April 25, 2019

CoE Awards Luncheon Recognizes Outstanding Graduate Students and Mentors

The College of Engineering recognized 72 graduate students for excellence in research, service, or teaching at its annual awards luncheon on April 23. Recipients each received a $2000 award and a certificate. Over 100 others—faculty, staff, family, friends, and other guests—attended the luncheon in the Purdue Memorial Union North Ballroom.
Aeronautics and Astronautics Professor Shaoshuai Mou converses with student James Peck. Dr. Mou received the Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Engineering Graduate Students at the luncheon.

After brief comments by Mung Chiang, John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering, the 14 recipients of the award for Outstanding Research were announced by Melba Crawford, Associate Dean of Engineering for Research. For this award, faculty in each School nominated a Ph.D. candidate based on his or her demonstrated excellence and leadership in research through publications, participation in professional organizations, and willingness to mentor others. This award went to the following students, listed according to School:

  • Zherui Guo, Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • Femeena Valappil, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
  • Clarissa Hernandez Stephens, Biomedical Engineering
  • Ryan Adams, Chemical Engineering
  • Tariq Saeed, Civil Engineering
  • Ahmedullah Aziz and Krishnakali Chaudhuri, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Dina Verdin, Engineering Education
  • Renee Obringer, Environmental and Ecological Engineering
  • Michelle Jahn Holbrook, Industrial Engineering
  • Qiang Li, Materials Engineering
  • Valeria Andreoli and Todd Kingston, Mechanical Engineering
  • Nathan Boyle, Nuclear Engineering

The Outstanding Service Scholarship recipients were selected by faculty in their School for their contributions to the quality, reputation, or success of the graduate student community, School, College, and/or University. The 12 recipients, recognized by their School head or other administrator, were the following:

  • Ashwati Das, Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • Emma Brace, Agricultural and Biological Engineering  
  • Andrea Acuna, Biomedical Engineering
  • Joseph Oliva, Chemical Engineering
  • Srinath Shiv Kumar, Civil Engineering
  • Dennis Ogbe, Electrical and Computer Engineering  
  • Brianna Benedict, Engineering Education
  • Tolulope Odimayomi, Environmental and Ecological Engineering
  • Audrey Reinert, Industrial Engineering
  • Yifan Zhang, Materials Engineering
  • Veeraraghava Raju Hasti, Mechanical Engineering
  • Nathan Boyle, Nuclear Engineering

The third award, the Estus H. and Vashti L. Magoon Award for excellence in teaching, went to 46 teaching assistants or instructors chosen by a committee of faculty and students in their School:

  • Divya Bhargava, Nicoletta Fala, Julio Hernandez, Tugba Piskin, and Prashanth Bangalore Venkatesh, Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • Stephen Miloro and Zhihang Song, Agricultural and Biological Engineering  
  • Jennifer Anderson, Arvin Soepriatna, Jana Vincent, and Yukai Zou, Biomedical Engineering
  • Ayse Eren and Andrew Radcliffe, Chemical  Engineering
  • Hadi Shagerdi Esmaeeli, Yu-Chung Lin, Nicholas Olsen, and Zachary Riley, Civil Engineering
  • Deena Alabed, Jayanth Alangar, Emily Bartusiak, Yue Cao, John Peterson, Deepak Ravikumar, Constantine Roros, and Manik Singhal, Electrical and Computer Engineering  
  • Danilo Branco and Nathan Hicks, Engineering Education
  • Claire Sigworth, Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)
  • Jacob Klaybor, Environmental and Ecological Engineering
  • Duy Duong-Tran, Shree Frazier, Maya Luster, Mojib Saei, and Anna Tatara, Industrial Engineering
  • Megan Forshey and Zhongxia Shang, Materials Engineering
  • Rajakumar Ganne,  Kaushal Kamal Jain, Iman Rahbari, Pawan Rao, Nikhil Sharma, Murtuza Shergadwala, and Jie Wang, Mechanical Engineering
  • Darrell Cheu, Nuclear Engineering
  • Stephanie Johnson and Takashi Kanno, Purdue Online Learning- College of Engineering

Finally, the Outstanding Faculty Mentors of Engineering Graduate Students were recognized. Graduate students in each of the Schools selected these outstanding mentors. Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Graduate Education Eckhard Groll read the plaque citations written by the students in honor of their selected faculty member. The 2019 recipients were as follows:

  • Shaoshuai Mou, Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • Ganesan Narsimhan, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
  • Luis Solorio, Biomedical Engineering
  • Doraiswami Ramkrishna, Chemical Engineering  
  • Antonio Bobet, Civil Engineering
  • Shreyas Sundaram, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Alice Pawley, Engineering Education
  • Zhi Zhou, Environmental and Ecological Engineering
  • Christopher Quinn, Industrial Engineering
  • Michael Titus, Materials Engineering
  • Ilias Bilionis, Mechanical Engineering
  • Allen Garner, Nuclear Engineering