Outstanding Undergraduates, 2008

The Department of Chemistry recently chose five outstanding undergraduates to win awards funded by UF alumni and friends.

The Colonel Allen R. and Margaret G. Crow award goes to the outstanding graduating senior.  The record number of spring graduates (79 total), many with 4.0 grade point averages, made choosing a single top student impossible, and the Department decided to give two awards. This year’s winners are Kamil Nowicki and David McDonald.

Kamil Nowicki will graduate Summa Cum Laude with an honors thesis entitled, "Molecular Dynamics and Förster Energy Transfer in Bifunctional Non-Conjugated Benzothiadiazole-based Dendrimers," written under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey L. Krause.  Kamil will be entering the MD/PhD program at the UF College of Medicine in the fall. 

David McDonald, who will also graduate Summa Cum Laude, worked with  Dr. Peggy Borum of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition on his thesis, "Effects of Chemical Diabetes, Starvation, and Endocrine Hormones on Blood and Organ Carnitine Concentrations in Rats."  He will be moving to Duke University to work on his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology.

The Department is also proud to give three awards to junior chemistry majors with outstanding academic records in the chemistry program.

The winner of the 2008 Howard M. Sheridan Award is Jennifer Mattler, who also recently received the Gladys Anderson Emerson Scholarship sponsored by Iota Sigma Pi National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry.  Edward Miller, a double major in chemistry and physics, receives the 2008 Gordon M. and Joyce L. Smith award.  The 2008 Joseph P. Lafornara award goes to John Pang, a major in the biochemistry track.