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2025 Award Recipients

Celebrate all the 2025 graduate student award recipients from our annual recognition awards, Graduate Exhibition, and Three Minute Thesis. Talented faculty, staff, and alumni also received prestigious awards. Congratulations to all these amazing people in our community!

<p>Forty-two graduate students received Penn State's annual recognition awards that celebrate students' impact in research, scholarship, teaching, outreach, mentoring and more. </p>

Recognition Award Recipients

Forty-two graduate students received annual recognition awards from the University for their demonstrated excellence in their chosen programs, in the classroom, in research and creative scholarship, and more.

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<p>Thirty-one graduate students received awards at the 2025 Graduate Exhibition, a professional development event designed to help graduate students hone their skills with communicating research and creative scholarship to a general audience. </p>

Graduate Exhibition Recipients

Thirty-one graduate students received awards at the Graduate Exhibition, celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2025.

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<p>Tricia Hart, a recent doctoral graduate in nutritional sciences, took home first place in Penn State Three Minute Thesis competition, which challenges graduate students to highlight the impact of their research in three minutes. Chemical engineering doctoral candidate Adam Smerigan earned second place, and energy and mineral engineering doctoral candidate Patrick Sarpong earned the People's Choice Award in the 2025 competition, hosted by the Fox Graduate School on March 29. </p>

Three Minute Thesis Award Recipients

At the second annual Penn State Three Minute Thesis competition, three students took home awards. Tricia Hart, a doctoral graduate in nutritional sciences, took home first place in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. Chemical engineering doctoral candidate Adam Smerigan earned second place, and energy and mineral engineering doctoral candidate Patrick Sarpong earned the People's Choice Award.

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headshots of award recipients

Faculty and Staff Award Recipients

Ephraim Hanks, associate professor of statistics, received the Graduate School Alumni Society Graduate Program Chair Leadership Award.

Swaroop Ghosh, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, has received the 2025 Graduate Faculty Teaching Award.

Fawn Hosterman, director of graduate records in the Fox Graduate School, has been named the 2025 Staff Excellence Award winner.

<p>The Fox Graduate School recognized three alumni — Jennifer Hoewe, Jonathan U. Dougherty and Gail Folena-Wasserman — with awards at the Fox Graduate School Alumni Recognition Dinner on March 29 at the Nittany Lion Inn.</p>

Alumni Award Recipients

Three talented alumni received our annual alumni awards:

  • Early Career Award: Jennifer Hoewe, 2015 Ph.D., Mass Communications
  • Outstanding Service Award: Jonathan U. Dougherty, 2006 Ph.D., Architectural Engineering
  • Lifetime Achievement Award: Gail Folena-Wasserman, 1979 M.S. and 1982 Ph.D., Chemistry
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