The following awards were announced at the Department of Nuclear Engineering's International Banquet on May 1:
The Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching to acknowledge "the tradition of high quality engineering education at MIT" was presented to Professor Richard K. Lester. The American Nuclear Society MIT Student Chapter Outstanding Teaching Award went to Professor Neil E. Todreas.
The Manson Benedict Fellowship, awarded to a graduate student for excellence in academic performance and professional promise in nuclear engineering, was given to graduate students Khashayar Shadman of Cambridge and Eugene Bae of Falls Church, VA.
Vicentica (Tica) Valdes of Pasadena, CA, received the Sherman Knapp Fellowship (Northeast Utilities), awarded to an outstanding graduate student interested in a career in nuclear power engineering. Seniors Jerry W. Hughes Jr. of Douglasville, GA, and Melissa J. Lambeth of Chagrin Falls, OH, won the Roy Axford Award for academic achievement by a senior in nuclear engineering. The Irving Kaplan Award for academic achievement by a junior in nuclear engineering went to Eric R. Empey of Hudson, NH.
The Outstanding Student Service Award in recognition of exceptional services to the students, the department and the entire MIT community, was presented to Christopher S. Handwerk, a graduate student from Allentown, PA. Wen-Yih (Isaac) Tseng, a graduate student from Taiwan, received the Outstanding TA Award in recognition of exceptional services to education by a teaching assistant.
Yun Long, an incoming graduate student from China, won the Chyn Duog Shiah Memorial Fellowship, awarded by the dean of the graduate education office.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 4, 1997.