Congratulations to our graduate students who received the 2025 Travel Awards:
Nicole Beauregard
Marina Dabaghian
Dimitri Alston
Hasan Nikkhah
Adrian Irhamna
Kayla Smith
Maryam Mohebbi
Deniz Ipekci
Salman Ahmadipouya
Amir Shahbazi
These awards support student travel to present research, attend conferences, and engage with the broader scientific community. We look forward to seeing the impact of your work at national and international venues!
Congratulations to our outstanding graduate students who received the 2025 Teaching Assistant Awards:
Joe Zavorskas
Nia Samuels
Kayla Smith
This award recognizes exemplary contributions to teaching, student learning, and supporting our academic programs. Thank you for your impactful work in the classroom!
Congratulations to our outstanding graduate students who received the 2025 Research Excellence Awards:
Zahir Aghayev
Nicole Beauregard
Adrian Irhamna
This award recognizes exceptional research contributions—including impactful publications, conference presentations, patent applications, and entrepreneurial activities.
As part of the honor, recipients will present their work in our departmental seminar series this fall. We look forward to learning more about the exciting research driving their success!
Well-deserved congratulations to our incredible graduate students who received the CBE Service Awards last year:
Adaeze Maduako
Nicole Beauregard
Alanna Gado
From organizing Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association events and running highly competitive department-wide March Madness bracket competitions, to preparing first-year students with mock qualifiers and serving on the board of the John Lof Leadership Academy, these students exemplify leadership, collaboration, and community-building in our department.
Thank you for your outstanding service and for making CBE a stronger, more connected place!
We are excited to highlight yet another outstanding recent graduate of our department, Katelynn Horvath!
Katelynn conducted research with Professor Yongku Cho where she engineered proteins that bind to modified RNA molecules—critical tools for studying RNA modifications associated with human disease. Her passion for research led her to prestigious national opportunities: she was selected as a 2024 Amgen Scholar, spending a transformative summer at Caltech, and previously expanded her research experience as a 2023 REU participant at the University of Florida.
At UConn, Katelynn graduated as an Honors Scholar with a perfect GPA and served as one of the 2025 Engineering Commencement Banner Carriers — a distinction awarded to top-performing students who exemplify academic excellence and leadership. This fall, she will begin her PhD at MIT Chemical Engineering. We are incredibly proud of all she has accomplished and can’t wait to see the impact she’ll make in the world. Congratulations, Katelynn!
As we continue to reflect on the commencement weekend, we’re thrilled to highlight the achievements of another outstanding graduate from our department, Jacob Crow!
Engineering runs deep in Jacob’s roots. With a proud Husky legacy—his grandmother, great aunt, parents, uncle, and siblings all UConn grads—Jacob continued the family tradition with excellence in College of Engineering. During his time at UConn, he actively participated in several professional and academic organizations, including the UConn Chapters of AIChE, ISPE, and Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society), as well as the Badminton, Chess, and Quantum Computing Clubs.
This fall, Jacob is headed to Duke University to pursue a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and materials science with Dr. Miaofang Chi.
Congratulations, Jacob – we are proud of your achievements and can’t wait to see what you will accomplish next!
Read Jacob’s story on UConn Today.
As Commencement Weekend comes to a close, we’re proud to share the incredible journey of one of our outstanding graduates, Camila Connolly!
Camila’s path through UConn is a powerful story of growth, leadership, and service. A Chemical Engineering major and Air Force ROTC cadet, she’s held numerous leadership roles across campus—including as a Weekend of Welcome captain, undergraduate TA for Engineering 1166: Foundations of Engineering, and an event manager/ambassador at the Student Union. She also held leadership roles with Phi Sigma Rho, Major General Joseph Ward Silver Wings Chapter, and the Towers Residence Hall Association.
Originally planning to attend medical school, Camila discovered her passion for engineering after joining ROTC and interning at Pratt & Whitney. That pivotal experience reshaped her goals—and now, she’s preparing to commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. She’ll begin her career as an Aircraft Maintenance Officer at Kadena Air Base in Japan before transitioning into acquisitions and, eventually, project management in the aerospace defense industry.
Congratulations, Camila — we are so proud of all you’ve accomplished and excited for all that’s ahead!
Read Camilla’s story on UConn Today.
We are extremely proud of our junior, Caitlin Noonan ’26, for being named a Goldwater Scholar!
The Goldwater Scholarship is one of the most prestigious national scholarships for undergraduates in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Established by Congress to honor the late Sen. Barry M. Goldwater, the scholarship recognizes students with exceptional promise and encourages them to pursue research careers.
This year, Caitlin is one of only 441 students selected nationwide from a pool of over 5,000 applicants—a remarkable achievement!
Caitlin works with Prof. Julia Valla on converting UConn’s food waste into activated carbon adsorbents for carbon capture, sequestration, and use. This summer, she will continue her impactful work as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fund (SURF) awardee through UConn’s Office of Undergraduate Research. We can’t wait to see the incredible impact she’ll make in the future of science and engineering.
Read more on UConn Today.
Warmest congratulations to our graduate student, Deniz Ipekci, winning the 1st place in the department competition and 3rd place overall at the 11th Annual UConn College of Engineering Poster Competition! A special congratulations also goes to Akanksha Majumder, who won the People’s Choice Award!
Both students are advised by Prof. Jeffrey McCutcheon, and we are incredibly proud of their achievements. It was a fantastic event and wonderful to see our graduate students come together to present their exciting research. Their hard work and dedication continue to strengthen our department and the broader UConn engineering community.
We are thrilled to share that our graduate student, Hasan Nikkhah, has received the Best Poster Award at the 2024 Foundations of Computer-Aided Process Design (FOCAPD) Conference for his work on seawater desalination. In collaboration with our undergraduate student Dev Barochia and under the guidance of Professor Burcu Beykal, Hasan presented their research, “Design and Optimization of a Multipurpose Zero Liquid Discharge Desalination Plant,” which introduces a novel approach to multicomponent seawater desalination with zero liquid discharge.
This work leverages mathematical optimization to determine the best operating conditions for minimizing energy consumption, addressing the environmental challenges of traditional desalination methods. By improving efficiency and sustainability, this work has the potential to make clean water production more accessible and environmentally friendly.
We are incredibly proud of Hasan’s achievement and look forward to seeing how this work contributes to the future of desalination!
Read more on this work in the FOCAPD 2024 Proceedings.