November 6, 2025 ME recognizes new graduate fellowship program at annual scholarship night Written By: Caitlin Scott Departments: Mechanical Engineering Categories: Graduate|Students|Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering students, families, friends, and supporters gathered on October 23rd to celebrate at our annual scholarship night event. This year, mechanical engineering and engineering mechanics students were awarded $1.6 million ($1.2 million in undergraduate scholarships + $411,725 in graduate fellowships) from department and college scholarships. This is $560,000 more than we awarded last year! ME is celebrating the 150th anniversary of our department this year and we were honored to be joined by some of the donors who have contributed to our 150 years. Special guests included John Nelson representing the Douglas T. Reindl Scholarship, Kathy & Alan Muirhead representing the Gary and Marlene Borman Scholarship and the Uyehara-Myers Scholarship, Susan and Tim LeBrun representing the Evelyn Kullerstrand Women in Mechanical Engineering Scholarship, Sally & Al Ferguson representing the Richard T. & Kathryn S. Voelz Scholarship, Andy & Beth Konieczka representing the Kris Dressler STAR Scholarship, and Millard & Kale Johnson representing the Professor Millard W. Johnson Jr. Engineering Mechanics Scholarship. First year PhD student Zach Bath shared on his experience as a ME Distinguished Graduate Fellow and recipient of the John Johnson Graduate Fellowship Ethan Burton, a Fab Fellow working in the Borgen Senior Design Lab, shares about his experience We were particularly excited to highlight the first-year graduate fellowship program we launched this fall designed to recruit and onboard new PhD students. We wanted to highlight grad students at scholarship night this year because they are so central to our research mission and undergrad learning. In this new first-year graduate fellowship program, we partner with faculty to recruit promising and motivated students, with the department providing resources in the first semester to help them transition into graduate school and begin their research. It is a true win-win: Faculty gain talented new colleagues in their labs, and students receive the foundation they need to thrive from the outset. Most importantly, these fellowships are made possible by the generosity of our alumni. We are deeply grateful for this support, which enables us to both advance research and enrich undergraduate education through the teaching, mentorship and guidance our graduate students provide in hands-on laboratories. A total of $411,725 was provided to 17 graduate students. We are grateful to everyone involved in our scholarship processes, especially the many donors, past and present, who were unable to be with us in person. Additional thanks to the graduate student speakers Zach Bath and Ethan Burton who took the time to share about their experiences. Millard & Kale Johnson represented the Professor Millard W. Johnson Jr. Engineering Mechanics Scholarship Recipients of the Nancy F. Ghandhi Women in Mechanical Engineering Scholarship Sally Ferguson represented the Richard T. & Kathryn S. Voelz Scholarship Kathy & Alan Muirhead represented the Gary and Marlene Borman Scholarship and the Uyehara-Myers Scholarship STAR scholarship recipients in Mechanical Engineering John Nelson represented the Douglas T. Reindl Scholarship Susan and Tim LeBrun represented the Evelyn Kullerstrand Women in Mechanical Engineering Scholarship Some of the new ME Distinguished Graduate Fellows Annual ME Scholarship Night 2025 in the ME Building atrium Anyone interested in learning more or contributing to our scholarship programs can reach out to dept@me.engr.wisc.edu. Top image: Recipients of the Uyehara-Myers Scholarship stand with Kathy Muirhead, daughter of ME legend Phil Myers.