Graduate Students of the Month

The Kenneth Johnsen Graduate Student of the Month Awards听recognize outstanding students who excel academically and are examples for the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The awards are named for Kenneth Johnsen, a former graduate student in the department who was called听the quintessential grad student.听He was smart, respectful, adventurous, hard-working, funny, easy-to-get-along-with, scholarly听and had a passion for learning.听While pursuing his graduate studies, Ken was diagnosed with cancer and eventually succumbed to his illness. This award was established to honor his memory.鈥�

Faculty members are encouraged to nominate students who embody the qualities Ken exemplified so well.鈥嬏齇nce a student is chosen, the student is recognized in the department and at the Graduate Engineering Annual Recruiting and Research Symposium banquet in March where they are presented a certificate and a small scholarship.

Graduate Student of the Month - Amanda Makowiecki

Nov. 12, 2018

Amanda grew up in the land of 鈥楲ive free or die鈥� where she could be found shooting off fireworks, driving without seatbelts (just kidding, be safe kids) and gazing at the profile of the Old Man of the Mountain (rest in peace). Amanda now works on developing and deploying diagnostics...

Graduate Student of the Month - Andrew Tomaschke

Oct. 12, 2018

Andrew was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. He completed his BS in Mechanical Engineering at the University at Buffalo in 2011. During his undergraduate studies, he interned as a mechanical estimator for a local mechanical contractor. Upon graduation, he worked for Glauber Equipment Corporation where he performed compressed air...

Graduate Student of the Month - Jason Christopher

Nov. 9, 2017

Jason earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the United States Air Force Academy in 2007. While at the Academy, he interned at the Los Alamos National Laboratory researching deflagration properties of explosive materials. After the Academy, Jason earned an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Rice University with his research...

Graduate Student of the Month - Yao Zhai

Sept. 1, 2017

Yao Zhai was born in Tianjin, China. He stayed in his hometown through his bachelor degree from Tianjin University. After obtaining his Master degree from the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Science, he decided to continue his education abroad. Yao came to CU Boulder and joined Dr. Xiaobo Yin鈥檚...

Karl Johannes backpacking in the mountains.

Graduate Student of the Month - Karl Johannes

Aug. 9, 2017

Karl spent the first 22 years of his life in the harsh desert climate of suburban New Mexico. While enduring the unbearable climate he successfully completed his BS in Mechanical Engineering at New Mexico State University, despite spending most of his time building cars with the Baja SAE team and...

Graduate Student of the Month - David Pfotenhauer

June 6, 2017

Like all true Wisconsinites, David was raised on nothing but cheese, milk, and Wisconsin football. He spent the first 18 years of his life growing up in the beautiful city of Madison, where he developed his passion for science in school, his affinity towards farmland, cornfields, and cow pastures, and...

Graduate Student of the Month - Xin Qian

April 1, 2017

Xin Qian is a PhD student working with Prof. Ronggui Yang. He works on modeling thermal transport in hybrid organic-inorganic crystals. His modeling of thermal transport in the organic-inorganic perovskite with green energy applications was recently highlighted as one of the Top 10 Most Cited Articles in Applied Physics Letters...

Graduate Student of the Month - Colin Towery

March 1, 2017

Colin is a third-year PhD student in his sixth year overall at CU Boulder. He joined the Mechanical Engineering master鈥檚 program way back in Spring 2012, a full semester before his eventual advisor, Dr. Peter Hamlington . After having some fun designing and testing a CubeSat at the Colorado Space...

Graduate Student of the Month - Mohamed Eltarkawe

Feb. 2, 2017

Mohamed Eltarkawe is a third-year PhD student in Prof. Shelly Miller鈥檚 research group. His research interests are directed towards understanding the relationship between well-being and industrial odors in five communities in Colorado: Fort Collins, Greeley, Fort Lupton, North Denver, and Pueblo. He developed an android app (Report Odor 1) through...

Graduate Student of the Month - Gregory Formosa

Dec. 2, 2016

Greg grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, IL and completed his undergraduate BSME at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 2010. After the 4 years of school and 3 years of internships at Motorola, he decided to build his hands-on skill set in industry before continuing in academia...

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