#  Byron Otis and Marin Gray Awarded the Bowdoin Prize 

 





May 04, 2026

 

 

Congratulations to Marin Gray (HAA class of 2026) and Byron Otis (HAA G3), who have both been awarded Bowdoin Essay Prizes for 2025-2026. They are two of only six awardees total for the year.

The Bowdoin Prizes, some of Harvard’s oldest and most prestigious student awards, are designed to recognize essays of originality and high literary merit written in a way that engages both specialists and non-specialists. Established in 1791, the Bowdoin Prizes have been awarded to many notable Harvard students, among them the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson; the former Harvard presidents Charles Eliot and Nathan Pusey; the historians Henry Adams, Susan Pedersen, and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; the novelist John Updike; the writer and philosopher Alain LeRoy Locke; and the journalist Faith Salie. Each winner of a Bowdoin Prize receives, in addition to a sum of money, a medal and a certificate, and his or her name is printed in the Commencement program.

Both of their essays are about heavenly topics. Byron’s is titled "The Mirror and the Moon: The Reflected Lunar Gaze in Early Modern Europe,” and Marin’s is titled “Heavenly Wonders, Earthly Futures: The Art of Astronomy in Cyprian Leowitz’s *Eclipses luminarium*.”



 

 

 

 [   ![Marin Gray, holding her bound thesis](https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4426/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-05/DSC01370.jpeg?itok=7PRv46Sw) 

  

 ](https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4426/files/2026-05/DSC01370.jpeg) 

 [   ![Image from Marin Gray's thesis "Heavenly Wonders, Earthly Futures: The Art of Astronomy in Cyprian Leowitz’s Eclipses luminarium"](https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4426/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-05/IMG_5054-2.png?itok=oZiX_iZA) 

  

 ](https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4426/files/2026-05/IMG_5054-2.png) 

 [   ![Byron Otis](https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4426/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-05/byron1.jpg?itok=68k5Vqu9) 

  

 ](https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4426/files/2026-05/byron1.jpg) 

 [   ![Image from Byron Otis' thesis "The Mirror and the Moon: The Reflected Lunar Gaze in Early Modern Europe"](https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4426/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-05/byron2.png?itok=HRuBbrEQ) 

  

 ](https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4426/files/2026-05/byron2.png) 

 

 



 



 

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