Alumni Awards Ceremony
The Alumni Awards Ceremony is an annual event to honor the Department's alumni with significant career achievements. Each year, alumni who are particularly respected as leaders in their industry and communities are awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award. The Young Achievement Award recognizes alumni who have graduated in the past 15 years and have professional distinction.
Graduate student fellows and winners from the Graduate Research Symposium, which occurs earlier that day, are also honored during the event.
Alumni and Graduate Awards Ceremony
Friday, September 26, 2025
Time and Location TBD
Reception to follow
Mark your calendar for our annual ceremony that celebrates recipients of our Alumni Awards, graduate student fellows, and Graduate Research Symposium winners. We hope you can join us for this celebration, which is one of our Homecoming Weekend events.
Registration not yet open.
Congratulations to the 2024 Alumni Award winners!
Prior Alumni Awards ceremonies
The 2024 Alumni and Graduate Awards Ceremony was held on Friday, September 13, 2024, at the Illini Union. Department Head Christopher Rao opened the event with a welcome to all in attendance, followed by remarks from Venetria Patton, Dean of the College of LAS. 2024 alumni award winners Ray Mentzer, Helen Yang, Ken Jaconetty, Amy Stabell, Eryn Schneider and Fik Brushett were present to receive their awards, as was 2023 Young Alumni Achievement Award winner Sarah Perry, who was unable to attend the ceremony last year. Following presentation of the alumni awards, graduate student fellowship recipients and winners of the Graduate Research Symposium were recognized.
2024 Award Winners
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Kenneth E. Jaconetty (BS 82)
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Ray A. Mentzer (BS 74)
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Helen Yang (MS 86, PhD 88)
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Fikile R. Brushett (MS 09, PhD 10)
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Eryn C. Schneider (BS 09)
- Young Alumni Achievement Award: Amy K. Stabell (BS 07)
The 2023 Alumni and Graduate Awards Ceremony was held on Friday, October 20, 2023, at Levis Faculty Center. Department Head Christopher Rao opened the event with a welcome to all in attendance, followed by remarks from Shaowen Wang, associate dean for life and physical sciences in the College of LAS. Alumni award winners Joseph Drago, Elizabeth Hanna, Paul Morrisroe and Alix Schmidt were present to receive their awards; Bamin Khamami, Po-Yen Lu and Sarah Perry were unable to attend. Learn more about each of the winners above. Following presentation of the alumni awards, graduate student fellowship recipients and winners of the Graduate Research Symposium were recognized.
2023 Award Winners
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Joseph Drago, BS 72, MS 74
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Elizabeth Hanna, BS 86
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Bamin Khomami, MS 85, PhD 87
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Po-Yen Lu, PhD 82
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Paul E. Morrisroe, MS 71
- Young Alumni Achievement Award: Sarah L. Perry, PhD 10
- Young Alumni Achievement Award: Alix Schmidt, BS 09
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering held its annual Graduate and Alumni Awards Ceremony on Oct. 14, 2022, to recognize the department's Alumni Awards recipients, graduate student fellows, and the Graduate Research Symposium winners. Since the inception of the Alumni Awards program in 2019, the department has recognized 36 Alumni Award winners.
The event began with a warm welcome from department head Paul Kenis, the Elio Eliakim Tarika Endowed Chair in Chemical Engineering, and Venetria K. Patton, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, who recognized the department's legacy of impactful research and teaching.
"This is an especially special ceremony for me as I prepare to step down from the role of department head, a title that I have held for over a decade now," Kenis said. "One of the most rewarding aspects of serving as the head during this time has been getting to know our accomplished and distinguished alumni, who inspired us to launch the Alumni Awards program in 2019."
Eight Alumni Award winners were recognized at this year's event:
2022 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award
- Charles Damianides (MS ’85, PhD ’87), Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals, U.S. Department of Energy
- Bob Dudley (BS ’78), former Group Chief Executive Officer, bp
- Chung Sul Youn “Sue” Kim (BS ’55), an innovator at Standard Oil of Ohio, Georgia Pacific, and Aerojet Corporation; and professor, California State University, Sacramento
- Kamalesh K. Sirkar (MS ’66, PhD ’69), Distinguished Professor and Foundation Professor in Membrane Separations, New Jersey Institute of Technology
2022 Young Alumni Achievement Award
- Ashlee N. Ford Versypt (MS ’09, PhD ’12), Associate Professor, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
- Meagan E. Lewis (BS ’08), Regional General Manager, Honeywell Building Solutions
2021 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award
- Kathryn E. Gordon (BS ’83), Grassroots Ecology, Board Member
2019 Young Alumni Achievement Award
- Jerrod A. Henderson (MS ’07, PhD ’10), Assistant Professor, William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,
University of Houston
Next, the Director of Graduate Studies and professor Mary Kraft recognized the fellowships awarded to the department's graduate students.
"Each year, our graduate students are recognized for their achievements with a variety of fellowships from the department, campus, as well as national foundations and corporate partners," Kraft said. "These fellowships honor their scientific pursuits and academic accomplishments. We are very proud of our fellowship recipients and what these awards represent."
The ceremony concluded with two representatives from the Graduate Student Advisory Council, Sonji Lamichhane and Suchi Vijayaraghavan, who recognized the 2022 Graduate Research Symposium judges, participants, and winners.
The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering held its second annual Graduate and Alumni Awards Ceremony on October 8, 2021, to recognize our Alumni Awards honorees, graduate student fellows, and the Graduate Research Symposium winners.
The event began with a warm welcome from department head Paul Kenis, the Elio Eliakim Tarika Endowed Chair in Chemical Engineering, and Matthew Ando, the associate dean of the sciences in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
To start, Kenis recognized the 2021 recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award who were not able to attend the ceremony:
- Monty Alger (PhD ’82), a professor at Pennsylvania State who served as president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2020
- H. Scott Fogler* (BS ’62), who served on the faculty at the University of Michigan for over 50 years [*deceased]
- Kit Gordon (BS ’83), known both for her semiconductor work at QuickLogic and advocacy on behalf of numerous environmental organizations
- Steve McLin (BS ’68), retired from his career as an executive in the banking industry where he was a top strategist for Bank of America
- Marchoe Dill Northern (BS ’97), who has risen to become the senior vice president and global home care brand franchise leader for Procter & Gamble
Kenis welcomed Professor Huimin Zhao, the Steven L. Miller Chair in Chemical Engineering, to recognize his former graduate student Fei Wen (MS ’06, PhD ’10), an associate professor at the University of Michigan, for her strong passion for research and education that has propelled her career in academia. Today, Wen is advancing our understanding, monitoring, and modulating of T cell function, which is crucial to our ability to address cancer, allergies, infectious diseases, etc. Wen received an inaugural Young Alumni Achievement Award in 2019.
Zhao also recognized Joseph Glas (MS ’62, PhD ’65), who received the 2020 Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Illinois Alumni Association and the department's 2021 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. Zhao commended Glas for his efforts to replace chlorofluorocarbons (used in refrigeration) with safe alternatives as a vice president and general manager at DuPont. He was recognized both for his dedication to the environment and to the department as the benefactor of an endowed scholarship, speaker at our 2011 convocation, and former member of our resource development committee and external advisory committee.
Professor Christopher Rao, the Morris Professorial Scholar, presented a 2021 Young Alumni Achievement Award to Jacob Becraft (BS ’13) for launching a startup company called Strand Therapeutics that is figuring out how to use mRNA gene therapies to treat tumors. Becraft was also named one of MIT Technology Reviews’ 35 under 35 for his entrepreneurship.
Rao also presented a 2021 Young Alumni Achievement Award to Laura Banovic Flessner (BS ’05) who founded Mindtap to provide advising, coaching, and workshops that bring together neuroscience and agile principles to fuel innovation. The honor also recognizes her efforts to help Asian leaders break past the bamboo ceiling by launching the Pfizer Asian Leadership Forum.
Kenis presented the 2021 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award to Daniel Crowl (MS ’73, PhD ’75), the former Herbert H. Dow Professor for Chemical Process Safety at Michigan Technical University, for his contributions to chemical process safety, including a landmark textbook on the topic now in its 4th edition.
Kenis also recognized Robert Sankman (BS ’80) as a recipient of a 2019 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award for his profound contributions to semiconductor and electronic packaging technologies over his 40-year career at Intel.
Professors Mary Kraft and Hong Yang recognized the fellowships awarded to the department's graduate students over the past two years. The students were invited to stand to be recognized.
The ceremony concluded with two representatives from the Graduate Student Advisory Council, Richa Ghosh and Jarom Sederholm, presenting the winners of the 2021 Graduate Research Symposium, beginning with the poster presentations. Next, they announced the winners of the event's oral presentations.
Before inviting everyone to enjoy refreshments, Kenis said: "Alumni and students, you fill us with such pride. We know that you will continue the legacy of our department with your remarkable technical accomplishments, leadership, and service."
Thank you to everyone who attended this event to help us recognize our outstanding students and alumni.
**Canceled due to the pandemic.
On Friday, Oct. 11, 2019, the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering held its inaugural fall awards program. The department celebrated alumni awards winners and graduate students who received fellowships for 2019-2020.
The new alumni awards program recognizes graduates who have distinguished themselves through their outstanding professional achievements, their dedication and advocacy for the department, or their service or contributions to society. Honors include the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award and the Young Alumni Achievement Award.
2019 Award Winners
- Distinguished Alumni Award: John Anderson, MS ’69, PhD ’79 (Quinn)
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Joan Brennecke, MS ’87, PHD ’89 (Eckert)
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Jack McWhirter, BS ’59, Illinois; MS ’61, PhD ’62, Penn State
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Robert Sankman, BS ’80
- Young Alumni Achievement Award: Fei Wen, MS ’06, PhD ’10 (Zhao)
- Young Alumni Achievement Award: Ajay Virkar, BS ’05, Illinois; PhD ’10, Stanford
The following individuals were also recognized with Distinguished Alumni Awards. They have received honors in previous years from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Illinois Alumni Association, Grainger College of Engineering, or University of Illinois Foundation:
- Hariklia ‘Lili’ Deligianni (College of LAS Alumni Achievement Award, 2019)
- Jerrod Henderson (College of LAS Outstanding Young Alumni Award, 2019)
- William Banholzer
- R. Byron Bird
- David Boger
- John Georges
- Dennis Houston
- Steven Miller
- Charles Prizer
- Walter Robb
- Darsh Wasan
Congratulations to all!
Original AnnouncementAlumni award nominations are accepted on a rolling basis. Find out how you can nominate yourself or another deserving alumnus here.