Skip to content

CBE Awards Dinner Highlights Student, Staff, Faculty

Emma Hollmann
CBE student Emma Hollmann received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Service Award and the Kenneth M. Elliott Outstanding Senior Award.

Food, fun, and a few good laughs were on the agenda Thursday night, April 2, 2015, when the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering held its annual awards dinner.

More than 100 people turned out for the event, held at Calhoun’s on the River, for the chance to celebrate and honor the best and brightest students and faculty within the department.

“This is a good opportunity for us to come together and honor some of the incredible work that goes on here,” said department head Bamin Khomami. “It’s also a good way for students and faculty to mix and celebrate another successful year.”

On the student side, Emma Hollmann earned a pair of high honors, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Service Award and the Kenneth M. Elliott Outstanding Senior Award.

The acknowledgement is the latest in a series of successes for Hollmann, who previously was named an outstanding junior and who, perhaps most impressively, is a Goldwater Scholarship winner.

Congress established the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program in 1986 to honor longtime Senator Barry Goldwater. Each year, the program singles out qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue research careers in these fields.

For 2015, the Dow Outstanding Juniors were Kelci Bryson, William Hawks, Konstantin Sedov and Garrett Smith. Smith was also named the Eastman Outstanding Scholar Award winner.

Donovan Layton was the Jim and Sändra McKinley Outstanding Graduate Student Award winner, while David Conner was named the American Chemical Society’s Outstanding Senior Award winner.

Tyler Sprouse was named the Most Exceptional Student Award winner, and Megan Farell was named the Alpha Chi Sigma Albert H. Cooper Memorial Scholarship Award winner.

The AIChE Outstanding Student Award went to Bethany Dietz, while Christopher Ludtka won the AIChE Outstanding Baccalaureate Award.

On the faculty and staff side, Steve Abel was named Outstanding Teacher, while Brian Edwards was named Outstanding Advisor and Amber Tipton Outstanding Staff Member.

Paul Frymier won the Thomas and Ruth Clark Chemical Engineering Excellence Award in Teaching, and Mark Moore won the Professor Jack S. Watson Award for Excellence in Separation Research.

Faculty, staff, and students alike were offered the chance to speak upon receiving each award, with some taking the opportunity to thank classmates and staff mates, and others using self-deprecating humor to lighten the mood.

The pre-dinner portion included acknowledgement of undergraduate research poster winners Logan Terheggen, Melanie B. Lindsey and Beini Chen.

The evening was sponsored by the AIChE’s Knoxville-Oak Ridge Chapter, Alpha Chi Sigma, the American Chemical Society, Tom and Ruth Clark, The Dow Chemical Company, Eastman Chemical Company, Mrs. Ginny Elliott, Jim and Sändra McKinley, John and Linda Shoemaker Jr., and Professor Jack S. Watson Award Contributors.