Villanovans Receive AlChe Awards

by Daniel Fetsko, ’19 CE

The Delaware Valley Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers has announced the winners of the prestigious 2017 Zeisberg Awards for technical writing, along with outstanding student, faculty and alumnus award recipients from each accredited chemical engineering department in the region. In addition to Villanova University, students from Drexel, Rowan, University of Delaware, University of Pennsylvania and Widener University were represented. 

Zeisberg Awards: Instituted in 1941, the Zeisberg award recognizes the best written laboratory and research/plant design reports. Seniors Stephanie Bodie, Thomas Leibiger and Payal Shah were nominated for best research/plant design report for “Methyl Methacrylate Production Plant Design and Cost Analysis.”         

Outstanding Student Awards: This award recognizes Chemical Engineering students who demonstrate outstanding academic performance, professionalism, leadership, interest and promise. The nominees are appointed by the faculty of their university. Villanova’s 2017 outstanding student recipients are Nathaniel Bayuk ’19, Austin Hake ’18 and Patrick Lentz ’17.

Donald F. Othmer Sophomore Academic Excellence Award: The Sophomore Academic Excellence Award is presented to the one national AIChE member in each student chapter who has attained the highest scholastic grade-point average during his/her freshman and sophomore years. Villanova’s recipient is Megan Lindemann ’19.

Outstanding Alumni Award: The Outstanding Alumni Award recognizes and encourages the contributions of alumni to their universities, the profession and professional organizations.

Villanova alumna Sidney Biddle ’15 MSBChE, a corporate project manager for Morgan Corporation, received the 2017 Outstanding Alumni Award.

Outstanding Faculty Award:

The Outstanding Faculty Award recognizes a faculty member, preferably within the first five years of his/her appointment, who has contributed to the profession through publications and presentations in his/her field, demonstrated commitment to teaching and students, and a strong record of service to the department, college, university and professional organizations. Assistant Professor Jacob Elmer, PhD, was Villanova University’s nominee for the Outstanding Faculty Award.

The awards were presented at 2017 Academic Awards Banquet at the University of Delaware on April 11th, 2017.  Visit http://www.aiche-philadelphia.org for more information about the event and the organization.