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May 15, 2006 Vol. 77, no. 15S
Bechtel
Achievement Award
Heena Patel, CEE |
Bechtel
Engineering Scholarship
Eric Lew, ME
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| HIGHEST COLLEGE HONORS:
Heena and Eric. The Achievement Award is given to a senior with
outstanding scholastic achievement and service to the College,
campus and community. The Engineering Scholarship is awarded
to a junior or sophomore for scholastic performance, student
leadership and potential for success in an engineering career. |
| When she’s not immersed in
South Asian dancing, CEE senior Heena Patel is pouring her energy
into community service. For the past couple years, she’s
worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, helping research
a cheap and efficient method to remove arsenic from water. Closer
to home, as a Nathan and Violet David Scholar, she started a
DeCal course called “Teaching Mad Science,” where
Cal students lead an after-school science program at a local
middle school.
After graduation, Patel will conduct water and sanitation fieldwork
in India before applying to grad school. Eventually, she hopes
to run an organization that works in developing countries on
solutions to water and sanitation problems. “My biggest accomplishment
here has been finding a sense of purpose,” she says. “I’ve
loved my years here, and now I’m ready for the next step.” |
ME
junior Eric Lew smiles a lot. He’s known for it among
his friends. He’s also known for being the guy you want
on your group project. His GPA is 3.989, he loves learning
and acing tests, and he’s discovered an interest in controls
and dynamics. “You can build an incredibly powerful tool
to ana-lyze complex things like helicopters or racecars, but
you always trace it back to Newton’s three laws of motion.
I like the systematicness of it.”
This summer, Lew
will intern at Guidant doing test work on stents, but his long-term
plan is to earn a Ph.D. “At Berkeley, I’ve found that I’m capable
of so much more than I thought,” he says. “When you’re pushed,
you realize how much you can do.”
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Department
Citation Winners
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| CITED:
From left, Ryan Ritterson, Gareth Williams, Philip Godoy, Elizabeth
Kellogg, Jonathan Tay, Robert Petroski, Justin Opatkiewicz
and Jackie Luk. These students have been recognized by their
respective departments for distinguished excellence in their
work. (Brittany Powell Photos) |
Elizabeth Kellogg, BioE
Hometown: Walnut Creek
GPA: 3.84
Best Berkeley
moment: “I went
to the Castro District to celebrate Halloween with my dorm-mates during
my first year.”
Plans after graduation: Pursue a Ph.D. at the
University of Washington in the Biomolecular Structure and Design program.
Words
of wisdom: Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Jackie Luk, CEE
Hometown: Kensington
GPA: 3.86
Best Berkeley
moment: “The seemingly
insignificant ones spent with the friends that make up the life and
community we’ve made for ourselves in the past four years.”
Plans
after graduation: Traveling first, eventually working for a general
civil engineering company.
Words of wisdom: Work hard, play hard.
Philip Godoy, EECS
Hometown: Fairfield
GPA: 4.0
Best Berkeley moment: “When
I received the departmental citation.”
Plans after graduation:
Going to grad school at MIT, pursuing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering
in analog
circuits.
Words of wisdom: Patience. Persistence. Modesty. Confidence.
Luck.
Ryan Ritterson, Eng. Sci.
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota.
GPA: 3.6
Best Berkeley moment: “Rushing the field after
we won the Big Game in 2002 — the first in seven years.”
Plans
after graduation: Going to graduate school at UCSF in the Biophysics
Ph.D.
program.
Words of wisdom: Study. Learn. Seek. Remember. Enjoy.
Gareth Williams, IEOR
Hometown: Bakersfield
GPA: 3.889
Best Berkeley
moment: “Sunbathing
nude on Memorial Glade while school was in session.”
Plans
after graduation: Pursuing a Ph.D. at MIT’s Operations Research
Center.
Words of wisdom: Work hard; play harder.
Jonathan Tay, ME
Hometown: Singapore
GPA: 4.0
Best Berkeley moment: “Probably
the times I spent chilling out with my ME 107B lab group.”
Plans
after graduation: Spending the summer with his fiancée
in Perth, Australia, then a master’s at MIT at the Operations
Research Center.
Words of wisdom: Work hard. Play hard. Sleep.
Justin Opatkiewicz, MSE
Hometown: Chino
GPA: 3.934
Best Berkeley moment: “Making
my Halloween costume a Stripping Column so that I could go around telling
people
I had become a hot stripper.”
Plans after graduation: Attending
graduate school at Stanford in ChemE.
Words of wisdom: Distillation
columns are annoying.
Robert Petroski, NE
Hometown: Foster City.
GPA: 3.968
Best Berkeley
moment: “Sentimentally,
it’s been strolling through campus on a sunny day listening to
the Campanile bells. Academically, it’s been crunching numbers
to help develop a new reactor for a design course. Collectively,
it’s been the time I’ve spent with all the friends I’ve
made.”
Plans after graduation: Attending graduate school in nuclear
engineering at MIT.
Words of wisdom: Eat slowly.
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