2016 Simon Karecki Award Presented to Xiangyu Bi, Arizona State University

The following is an excerpt of the 2016 Simon Karecki award presentation:

This is the 15th presentation of the SRC Education Alliance Simon Karecki Award.

This Award is given in memory of Dr. Simon Karecki who was a student in the Engineering Research Center program and an SRC Fellow.  Friends and colleagues of Simon came together to create the Simon Karecki Fellowship Fund in memory of an outstanding individual and researcher to encourage other talented young researchers in the pursuit of environmental research.   

We are very fortunate to have Simon’s mother, Anna Karecki, with us today to present the award.  (Anna, will you please make your way to the front?)   Both Anna and Richard Karecki have long been dedicated to the ERC program and the research and talent which it supports. They continue to consider all the recipients of this award to be part of their family and always welcome opportunities to engage with those who are as passionate about what they do as their Simon was.

Before I present the 2016 Simon Karecki Award, I would like to recognize my fellow Simon Karecki Advisory Board members: 

• Duane Boning, MIT
• Tim Dalton, IBM
• Shameeka Emanuel, Intel
• Rob McCormick, SRC Education Alliance
• Chris Lee, Texas Instruments
• Kwok Ng, SRC
• Farhang Shadman, University of Arizona, ERC

Our 2016 Simon Karecki Award recipient is Xiangyu Bi from Arizona State University.

Xiangyu is pursuing a Ph.D. in Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Energy at Arizona State University, working under the faculty direction of Dr. Paul Westerhoff. Xiangyu began his college career with a B.E. from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tongji University in Shanghai China before coming to Arizona State University.  When Xiangyu arrived at Arizona State, he began to demonstrate his outstanding academic ability in areas of his undergraduate study, and within two years had published his first journal paper as the first author. As a graduate student, Xiangyu has maintained an excellent academic record while participating in multiple research projects, as well as participating in teaching lab courses.  Xiangyu has impressed his advisor and other researchers with his innovational insights, his drive to include fundamental disciplines such as chemistry and physics into engineering research, and his ability to apply critical thinking to his study which has led to providing innovative ideas and significant contributions to their research work and proposals.

Xiangyu’s academic excellence, concern for the earth, and his ability to foster communication with others was also recognized by Tongji University with awards for high academic records and the presentation of the University’s Excellent Student Award.  Xiangyu also received a National Assistantship from China for his student activities there, and was recognized for his academic work by the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization.

Congratulations Xiangyu!   We appreciate you, we support you, and we applaud you.

Please join me in applauding the dedication and work of Xiangyu Bi; we look forward to your inspiring future Xiangyu.