Department Award Recipients

Congratulations to the 2012 Department Award winners!

The Chemistry Department participates in the annual CRC Press LLC Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award. Winning students receive a complimentary hardcover copy of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and a commemorative scroll to be mounted on the inside front cover of the book. The winners of this year's awards were chosen on the basis of their outstanding academic achievement in the Freshman Chemistry (CH 115/116) sequence. They are Dan Thanh Linh Nguyen, Inna Wegner and
Ryan Scott Dorf.

The Polymer Education Committee of the American Chemical Society, with the support of the Industrial Sponsors of the Divisions of Polymer Chemistry and Polymeric Materials, offers an award for the outstanding student in the two-semester organic chemistry sequence (CH 253/254) for chemistry majors. The aims of the award program are to honor undergraduate students at the sophomore/junior level for achievement in a basic chemistry course, and to call students' attention to the field of polymer chemistry. The award consists of a certificate suitable for framing that honors the student for outstanding performance in the first two semesters of organic chemistry. The student selected must be a chemistry or chemical engineering major with a GPA of at least 3.4, and must show outstanding performance in organic chemistry. This year's award was presented to Yingzhao Zhao.

The Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society is pleased to sponsor their Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry. This award is intended to encourage student interest in analytical chemistry and to recognize students who display an aptitude for a career in the field. The award consists of an 8-month subscription to the journal, Analytical Chemistry, and an honorary membership in the Division of Analytical Chemistry for a like period. This year's award goes to Matt Bere.

Hypercube, Inc., a major commercial developer of scientific software, offers the Hypercube Scholar Program. The award consists of a full copy of the HyperChem Molecular Modeling Program and a commemorative plaque. The Chemistry Department awards this to the graduating chemistry major with the highest GPA in the major who is going on to attend graduate school in chemistry. This year's Hypercube Scholar is Trinh Dinh.

The Physical Chemistry Award is given this year to Tue Ngo.

The Inorganic Chemistry Award winner is Stephanie Bellinger-Buckley.

The Walter E. Weibrecht Scholar Award, given to the senior who most demonstrates a pure love of chemistry, was given to Taraneh Farhangmehr.

The Ethel and Herman Rosansky Scholarship was awarded to Salome Shokri. The Edward Shapiro Scholarship was awarded to Barbara Mello. And the Berkeley W. Cue Scholarship went to Matt Bere.

Departmental Honors are given to any graduating seniors who have maintained an overall GPA of 3.3 and a Chemistry GPA of 3.5 or better. This year we have four Honors graduates - Trinh Dinh, Tue Ngo, Mylinh Nguyen, and Angela Tanner.

In addition, the Department offers awards to the graduating students with the highest GPA. The undergraduate Departmental Book Prize goes to Mylinh Nguyen. The graduate Book Prize for the M.S. degree goes to Rekha Agarwalla. The graduate Book Prize for the Ph.D. degree goes to Abha Sood.

The Vincent Mastricola Scholarship for outstanding work by graduate students was split between John Collins and Zijuan Zhang.

The inaugural award for graduate teaching was awarded to Steven Cullipher.

Congratulations to all of the awardees!