URBANA, Ill. - The 2017 ABE Spring Awards Banquet was held Sunday, April 9 at the I-Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign. Faculty, staff, students, and alumni attended the celebration. Christine Ansani and Jacob Vandermyde were the student emcees for the evening. Alan Hansen, Interim Department Head, ABE, and Kim Kidwell, Dean of the College of ACES, gave opening remarks.

Jeremy Ross, ’95 AgE, was recognized as the ABE 2017 Distinguished Alumnus. Ross is the founder and CEO of First-Light USA, a company that designs and manufactures high-end tactical flashlights used primarily within the military and federal law enforcement agencies.

Congratulations to all of our award winners. It is an honor and a privilege to recognize our accomplished students, faculty and alumni! Following is a complete list of the 2017 ABE awards.

John Deere Foundation Minority Student Scholarship– Lydia Tanner

Bernard C. Mathews/Mathews Company Scholarship – Allison Nowak

Steve Eckhoff and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Agricultural Engineering Scholarship – Roberta Toepper

Douglas L. Bosworth Agricultural and Biological Engineering Endowed Scholarship – Zhenwei (Salina) Wu

Loren Bode Memorial Scholarship – Jordan Blake Banks, Jacob Vandermyde

Larry and Lola Huggins Scholarship – Johnathan Finegan

Wendell Bowers Agricultural and Biological Engineering Student Scholarship – Nikou Pishevaresfahani

Bauling/Pershing Memorial Award – Christine Ansani, Alex Brauman, John Henderson, Calli Sebok

E.W. Lehman Award – Dana Brecklin, Adam Kozuszek, Matthew Mote, Rachel Tham

H. Paul Bateman Congeniality Award – Lucia Dunderman, Lane Simpson

Frank B. Lanham Award – Madeline Poole, Camden Yoder

Richard C. and Helen Coddington Design Team Award – Viraj Bagaria, Jon Goebel, Tymon Kukla, Brandon Mills

Ben and Georgeann Jones Undergraduate Student Scholarship – Patrick Dziura, Justin Young

J.A. Weber Outstanding Freshman Award – Aiden Kamber

K.J.T. Ekblaw Outstanding Sophomore Award – Daniela Markaz

C.E. Goering Award for Excellence –Leyton Brown

Robert J. Gustafson Endowed Scholarship – Gabe Stoll

Ryan Tucker McGinn Memorial Award – Lane Simpson

Loren R. Maxey Scholarship – Alex Brockamp

ASABE Central Illinois Section Future Leaders Scholarship – Kara Brockamp

ABE 100 Best Overall Award
1st Place – OMG GMO! – Charles Dochoff, Brad Gorenz, Anne Reardon, Brent Ruan

2nd Place – Hunger Heroes – Emily Gorman, Taylor Peebles, Maddie Poole

3rd Place – Tie – GMOd – Claire Hanrahan, Elisa Kim, Xuhao Meng, Dhun Patel

3rd Place – Tie – The Urbanitor – Kyle Bright, Sarah Gardner, Dan Marshall, Emma Sementi

Club Awards
Illini Pullers Outstanding Member – Tanner Koehne
Illini Pullers New Outstanding Member – Leyton Brown

Teaching Awards
J. Kent Mitchell Teaching Excellence Award – Paul Davidson
Ben and Georgeann Jones Excellence in Teaching Awards – Tony Grift, professor; Jaime Thissen, teaching assistant

Alumni Awards
Distinguished Alumni Award – Jeremy Ross, founder and CEO of First-Light USA

Travel Awards
Philip and Carol Buriak Award – Alex Brockamp