Scholarships Awarded
For Academic Year 2020 - 2021 the ABE department awarded over $110,000 in scholarships!
2020 Undergraduate Scholarship Recipients
ABE CNH Scholarships
CNH hires a number of our students both as interns and full-time employees. CNH is a world leader in the agricultural and construction equipment business. Created in 1999 through the merger of New Holland N.V. and Case Corporation, CNH today comprises the heritage and expertise of three agricultural brands (Case IH; New Holland Ag; and Steyr) and two construction equipment brands (Case Construction Equipment and New Holland Construction). CNH employs approximately 33,800 people worldwide and has a network of approximately 11,500 dealers in approximately 170 countries. Linda York (College Relations/Recruiter) has played an instrumental part in making these scholarships available. Thank you CNH.
Kyle R. Fishburn, and Hilal Kesim (Agricultural Engineering)
Justin A. Conrad and Brooks A. Royal (Agricultural Systems Management)
Alumni and Friends of ABE Scholarship Fund
This scholarship is supported by generous gifts from friends and alumni of ABE. Thank you to friends and alums of ABE.
Haley J. Etheridge and Nikira Lane (Agricultural Engineering)
Emily E. Aicher, Sofia R. Alfieri, Josephine M. Bauer, Zachary J. Bebar, Sonya A. Dervishian, Olivia R. Didat, Alyssa N. Easton, Mari E. Leland, Kevin T. Massa, Marina Mehling, Hannah R. Mitchell, Allison A. Murray, Lauren E. Novak, William F. Schmitt, Gabrielle M. Selvia, Peyton J. Shafer, Kungming Shao, Taylor M. Sorrell, and Sangayi Subramani (Biological Engineering)
The Bartlett Family Scholarship in Agricultural and Biological Engineering was created with the support and gifts of Ms. Virginia Bartlett and son, Jim, along with his wife Marsha Bartlett. Jim and Marsha's children have ABE linkages. Their son, James, and daughter, Katey,are both MS graduates in ABE. With the help and vision of the Bartlett Family, the department will be able to recruit excellent students from first-year engineering that might not have otherwise looked at our department as an opportunity. Thank you to the Bartlett Family for this generous gift.
Xinhe Xie (Agricultural Engineering)
Chase R. Gripp (Agricultural Systems Management)
Bridgestone/Firestone Scholarship
Bridgestone/Firestone hires a number of our students. Bridgestone/Firestone is a tire manufacturing and wholesale and original equipment sales operations across a broad line of products, including consumer, commercial truck and bus, agricultural, and off road tires. Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC (BSRO) consists of a family of more than 2,000 company-owned vehicle service and tire locations across the United States. Firestone Diversified Products, LLC (FSDP) consists of building and industrial products, natural rubber, and industrial fibers and textiles businesses. Thank you to Distinguished Engineering (DEA 1988) and ABE alumni (BS 1957), Bob Martin for garnering foundation funds from Bridgestone/Firestone to support ABE Students.
Morgan I. Burgett (Agricultural Engineering)
Department alums, Jason (BSAE 2001, MS 2002) and Jenny (BSBE 2002 and BS 2002 Pharmacy) established their scholarship in 2012. Jason and Jenny have both been employed with Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. Jason is a manager (engineering) and Jenny is a pharmaceutical chemist. Thank you Jason and Jenny!
Emily M. Engle, Laura E. Flandermeyer, and Kasey M. Martineau (Biological Engineering)
Clare M. McNicholas and Daizong Wu, Agricultural Engineering
Daizong Wu (Agricultural Engineering)
David M. Clark, Justin R. Johnson, and Clare M. McNicholas (Agricultural Systems Management)
Consolidated Grain and Barge (CGB) Scholarships in Agriculture
Consolidated Grain and Barge (CGB) hires a number of our students both as interns and full-time employees. CGB’s core business revolves around the grain and transportation industries in the Midwest, along the nation’s inland waterways. CGB has expanded its services to include handling and transportation of bulk commodities and logistics operations domestically and around the world. Thank you CGB.
Trenton Howard and Hunter A. Magiera (Agricultural Systems Management)
Ken C. and Mary K. "Kitty" Decker have established scholarships for Purdue students in many areas including Agricultural & Biological Engineering. Ken Decker graduated from Purdue in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and received a law degree from George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC. He is a patent attorney who does consulting work. Kitty Decker received a bachelor's degree in 1967 from the College of Consumer and Family Sciences. She earned a master's degree in education from Purdue in 1973. She taught home economics for many years in South Bend, Indiana, middle and high schools and is involved with 4-H judging. The Decker's daughter, Emalee, received bachelor's degrees from Purdue in Biochemistry and Agricultural and Biological Engineering. "We really enjoy supporting Purdue because our educations from there are the basis for everything we have and how we live our lives," Kitty Decker said. "And both Ken and I have such strong family ties to Purdue that it makes sense to support the university as much as we possibly can."
Allison A. Biddinger and Morgan N. Callin (Biological Engineering)
​Grace I. Filley (Agricultural Engineering)
David M. Clark (Agricultural Systems Management)
Brad and Brenda Fife Scholarship in Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Austin D. Erdman (Agricultural Systems Management)
Each year the Hoosier Chapter of GEAPS (Grain Elevator and Processing Society) provides a scholarship supporting deserving undergraduate students expressing interest in the grain industry. GEAPS is an international professional society dedicated to providing its members with forums to generate leadership, innovation and excellence in grain-related industry operations. A special thank you to Jaime Hernandez, Bob Marlow, and Jim Rossman of the Hoosier Chapter of GEAPS.
Brandon W. Apple and Bryce L. Oliver (Agricultural Systems Management)
Clare M. McNicholas and Daizong Wu (Agricultural Engineering)
Dr. Larry Huggins (PhD ’66; ABE Faculty ’66-’81; Department Head ’81-’94; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering ’94-‘05) had a career of extraordinary success as a teacher, researcher (Soil and Water Engineering area/ Hydrology) and administrator in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and the College of Engineering at Purdue University. Larry was responsible for the planning and bidding of the new “Neil Armstrong Engineering Hall” building. Larry and Lola have endowed a scholarship to support deserving undergraduate students in ABE. Thank you Dr. Larry and Lola Huggins.
Ziyuan Cheng (Agricultural Engineering)
Mason C. Johnson, Justin W. Lammers, and David J. Taylor (Agricultural Systems Management)
Samantha J. Logan and Sean J. Renwick (Biological Engineering)
Emeritus Professor, Gerald W. Isaacs (ABE faculty member ‘54-’64, Department Head ’64-’81, Outstanding Service to ABE ’98) endowed a scholarship in his name to support deserving undergraduate students in our program. Dr. Isaacs is from a Parke County homestead and graduated from Purdue in 1947 (BS) and 1949 (MS) in Electrical Engineering. He is a former ASABE national president and has significantly led our profession. Thank you to Dr. Gerald and Phyllis Isaacs.
Andres A. Dextre and Grant T. Springer (Biological Engineering)
Dr. Gary Krutz, a long-time professor in ABE teaching courses in our Machine Systems Engineering program, has endowed a scholarship in his name to support deserving undergraduate students in our Machine Systems Engineering program. Gary is a familiar face to most of our alumni, and played a key role in establishing many of the scholarships. Thank you Dr. Gary and Barb Krutz.
Daniel G. Foley, Zifeng Huang, Garrett J. Illa, Brittany E. Kent, Trevor W. Magaha, and Qingzhou Qi (Agricultural Engineering)
Chase R. Gripp (Agricultural Systems Management)
Cassidy R. Lurk (Biological Engineering)
Michael R. Ladisch is the Director of the Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University with a joint appointment in Biomedical Engineering and courtesy appointment in Food Science. Dr. Ladisch's research addresses fundamental topics in bioprocess engineering as it applies to bioproducts, biorecovery, and bionanotechnology. His work addresses properties of proteins and living organisms at surfaces, rapid prototyping of microfluidic biosensors, bioseparations, and transformation of renewable resources into bioproducts. Thank you to Mike Ladisch for providing support for our scholarships.
Katherine R. Krick and Jacob Renfrow (Biological Engineering)
Ray M. Lien was a native of Platte, South Dakota. He received his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering in 1941 at South Dakota State University. Professor Lien’s most enduring contributions to the profession may have come in the teaching and counseling areas. He was gifted with a mentoring spirit, as he fathered and nurtured the Agricultural Mechanization (now Agricultural Systems Management) in Purdue’s Ag Engineering Department, which has produced over 1500 B.S. graduates from the mid-1960s, several M.S. graduates, and the first PhD in Ag Mechanization in the entire US. Thank you alumni and friends.
Shiying Chen (Agricultural Engineering)
Nathan C. Sprague (Agricultural Systems Management)
Larry received his Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering in 1971 and went on to receive a Master of Science degree from University of Missouri. Larry and Molly created this scholarship in 2012 to support deserving undergraduate students in Agricultural & Biological Engineering. Today Larry is the Director of Business Development at Advanced BioNutrition Corporation. Earlier in his career, Mr. Loehr was employed for more than 30 years by the DuPont Company and served in various agriculture and nutrition platform marketing and business leadership roles in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and in other global assignments. Molly is also a Purdue Graduate. She received her Bachelor of Art degree from the College of Liberal Arts in the Social Sciences. Larry and Molly reside in Naperville, IL.
Kate M. Sorg, Miles A. Thompson, and Matthias A. Voglewede (Biological Engineering)
Bruce A. McKenzie, a retired faculty member from ABE, endowed this scholarship to support deserving undergraduate students in our department. During his time at Purdue, McKenzie was an established national and international leader in the area of system planning for grain and feed handling facilities. Dr. McKenzie also excelled as an undergraduate teacher of “Farmstead Machinery Management.” Dr. McKenzie received the Frederick L. Hovde Award of Excellence in Educational Service to Rural People of Indiana, the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service Association Senior and Career Awarded the ASAE Metal Building Manufactures’ Association Award, the USDA Superior Service Award, and was elected a fellow of the ASAE.
Joel M. Huff, Mason C. Johnson, Justin W. Lammers, Grant W. Miller, and Garret I. Smith (Agricultural Systems Management)
Funded by John B. Greiner and Alumni & Friends of ABE
Department alumnus John Greiner (MS '39; Outstanding Alum '98) established a scholarship endowment in 1992 to assist deserving undergraduate students in the department. Mr. Greiner was a graduate student in Purdue's Agricultural Engineering Department before the department had "official" undergraduate and graduate degree programs - which were established in the mid-1940s and early-1950s, respectively. He then served in the military for 23 years, taught at the University of Connecticut for 18 years, and completed his professional career at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, retiring from a School of Technology teaching position. Thank you to Mrs. Hope Greiner and the late Dr. John B. Greiner. In addition, this scholarship is supported by generous gifts from friends and alumni of ABE. Thank you to the friends and alumni of ABE.
Haley J. Etheridge, Clayton S. Jarosinski, Benjamin D. La Belle, Nikira Lane, and Ella L. Robinson (Agricultural Engineering)
Hayden L. Anderson, Andrew J. Kelham, Uel P. Kouame, Bryce L. Oliver, Heidi L. Phelps, and Noah T. Spear (Agricultural Systems Management)
Emily E. Aicher, Sofia R. Alfieri, Allison J. Ayers, Josephine M. Bauer, Zachary J. Bebar, Amanda M. Blankenberger, Jenna L. Bradford, Sonya A. Dervishian, Olivia R. Didat, Avery A. Dorsch, Alyssa N. Easton, Blake M. Heath, Lillian E. Hough, Lucas D. Johnson, Jacob A. Klein-Cohen, Hyunbee Lee, Mari E. Leland, Emme A. Longman, Garret C. Manquen, Kevin T. Massa, Madeline J. Maurer, Michael M. McGovern, Marina Mehling, Hannah R. Mitchell, Allison A. Murray, Lauren E. Novak, Natalia Rodriguez, William F. Schmitt, Gabrielle M. Selvia, Peyton J. Shafer, Kunming Shao, Taylor M. Sorrell, Sangavi Subramani, and David R. Wagner (Biological Engineering)
This scholarship was established by Dr. Ji-Qin Ni, a professor in ABE in our Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering program. Dr. Ni's research is in air quality study, bioenergy from agricultural wastes, and air and water pollution abatement. His extension appointment is in livestock and rural waste systems engineering. Thank you, Dr. Ni.
Shiying Chen, Ziyuan Cheng, Chen Fang, Zifeng Huang, Rundong Peng, and Qinzhou Qi (Agricultural Engineering)
This scholarship was established in honor of Wen-Han Ni (father) by Dr. Ji-Qin Ni, a professor in ABE, in our Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering program. This scholarship is to support deserving undergraduate students from Mainland China or Taiwan. More information on Dr. Ni is available in the Ni Family Scholarship description (above).
Brittany E. Kent (Agricultural Engineering)
This scholarship was established by Dr. Martin Okos, a long-time professor in ABE, advising numerous students and teaching courses in our Biological Engineering program. This scholarship is to support deserving undergraduate students in our Biological Engineering program. Dr. Okos teaches and does his research in food process engineering, computer-aided design of food processes, heat and mass transfer in foods, fermentation and biological reactor design, and properties of food and biological products. Dr. Okos also established a scholarship to encourage freshmen to consider BFPE. Thank you, Dr. Okos.
Victoria A. Granat, Anthony P. Hegarty, Emma B. Keesling, Haley M. Kitchell, Jacob N. Long, Kathryn A. Myers, and Rebecca C. Slaughter (Biological Engineering)
Martin Okos Biological & Food Process Engineering Scholarships
Dr. Okos established this scholarship to encourage freshmen to consider Biological & Food Process Engineering. Details on Dr. Okos are in the scholarship description above.
Natalia Rodriguez and Victoria L. Wendt (Biological Engineering)
Parker Hannifin hires a number of our students both as interns and full time employment. Parker Hannifin is the world's leading diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems, providing precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of mobile, industrial and aerospace markets. The company's products are vital to virtually everything that moves or requires control, including the manufacture and processing of raw materials, durable goods, infrastructure development and all forms of transport. Parker is major support of graduate student research in ABE. John Oeslager (BSA alumni in 1966 and Distinguished Ag Alumni Award in 1998) and Duane Crockrum (Outstanding Service to ABE Award 2002) have been an instrumental part in making these scholarships available. Thank you Parker Hannifin.
Morgan I. Burgett and Ziyuan Cheng (Agricultural Engineering)
Clay E. Hunger, Chaela M. Minor, and Nathan C. Sprague (Agrit\cultural Systems Management)
Dr. Leroy Pickett and his wife, Mary Joyce, established the Leroy & Mary Joyce Pickett Scholarship in Honor of Bruce Liljedahl in ABE in January 2014. Dr. Pickett received his PhD from Purdue in 1969 and went on to careers with Case New Holland America and Tenneco, Inc. Professor Liljedahl was Leroy's PhD advisor and mentor. Thank you, Leroy and Mary Joyce Pickett.
Garrett J. Illa (Agricultural Engineering)
Matthew Reynolds (BS ‘83, Outstanding ABE Alumni ’99) established a scholarship to support deserving undergraduates in ABE. Matthew, an Executive Engineer and director of Chrysler vehicles in Auburn, Michigan, said “my career success is based on the excellent and broad-based education I received at Purdue.” He is responsible for assessing and implementing technology in new vehicles to enhance safety features such as night vision, GPS location/maps, collision avoidance and improved tractability. In addition to this Scholarship, Matthew and Lesa established the “Reynolds Field of Dreams Scholarship”. We would like to thank Matthew and Lesa for their kind donation to fund these scholarships.
Chen Fang and Qingzhuo Qi (Agricultural Engineering)
Eli Robinson (Agricultural Systems Management)
Zifeng Huang and Rundong Peng (Agricultural Engineering)
Joel M. Huff and Justin W. Lammers (Agricultural Systems Management)
.Harold Schramm graduated from Purdue with a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering in 1958. He was awarded an Outstanding Alumni award in Agricultural & Biological Engineering in 1999. During his career, Harold managed to successfully complete over fifty new product programs on a variety of product lines; his cost improvement programs saved $10 million; and he controlled the business activities of a $100 million product line. After Harold retired from Case IH to spend more time with his wife Mary and children and their Hobbie Farm in Winamac, Indiana, he agreed to work part time at a company with David Anderson. David Anderson was the driving force behind setting up this scholarship. Thank you to Mary Schramm and David Anderson for remembering one of our great alumni Harold Schramm with this scholarship, which is administered through the Greater Lafayette Community Charity.
Austin D. Erdman, Clay E. Hunger, and Justin R. Johnson (Agricultural Systems Management)
Dr. Charles Spillman, ABE alumni and a long time professor and Department Head at Kansas State UNW endowed a scholarship in his name to support deserving undergraduate students in our program. He always felt his education influenced his success and was supportive of ASABE nationally. Thank you to Mrs. Carolyn Spillman and the late Dr. Charles Spillman.
Rachel A. Damge, Laura A. Libera, and Emma E. Lietzke (Biological Engineering)
Dr. R. Mack Strickland and his wife, Anna, established their scholarship endowment in December 2012. Dr. Strickland is an Emeritus Professor of ABE at Purdue. He taught numerous Agricultural Mechanization and Agricultural Systems Management courses and served as advisor to most of the students in these programs for nearly three decades. Mack received his BS, MS, and PhD at Purdue in Ag Education.
David J. Taylor (Agricultural Systems Management)
Department alumnus Ed Vondell (BS ABE 1985) is former Head of Product Engineering for Chrysler de Mexico. He was responsible for design and homologation of products for Mexico and Latin America and continuous engineering work for certain areas of corporate car and truck platforms. In 2007, Ed was recognized as an outstanding alumnus of the Purdue ABE Department. In 2010, he was selected by the College of Agriculture as a Distinguished Agriculture Alumnus. These awards were in recognition of his career success and engagement of our program. When asked how his ABE degree helped him - "The ABE program helped me develop a solid problem-solving mindset. Not only individual problem-solving, but learning how to solve problems in a group setting. This has been valuable throughout my career." Thank you, Ed and Pilar Vondell.
Trevor W. Magaha (Agricultural Engineering)
This is a collaborative effort amongst the Ziga family. Brother and sister, Christopher (BS in Agricultural Engineering 2014) and Elizabeth (BS in Biological Engineering 2016) have collaborated together with their family to establish this scholarship. The scholarships supports one agricultural engineer and one biological engineer. Chris is currently on active duty with the US Army and Elizabeth is a civil service US Army research engineer.
Daniel G. Foley (Agricultural Engineering)
Lina C. Trigg (Biological Engineering)