Faculty, students, and guests gathered at the Nieri Family Alumni and Visitors Center on Friday, October 31, to celebrate Ph.D. student Sara Margala as the inaugural recipient of the Dr. Wayne Bennett Endowed Fellowship in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Sara is pursuing her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering under the direction of Professor Lin Zhu. Her research focuses on photonics, electronics, and quantum systems. Margala holds a master’s degree in Optical Science from the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s degree in Physics from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Established in 2025 by Mr. Charles “Chuck” Treadway, CEO of CommScope, the Dr. Wayne Bennett Endowed Fellowship supports graduate students in Clemson’s Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Each year, recipients will be recognized for their outstanding academic and research achievements, which will be shared with the fellowship’s donors.
Mr. Treadway created the fellowship to honor Dr. Wayne Bennett for his decades of leadership and service to Clemson University. During his tenure as ECE department chair from 1981 to 1988, Dr. Bennett recruited Treadway to Clemson to pursue his master’s degree and later advocated for his graduate fellowship support. That early encouragement inspired Treadway to “pay it forward” by establishing the endowment in Bennett’s name.
Dr. Bennett later served as Associate Dean of Engineering, Dean of the Graduate School, and Dean of Engineering at Mississippi State University before returning to Clemson in 2004 to work with the Clemson University Research Foundation (CURF).
