Seventy-three students have won the prestigious Hoopes prize for outstanding research projects, University officials announced earlier this week.

The estate of Thomas T. Hoopes '19 sponsors the $2,500 prize for each student winner and $700 for each Faculty advisor who nominates a winning project.

Hoopes prize winners are selected for the broad significance and impact of their projects, which are usually senior honors theses.

This year's winning theses covered a vast array of topics--studying everything from new methods of poverty measurements to postmodern adaptations of fairy tales.

Eben E. Kenah '01 wrote a thesis that proposed using mortality rates instead of income level as a measurement of poverty.

Nobel Laureate Amartya K. Sen said Kenah's work was "among the very best senior theses that this University can be proud of producing."

Kenah said comparing incomes across time and space does not always provide a realistic picture.

"Mortality rates are more honest because the most severe consequence of poverty is not people having a low income--it's people dying," Kenah said.