CEE launches graduate student awards to honor achievements and celebrate excellence

The Graduate Student Council for the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) established a new annual awards event this spring to recognize graduate students and honor major milestones of their academic and professional careers. The initiative was well received with 132 entries received and 48 graduate students nominated by 79 members of the faculty, staff, and student community.

Council members identified and defined the award criteria, reviewed the nominations in teams, and reached consensus on the results together. Promotional and event support was provided by department staff.

“My council members and I are thrilled by the thoughtful award nominations we received, as well as by the positive impact this year’s graduate student awards have had on building fellowship among graduate students. We anticipate this project will grow stronger each year, thanks to the support of Amanda Thuss and Greg Harrington, who helped make our community-building vision a reality,” says Virginia “Ginny” Lamas Meza.

The results of the project were announced during an awards party on May 1. A total of 57 academic and professional milestones were highlighted ranging from publications to competition success, external awards, conference presentations, fellowships, preliminary exams, and qualifying exams.

Nineteen graduate students also received inaugural awards from Greg Harrington on behalf of the Department and the Graduate Student Council.

• Academic Stewardship & Leadership Award – recognizes students who go the extra mile to ensure the success of their peers and/or mentees in their research program and/or the classroom
  • Adriana Agosta
  • Hangyu Li
  • Zilin Huang
• Bridge Builder Award – recognizes students who strengthen the Badger engineering research community through generous collaboration and interdisciplinary engagement
  • Liqun Xu
  • Savannah Finley
  • Yongju Kim
• Community Builder Award – recognizes students who actively cultivate a welcoming, inclusive, and collaborative environment for research, education, and connecting with colleagues
  • Alexa Rademacher
  • Jayant Singh
  • Yichen Tao
• Persistence Award – recognizes graduate students who demonstrate exceptional perseverance in the face of challenges and honors sustained determination, grit, and drive to keep moving forward
  • Ana Paula Villaquirán Vargas
  • Fadhel Alrabiah
  • Shiqing Cai
• Excellence in Research Award – recognizes one graduate student from each research focus area who exemplifies outstanding research achievement, leadership, and meaningful contributions to the broader community
  • Yujie Ding, Construction Engineering, Materials, & Management
  • Ziyan Wu, Environmental Engineering & Science
  • Shengdong Liu, Environmental Chemistry & Technology
  • Erik Knippel, Geological Engineering
  • Shihang Wang, Structural Engineering
  • Hang Zhou, Transportation Engineering
  • Kaidi Peng, Water Resources Engineering & Science

The team looks forward to hosting the event again next year and building on the strong engagement the project received in 2026.

“If you are a CEE graduate student interested in helping plan next year’s graduate student awards, or if you have ideas for other events that could foster fellowship and a stronger sense of belonging among our community, we would love to hear from you,” adds Lamas Meza.

Featured image: Graduate student award winners gathered with Department Chair Greg Harrington at the awards party on May 1 at Union South.