For the first time this year (2017) the Outstanding Engineering Graduate Student Mentor award was awarded. This award is voted on by the graduate students in EEE to recognize a faculty member who has been an outstanding mentor to graduate students.

Environmental and Ecological Engineering Best Senior Design Poster were announced at the EEE Recognition Night in April.

At the EEE Recognition Night on April 27, 2017, several scholarships were announced. Treann Quick received the EEE External Advisory Council (EAC) Scholarship. Over the last few years, the EEE EAC has been working on endowing this scholarship and this is the second year it has been awarded. In the fall Treanne will be a junior in EEE. Treanne received the scholarship from the EEE EAC Chair, Larry Merritt (photo, upper left).

Purdue Environmental and Ecological Engineering (EEE) Professor John W. Sutherland delivered a presentation on the paper entitled “Product Redesign for Improved Value Recovery via Disassembly Bottleneck Identification and Removal,” held in Kamakura, Japan as part of the CIRP Life Cycle Engineering Conference in March 2017. The paper was coauthored by EEE Professor Fu Zhao and Ph.D. student Liang Cong. The paper explored how products can be redesigned to promote value recovery at end of life. As Chair of the CIRP Scientific and Technical Committee focused on Life Cycle Engineering, Sutherland also closed the conference (see figure).

Environmental and Ecological Engineering graduate student Ehsan Vahidi has received two merit-based awards in support of his graduate research. Vahidi was selected as recipient of the Andrews Environmental Travel Grant. This highly competitive and prestigious award supports travel for research relating to the world environment. Vahidi has also received the Hugh W. and Edna M. Donnan Fellowship, awarded by the Purdue College of Engineering.

Environmental and Ecological Engineering and Materials Engineering Professor Carol Handwerker has received the 2017 John Bardeen Award from The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS).

Environmental and Ecological Engineering and Agronomy Professor Michael Mashtare recently received the 2016-2017 Learning Community Exceptional Event Planner Award for successfully planning events that are engaging, exciting, and integral to student learning and development during their first semester.

Purdue Environmental and Ecological Engineering affiliate associate professor Vilas Pol has been awarded funding from the Trask Innovation Fund to further develop his innovation through the commercialization pipeline. Dr. Pol received a funding award of $35,000 for his research on "Low Cost, High Capacity, Faster Charging Carbon Anodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries."

Purdue Environmental and Ecological Engineering Professor and Fehsenfeld Family Head John W. Sutherland is featured in the Winter 2016 College of Engineering Impact magazine. The current issue highlights Dr. Sutherland's research with Indiana Next Generation Manufacturing Competitiveness Center (IN-MaC) and Critical Materials Institute (CMI). The publication also discusses Dr. Sutherland's expertise on the application of sustainability principles to design, manufacturing, and other industrial issues.