Akron, Ohio, June 29, 2007 - The University of Akron College of Engineering recently paid tribute to its outstanding students, faculty and staff for 2007 at the college's 18th annual honors and awards banquet.

Honorees included:

OUTSTANDING STUDENT AWARDS

• Outstanding Award in Biomedical Engineering: Richard Beck of Atwater, Jill Jacobs of Akron (44312), Natalie Jacobs of Uniontown, Karen Meyer of Warren, Scott Sibole of Alliance and Sara Wright of West Jefferson.
• Coleman J. Major Award in Chemical Engineering: Ibrahime Abraham of Uniontown, Jennifer Goebel of Canton, Nathan Klettlinger of Uniontown, Malinda Nelson of Akron (44319), Kevin Ortman of Macedonia, Mitchell Shipman of North Bloomfield, Eli Strah of Kirtland and Jennifer Suder of Wadsworth.
• Duane R. Keller Award in Civil Engineering: Daniel Barbuto of Stow, Anthony Eckinger of Dalton, David Gaker of Liberty Township, Janeen Messenger of Ravenna and Patricia Vanah of Macedonia.
• Milton L. Kult Award in Electrical and Computer Engineering: Christopher Feyerchak of Cleveland, Daniel Hawk of Akron (44312), Jared Hicks of Uniontown, Stephen McCarthy of Canton, Matthew Miesle of Avon, Joshua Miller of East Liverpool, Dustin Myers of North Canton, Aaron Nicol of Uniontown, Jigar Patel of Northfield, Michael Plahuta of Rittman, Jeff Rossow of Ravenna, Brandon Smith of Uniontown and Daniel Zaratsian of Uniontown.
• Thomas M. Brittain Award in Mechanical Engineering: Jeffrey Andrasik of Sagamore Hills, Joy Baltzly of Beach City, Chad Beery of Rittman, Amy Blake of Uniontown, Adam Carder of Brunswick, Michael Coe of North Canton, Brian Czapor of North Royalton, Benjamin Dimitroff of Barberton, Benjamin Faris of Stow, Samuel Henderson of Canfield, Donald Hester of East Canton, Jerad Jacobs of Cuyahoga Falls, Brian Jakubowski of Minerva, Alexis Joliat of Tallmadge, Justin McDonough of Akron (44321), Chad Mieczkowski of Kent, Ann Marie Miller of Uniontown, Ana Nino of Venezuela, Mohamed Sabha of Cuyahoga Falls, Daniel Sayre of Doylestown, Jared Singer of Canton, Vincent Sirna of Bedford, Christopher Smith of Massillon, Samuel Stanley of North Canton, Brian Watson of Kingsville, Jeffrey Weyand of Alliance and Joseph Zuzic of Euclid.
• Donald R. Burrowbridge Award in Cooperative Education: Sara Wright of West Jefferson, Mitchell Shipman of North Bloomfield, Anthony Eckinger of Dalton, Jonathan Soudry of Cuyahoga Falls, Alexander Oldja of Strongsville, Adam Carder of Brunswick and Julie Orlando of Canton.

STUDENT SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

• C. William Loughry, M.D., Award in Biomedical Engineering: Karen Meyer of Warren.
• Joseph L. Verstraete Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Biomedical Engineering: Sara Wright of West Jefferson.
• Joseph L. Verstraete Outstanding Graduate Student in Biomedical Engineering: Andrew Ditto of Uniontown.
• Chemstress Consultant Co. Outstanding Graduate Student Award in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Debanjan Sarkar of India.
• Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Faculty Scholarship: Mitchell Shipman of North Bloomfield.
• Larry G. Focht Scholarship: Jaclyn Shuman of Canal Fulton.

FACULTY AND STAFF AWARDS

• Outstanding Staff Member Award: Kim Stone of Canal Fulton, administrative secretary, Department of Civil Engineering.
• Outstanding Teacher Award: Dr. Mary Verstraete of Copley, associate professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering.
• Outstanding Researcher Award: Dr. Steven Chuang of Hudson, professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
• Louis A. Hill Jr. Award: Dr. Malik Elbuluk of Akron (44333), professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.