ABE Announces Recipients of Scholarship and Awards
The Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering annually recognizes outstanding alumni, students, faculty, and staff for their accomplishments with a series of scholarships and awards. This year, we were able to award over $70,000 to more than 60 recipients. We are incredibly grateful to our donors whose generous gifts make these awards possible. Following is a complete list of the 2021 ABE award recipients. Congratulations, everyone!
Alumni awards:
Distinguished Alumni Award: Gary LaForge, President, LaForge & Associates, LLC
Young Alumni Achievement Award: Scott Dixon, Owner, We Buy Central Illinois Homes
Scholarships and awards for undergraduate students in ABE and TSM:
ASABE Central Illinois Section Future Leaders Scholarship: Connor R. Lasalle, Fina M. Healy
H. Paul Bateman Congeniality Awards: Zeyi Moo, JC Campbell
Bauling/Pershing Awards: Corey D. Beccue, Katherine B. Koprowski, Charles P. Hoene
Dr. Loren Bode Memorial Endowed Scholarship: Ryan Fogle
Douglas L. Bosworth Agricultural and Biological Engineering Endowed Scholarship: Liam P. Reynolds
Wendell Bowers Agricultural & Biological Engineering Student Scholarships: Rose F. Carroll, Ratikka Rajendran
Dr. Philip and Carol Buriak Award: Austin Ator
Helen R. and Richard C. Coddington International Experience Scholarship: Christina Ginnochio
Steve Eckhoff and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Agricultural Engineering Scholarship: Nathan Goebel
K.J.T. Ekblaw Outstanding Sophomore Award: Luke F. Tutterow
Robert J. Gustafson Endowed Scholarship: Nissa Larson, Grace McDonough
Larry and Lola Huggins Scholarship: Milan Leman
Ben and Georgeann Jones Undergraduate Student Scholarships: Andrew D. Gould, Jay Rosentreter, Will Rexroad, Hunter Bolen, Alisha M. Riles, Arthur R. Schmidt IV, Kevin Hinders
Frank B. Lanham Awards: Lane Weber, Maggie Nutter
E.W. Lehmann Awards: Jamie E. Abbott, Lisa Wu, Yixiao Liu, Rehnuma Mehzabin
Bernard C. Mathews and Mathews Company Scholarship: Hannah Hawkinson
Loren R. Maxey Scholarship: Fina M. Healy
Ryan Tucker McGinn Memorial Award: Cheyanne K. Dierickx
Gary and Janet Uken Scholarship: Brooke A. Stuckemeyer
J.A. Weber Outstanding Freshman Award: Marisa E. Ban
LaForge Family Scholarship in Agricultural and Biological Engineering: Katie J. Benstead
ABE 100 Best Overall Award: Corn Benders - Benjamin Chen, Josephine Cross, Connor Lasalle, Orion Perez, Ellie Sander
Richard C. and Helen Coddington ABE 469 Design Team Award: Sustainable Student Farms Industrial Salad Spinner project team - Grace McDonough, Zeyi Moo, Nicholas Hoppe
ABE 469 People’s Choice Award: STaR Dryer team - Rehnuma Mehzabin, Declan Cory, Ezra Wallon
TSM 439 Capstone Project Team Award: Novacase team - Tim Verlinsky, Alexandra Brown, Ololade Ayoola, Kevin Zhagui
Teaching, research, and service awards for faculty, staff, and graduate students:
J. Kent and Marlene Mitchell Teaching Excellence Award: Brendan Kuhns, instructor
Ben and Georgeann Jones Excellence in Teaching Awards: Gopu Raveendran Nair, teaching assistant professor; Josie Rudolphi, assistant professor; Travis Johnson, graduate teaching assistant; Tawni Williams, graduate teaching assistant
Ben and Georgeann Jones Graduate Student Awards (Graduate Student Awards for Research Excellence): Sanghyun Lee, PhD candidate; Jamison T. Watson, PhD candidate
Staff Award of Excellence: Tim Lecher, manager of ag sciences facilities
Faculty Award for Research Excellence: Rabin Bhattarai, associate professor