human Ecology faculty, academic staff, and students.

“My Human Ecology degree will help me for many years to come,” Zember said. “I learned about human behavior, as well as finance, business, law, ethics, and policy. I am prepared to tackle anything in my path.”