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