Department Scholar Award
Senior status during the next academic year
- Represents the best of student scholarship in the department
- Participates in research or scholarly activities
- Has a high level of intellectual curiosity
- Shows intellectual creativity
- Demonstrates communication skills
Nominees for this award were:
Brodey Bevins – nominated by Pasi Lautala
Caleb Novitch – nominated by Jennifer Becker and Yousef Darestani
Francine Rosinski – nominated by Audra Morse
Presented to Caleb Novitch
From his nomination, “Caleb Novitch is being recognized by the Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering Department not only for his outstanding academic achievements and dedication to learning but for his strength of character. He is honest, responsible, and possesses excellent interpersonal skills. He is always willing to help others and work collaboratively with classmates to achieve common goals.”
Nicole Bloom Award for Environmental Sustainability
This award is made annually to an undergraduate civil, environmental, or geospatial engineering student who has demonstrated leadership, passion, and activism for effecting environmental sustainability at the local, national, or global level. This award is accompanied by the Pati and Soumitri Reddy $1000 endowed scholarship.
Nominees for this award were:
Claire Cristen – nominated by Judith Perlinger and Robert Handler
Josh King – nominated by Zhanping You
Kendra Lachik – nominated by Audra Morse
Presented to Kendra Lachcik
Kendra has had a lifelong passion for environmental issues which was her motivation for pursuing an environmental engineering degree. Since January 2021, she has been a tenant in the Sustainability House where the goal is to retrofit the house into a net-zero energy, zero waste house and also host outreach events to promote sustainable system concepts. Kendra was recognized in 2022 as the Inaugural Michigan Tech Sustainability Award Winner and represented Michigan Tech at COP 27 in Egypt. As stated in the award nomination, “Kendra is always happy to share her enthusiasm for environmental engineering with prospective students and is an ambassador of Michigan Tech and environmental sustainability.”
Undergraduate Department Service Award
This award is to recognize a CEGE student that has shown exemplary service to the CEGE Department through student organizations affiliated with the Department (ASCE, Chi Epsilon, SEEN, EWB, Rail Engineering Activity Club). This award is accompanied by a $500 scholarship.
Presented to Jacob Wysko
Jacob is a senior in the geospatial engineering program and is also a member of the Douglass Houghton Student Chapter. He was nominated for his willingness to support the delivery of our undergraduate programs when a faculty member had to take leave suddenly in the middle of the semester. Jacob is TA for SU 2000 and he made sure labs ran unaffected during the faculty absence.
Danielle Ladwig Award for Graduate Excellence
This award is made annually to a graduate level student in civil or environmental engineering in recognition of outstanding achievement in academics, research, and service, in memory of our friend and colleague, Danielle Ladwig. This award is accompanied by the Pati and Soumitri Reddy $1000 endowed fellowship.
Nominees for this award:
Tyler LeMahieu – nominated by Angela Keranen and Shelle Sandell
Yingtong Tan – nominated by Kuilin Zhang
Presented to Tyler LeMahieu
Tyler personifies the type of person this award was created to recognize. He has been recognized for his excellence in teaching with the 2021-22 with the student voted CEGE GTA of the Year and with the graduate school Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award. He was awarded an NSF Fellowship in 2022 for a proposal titled “Understanding Wild Rice Site Suitability in a Changing Climate” with Dr. Cory McDonald as well as a Michigan Space Grant Consortium fellowship for “Assessing Flood Resilience in Constructed Streambeds: Flume Comparison of Design Methodologies” with Dr. Brian Barkdoll. In addition to his contributions to teaching and research, it is Tyler’s consistent willingness to help in a service role to the department that completes the picture for this award. Whether it be STEM outreach to K–12, meetings with prospective graduate students, or coordinating the CEGE Graduate Orientation, Tyler has been a willing and enthusiastic participant.
Wilbur Haas Graduate Research Excellence Award
The Graduate Research Excellence Award is made annually to a graduate level student in civil or environmental engineering to recognize outstanding student scholarship and research contributions. This award is accompanied by a $1000 Wilbur Haas Memorial Fellowship.
Nominations for this award:
Ben Barrios – nominated by Daisuke Minakata
Yei Lin – nominated by Zhanping You
Miraj Bhakta Kayastha – nominated by Peifeng Xue
Yingtong Tan – nominated by Kuilin Zhang
Presented to Benjamin Barrios Cerda
In his nomination, Ben’s advisor, Daisuke Minakata shared that in the four years that Ben has been a doctoral student in his research group he has published three high impact publications as first author and another as the co-author and additionally there are several more ready for submission where he is co-author. One of the papers, though only published in 2021, already has 21 citations indicating the high impact to the community.
Ben also enjoys sharing his passion for science and technology with members of the community. Every summer since 2019, he has participated in a summer youth program directed to students from the Detroit area. The program shares with them some fundamental concepts of environmental engineering with hopes that they decide to pursue a higher education degree in the areas of STEM.
GTA Award
Chi Epsilon Presenting – Jacob Novitch
Faculty of the Year Award- Chi Epsilon Presenting
Yousef Darestani – Faculty of the Year Award
Civil (structures, materials, geotech) and Geospatial Engineering (3 people were very close: Yousef, Kris Mattila, and Jake Hiller)
Jennifer Becker – Faculty of the Year Award
Environmental Engineering/Civil (Water Resources) Engineering
Department Citizenship Award
Jeffery Hollingsworth
Professional Advisory Board Faculty/Staff Award
Henrique de Melo e Silva
Recognition Also For
Rob Fritz on his retirement after 23 years of service to CEGE.
Outgoing Members of the CEGE Professional Advisory Board
Dennis Decator
Sean Kelley
Leslie Nelson
Kim Zimmer
