Annual Award Reception

Celebrating Excellence!

Each spring the BCMB department enjoys gathering for a reception that honors our undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff for their excellent work. Thanks to generous donations that have been made to the department, we have been able to offer scholarships and cash awards  to our most outstanding majors, staff and faculty members.

For undergraduates we recognize top graduates, students who have been engaged in undergraduate research, and scholarship recipients. We also take this opportunity to invite parents and families of our undergraduate honorees.  We have several  scholarships for undergraduates including the: J. Gordon and Elizabeth S. Carlson Undergraduate Scholarship, Carolyn W. Fite Scholarship, Emmette and Nannie Hale Scholarship for Pre-Dentistry, Dr. John R. Staley, Jr. Scholarship, Undergraduate Research Scholarship, Nancy Ruth Creery Memorial Scholarship, and Tyler Duke Foundation Scholarship named in memory of one of our recent BCMB majors. For more information and a list of award winners, click here.

For graduate students, we have several awards & fellowships for research and teaching (see graduate student awards page). The awards include the Biochemistry Alumni Graduate Assistant Award, Dr. Ray Holton Plant Science Award, David and Becky Eaker Graduate Student Award, Lizzie Howell Graduate Award and W. Sherman Kouns Excellence in Teaching Award. Fellowships include; the Ranjan and Nivedita Ganguly Fellowship, Robert and Nell Keenan Bioscience Fellowship, Dr. Cynthia B. Peterson Fellowship, James and Dora Wright Fellowship, and a new fellowship starting FA25 the Ms. Katherine Ann Wallace Fellowship.

Faculty who have distinguished records in teaching and research (see faculty awards page), along with staff members who contribute uniquely to our teaching and academic mission (see staff awards page), and postdocs and research associates (see postdoc/research associates awards page) are also recognized at this reception. In 2022, the department established the C.W. Fite Research Incentive Award for Research for postdocs and research associates. We recognize faculty with funds to pilot new research with the Dr. Donald L. Akers, Jr. Faculty Enrichment Fellowship. This was made available in the department thanks to Dr. Akers’ generous donation. Every three years the Charles P. Postelle Distinguished Professorship is awarded to a Full Professor who has demonstrated an exceptional level of scholarly achievement.