2020 Investiture

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Thayer School of Engineering conducted its 2020 Investiture ceremony as an interactive video broadcast event on Saturday, June 13, 2020. Dartmouth held its online ceremony on Sunday, June 14.

2020 Virtual Investiture Ceremony

Investiture Program

Dean Alexis Abramson

Processional

Welcome

Alexis Abramson, Dean
Joseph Helble, Provost

Recognition of Award Recipients

Graduate and Student Awards
Outstanding Service Award for Staff
Outstanding Service Award for Faculty
Thayer Distinguished Research Award for Faculty
Woodhouse Excellence in Teaching Award

Student Remarks

Kayla Duval, PhD Candidate
Amogha Tadimety, PhD Candidate, PhD Innovation Program Fellow

Alumni Remarks

Ashifi Gogo Th'10, CEO of Sproxil

Closing Remarks

Alexis Abramson, Dean

Graduate and Student Awards

Dartmouth Society of Engineers Prize

ENGS 89/90, “Alternatives to the Dartmouth Heating System” team: Kerinleigh Abbott ’20 Th’20, Mallory Byrd ’19 Th’20, Quinn Cooney ’19 Th’20, Alex Derenchuk ’19 Th’20, James Gibson Th’20, Mary Tobin ’20 Th’20, Camilo Toruño ’20, and Kevin Yang ’20 Th’20

Brieanna S. Weinstein Engineering Design Prize

Sophie Frey ’20, Julia Marcotte ’20 Th’20, Sophie Palmer ’20, Rebecca Thomson ’20, and Taylor Ward ’19 Th’20. The team designed “The Sensory Spot,” a place for children who may be experiencing sensory overload at the hospital to feel safe and comfortable.

John C. Woodhouse Environmental Engineering Prize

Caroline Goggins ’20 Th’20, Evangelia Stoikou Th’20, Henry Talma Stheeman ’20, and John Greene ’20. With faculty advisor Dean Abramson, the team won first place in the Crystal Parks district at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar District Cup competition.

Faculty Award for Academic Excellence

Dayle Kwang-Liang Wang ’20 Th’20, with a 4.0 GPA in the 25 courses required for the BE.

Corporate Collaboration Council Engineering Management Prize

Vishal Ramesh Th’20. As part of his internship in the digital marketing department of Helen of Troy, Ltd., Vishal managed several beauty brand websites, supported strategy and tactical implementation across social media marketing channels, and assisted with campaign content planning.

Caroline Henderson Prize

Ali Akber Kazmi Th’20, a Senior Energy Consultant at Guidehouse, holds the highest GPA of the MEM Class of 2019. We thank Ali for serving as Vice President of Professional Development on the MEM Student Council, and for his role in the first inter-school MEM Programs Consortium Committee.

Kayla Duval Th’20
Amogha Tadimehty Th’20


Charles F. and Ruth D. Goodrich Prize

Prescott McLaughlin ’17 Th’18, since 2018, has already produced three journal papers, something his advisor Jason Stauth calls a remarkable achievement, especially in the field of power and integrated circuits.

John C. Woodhouse Engineering Design Prize

Irwin Tendler Th’20, who invented small scintillator patches that can be placed directly on a patient’s skin to obtain a measure of absolute dose using light emission imaging.

John W. Strohbehn, PhD, Memorial Prize

Jennifer Lai Th’20 for her work in protein engineering and vaccine design.

Graduate Research Excellence Prize

Jan Rentmeister Th’20, PhD Innovation Fellow, for research on the design, optimization, and testing of high density and integrated power converters, with the goal of reducing the solution size while maintaining high performance.

Special Faculty Award for Engineering and Service to Humanity

Mallory Byrd ’19 Th’20 for her outstanding service to Dartmouth and the Upper Valley amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mallory put hundreds of hours’ worth of work into the Thayer High-Performance Mask Project to keep our community and front-line workers safe.

Dean's Service Award

Amogha Tadimety Th’20, PhD Innovation Fellow, for her leadership and commitment to the Thayer community, as well as for her prestigious academic accomplishments. Her work developing rapid diagnostic tools of sampling patient blood for circulating tumor DNA led her to start her own company and win Dartmouth’s The Pitch contest.

Faculty and Staff Awards

Outstanding Service Award for Staff

  • Holly Wilkinson, Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, for going above and beyond to meet the needs of students and for representing Thayer on Dartmouth’s COVID-19 task force to which she brought the Thayer “can do” attitude.
  • Jon Stark, Director of Facilities Planning and Operations, for his excellent leadership in guiding Thayer through many renovations and innovations, and adapting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Outstanding Service Award for Faculty

Doug Van Citters, Professor & Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, for his enthusiasm, dedication, and perseverance both in and out of the classroom. He took on the role of overseeing our educational program and embraced the unexpected challenge of remote learning, tackling it as a well-trained engineer would: head-on.

Thayer Distinguished Research Award for Faculty

Professor Lee Lynd, for his group's ongoing research on sustainable biofuels and recently establishing the Advanced Second Generation Biofuels Laboratory at the University of Campinas in Brazil.

Woodhouse Excellence in Teaching Award

Professor Eugene Korsunskiy, whose students say it best: "Engaged, funny, empathetic—probably the best professor I’ve had at Dartmouth; Puts in a lot of effort, cares deeply about his students, and wants us to both succeed and have fun; The environment that he created facilitated some of the most engaging learning experiences that I have ever been a part of.")