Category: Honors & Awards

ChBE Undergraduate, Hayden Tharpe, was recently selected as a Clemson University Beckman Scholar to further her research for “Engineering a Highly Sensitive and Modular Reaction Cascade Biosensor.”

The Beckman Scholars program offers an intense and prolonged immersion in research to students under the guidance of one of fifteen faculty mentors in the College of Science and the College of Engineering, Computing, and Applied Science.

Hayden will receive funding from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for 15 months of laboratory research. In addition to this prestigious award, Hayden is also a Department of Defense SMART Scholar Semifinalist and has been an undergraduate research assistant since summer 2019.

ChBE alumna Kavitha Ganesan Arms (ChE 2001) received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award at the Thomas Green Clemson Academy Banquet in April.

Selected by a review committee made up of senior faculty members, alumni, and college advisory board members, The Outstanding Young Alumni Award honors a College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences graduate age 40 or younger whose achievements have been significant to the field, their profession, or the welfare of society.

After completing both her Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering and master’s in bioengineering at Clemson University, Arms joined GE Energy in 2005 as a product safety engineer. Her accomplishments and expertise prompted her promotion to the technical lead position over Human Factors Engineering at GE’s Power and Water Facility and a later promotion to Executive Engineering Manager of Enterprise Risk Management and External Affairs at the same facility, where she oversaw all safety aspects related to anything developed on site. GE’s state-of-the-art Power and Water Advanced Manufacturing Facility in Greenville, SC houses the world’s largest gas turbine manufacturing facility and rapid prototyping for water processing, wind turbines, power gas engines, and nuclear power services. Due to the massive scale and potential hazards of the site, Arms’ job was imperative in ensuring that the engineering designs were safe for employees and the public. This year, Arms accepted her new position as EHS Manager of Chemical and Product Stewardship. During her career with GE, Arms’ safety initiatives have led to over a 60 percent decrease in unsafe events in labs and testing facilities and major improvements to the company’s overall safety culture.

In addition to her work with GE, Arms continues to give back to Clemson by serving on the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professional Advisory Board and assisting with the student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering would like to thank Kavitha Arms for her continued support and congratulate her on this well deserved award.

Dr. Kyle Brinkman was honored at the 20th Annual College of Engineering and Science banquet on April 30th with the Outstanding Young Alumni Award.   The award was presented to him by Dean Anand Gramopadhye and department chair, Dr. Doug Hirt. At a relatively young age, Prof. Kyle Brinkman has established an impressive track record of multidisciplinary, collaborative research resulting in significant contributions to national and international research initiatives, particularly those between academia and national laboratories.   Prof. Brinkman received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Clemson in 1998 and his M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2000.   In 2004, he received his Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Prof. Brinkman is currently an Associate Professor at Clemson in the Materials Science and Engineering Department.   In the ten months he has been active at Clemson as a professor, he has already secured more than $1 million dollars in sponsored research.     Prior to Clemson, he was a Program Manager for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Savannah River National Laboratory, where he worked from 2008 through 2014.   He has been the P.I. or co-P.I. on more than $5 million dollars in sponsored research and has authored or co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed technical publications and government reports.   He has made significant advances in various focus areas including hydrogen storage and purification, electronic ceramic materials for solid oxide fuel cell systems, and crystalline ceramics for applications in nuclear energy.   His successful collaborations have produced quality results, and he has been recognized by various professional societies and the Department of Energy for his research achievements. Prof. Brinkman’s most recent research project, which made the front page of the Greenville News, is exploring new materials that could safely store nuclear waste.   His research team is focusing on a crystalline ceramic that will be based on naturally occurring minerals that endure for millions of years.   This project won an $800,000 research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering nominated alumnus Dr. Kyle Brinkman for the Outstanding Young Alumni Award because he has proven to be an exceptional scholar, a world-class scientist, and an outstanding leader.