SENIOR PROFILE: Seth Davidovits

“I wasn’t going to pick it up at first,” School of Engineering and Applied Science valedictorian Seth Davidovits said, referring to the phone call he received from his dean—who dialed from an unlisted number—informing him that he had been named valedictorian. “I think I made a very out-of-it first impression.”

To professors who encountered him during his undergraduate years, though, Davidovits was remarkably put together. In his time as a student, faculty entrusted Davidovits with important lab research, all while he remained engaged on campus.

While he will spend the summer traveling Europe and hiking, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in plasma physics at Princeton next year, which he eventually chose over the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As an undergraduate, Davidovits worked in the Plasma Physics Laboratory. He graduated a semester early and has spent the time since conducting research and working at Columbia.

Applied physics professor Michael Mauel, one of Davidovits’ favorite professors, described Davidovits as “the sort of student who comes around only once or twice every 10 years.”

“Seth is remarkably calm for someone who accomplishes so much. From every interaction I have had, Seth’s work is unmatched,” Mauel wrote in an email.

David Keyes, an applied mathematics professor and another of Davidovits’ favorites, agreed. Referring to the amount of responsibility the faculty gave Davidovits in the laboratory—including making him the system administrator of a parallel computer, which carries out many calculations at once—Keyes wrote in an email, “A faculty that heaps this much responsibility upon an undergraduate should ordinarily be shot. However, Seth continued to earn mostly A-plus grades in an overload situation and insisted that he enjoyed the challenge, together with all he was learning about parallel computing and parallel computers.”

On campus, Davidovits has served as president of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Club and vice president of Engineers Without Borders.

A self-described hiking aficionado, Davidovits makes plans with a group of friends to face the great outdoors every spring break.

Anthony Yim, SEAS ’10 and a Spectator photographer, met Davidovits during COÖP and has lived with him all four years. Yim hikes with Davidovits over breaks. “We are big hikers. We are known as the guys who do crazy hikes during spring break,” Yim said.

According to Yim, Davidovits’ friends were not surprised when he was named valedictorian.

“He doesn’t get stressed at all. He doesn’t drink any coffee. He is super calm. He is focused. If he needed to work on a Friday night, he wouldn’t mind doing that. He is very in control of his work and play balance,” Yim said.

Peter Traverso, SEAS ’10, another friend, said Davidovits knew how to have a good time.

“Even though he is valedictorian, we still had a lot of fun,” Traverso said. “We liked playing board games or computer games together, or just hanging out.”

He said he considers the study habits that led to his success to be “non-standard,” explaining that he doesn’t take notes. “The only classes that I have taken notes in are humanities classes,” he said. “It goes more smoothly if you don’t take notes, especially with math and science courses.” He said it was more effective for him to focus on what the professor was teaching.

He does, however, subscribe to the “sleep method” of getting eight hours of sleep before exams, and said that he doesn’t believe in working on weekends.

As for advice for other students, he said, “Don’t take eight classes.”