The Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) was held at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Ariz., from Nov. 13-18. UF students and faculty participated and received many distinguished awards.
Undergraduate Awards
The UF AIChE Student Chapter received the Outstanding Student Chapter Award for the 5th year in a row. The award is presented annually to student chapters that show an exceptional level of participation, enthusiasm, program quality, professionalism, and involvement in the university and community.
Sarah Flannery received the Freshman Recognition Award. This distinguished award is presented to one AIChE student member in each student chapter who has been the most active in their student chapter during their freshman year.
Brooke Erickson received the Donald F. Othmer Sophomore Academic Excellence Award. This distinguished award is presented to one AIChE student member in each student chapter who has attained the highest scholastic grade point average during their first and sophomore years.
Sixteen UF ChE students participated in the annual undergraduate student poster competition. The following were undergraduate student poster competition winners:
Kaitlyn Meister won 1st Place in Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology Group 2
Craig Singiser won 1st Place in General Engineering/Engineering Education
Jostin Armada won 2nd Place in Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology Group 7
Linnea Helenius won 2nd Place in Materials Science and Engineering Group 11
Brendan Wernisch won 2nd Place in Materials Science and Engineering Group 10
Sophie Williams won 2nd Place in Fuels, Petrochemical, and Energy Group 2
Grace Shoemaker won 3rd Place in Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology Group 3
The Chem-E-Car team placed 4th in the poster competition and 6th place overall. The team was represented by 4 students: Emerick Gilliams, Patrick O’Sullivan, Grace Li, and Caroline Cicotte.
The K-12 STEM Outreach Competition team received the award for Top Module, Grades 9-12. The team was represented by 3 students: Zoe Reddecliff, Vienna Moran, and Brooke Erickson.
Graduate Awards
Aniruddha Kulkarni, a Ph.D. student in the Ziegler Research Group advised by Kirk Ziegler, Ph.D., won first place in the Carbon Nanomaterials Graduate Award Session for his oral presentation on “Unique Thermodynamic Co-Surfactant Equilibria of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Fluorescent Biosensors.” The award is sponsored by the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum (NSEF), and the award session honors graduate students whose research achievements, in the broad area of carbon nanomaterials, demonstrate a high level of excellence. UF undergraduate students Stephen Michel (BME), Irene Chung (CHE) and Claire Marc (CHE) who worked in Dr. Ziegler’s lab were also co-authors of the research.
Marisa O. Pacheco, a Ph.D. candidate and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Stoppel Lab, received the Women in Chemical Engineering (WIC) Travel Award. The award, which supports female graduate students, covered her registration for the annual meeting, included an $800 stipend for travel, and provided a complementary annual membership to AIChE for 2023.
Faculty Awards
Fan Ren, Ph.D., a distinguished professor, was elected as an AIChE Fellow. Election as a fellow is the highest grade of membership, and the honor reaffirms the high esteem in which colleagues and peers view his professional achievements.
Sindia Rivera-Jimenéz, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education, affiliate faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) and AIChE Chapter Adviser, received the 2022 Education Division Awards Award for Service to Chemical Engineering Education. The award is for service to the AIChE community including leading workshops on unconscious bias, social justice and inclusive teaching, and cofounding the AIChE LatinX in ChE.
