April
University of Arkansas alumnus Reginald “Barney” Baxter and his wife, Jameson, are supporting graduate students in the College of Engineering with a $150,000 gift. The Reginald R. “Barney” and Jameson A. Baxter Graduate Fellowship in Chemical Engineering will be used to recruit and retain top students and fulfill the couple’s desire to continue to strengthen the university’s graduate enrollment.
Arkansas’ largest engineering firm has made a gift of $250,000 toward the construction of a new civil engineering facility at the University of Arkansas.
March
Mac and Sheila Hogan of Mount Pleasant, Texas, and Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, have created an endowed scholarship in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas. Their gift of $100,000 will specifically help members of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity who are majoring in mechanical engineering at the university.
Dinah Gail Gant was the first African American woman to receive an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the University of Arkansas received a 2016 Silas Hunt Legacy Award.
February
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $746,366 grant to WattGlass LLC to further develop the University of Arkansas’ patent-pending coating technology that makes glass anti-reflective, self-cleaning and highly transparent. Corey Thompson, chief technology officer for WattGlass founded the start-up company while a graduate student at the U of A.
January
First-generation college graduates, Charles and Susan Zimmerman, gave a gift of $250,000 to the College of Engineering for the creation of the Charles R. and Susan D. Zimmerman Scholarship in Engineering. The focus of the scholarship is first-generation students with financial need.
University of Arkansas alumni Jim and Marsha Davis of Fayetteville have established a graduate student fellowship in the College of Engineering with a $150,000 gift.
December
Boston Mountain Biotech LLC, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company that uses technology developed at the University of Arkansas, was awarded a nearly $225,000 grant by the National Science Foundation. Ellen Brune, an Arkansas graduate, founded the company which developed a method of simplifying the manufacturing of pharmaceutical proteins used in medications.
October
Doris George of Heber Springs is honoring her late husband’s legacy as a civil engineer and his passion for helping students by establishing a scholarship in his name at the University of Arkansas. The Lyndell J.C. George Endowed Scholarship will benefit students in the College of Engineering who are majoring in civil engineering.
July
Larry Stephens, Chairman of the Board of Mid-South Engineering in Hot Springs, has been awarded Engineer of the Year by the Arkansas Society of Professional Engineers.