Smith recognized for ‘engineering excellence’
January 15, 2011
STARKVILLE, Miss. – A senior industrial engineering major has earned one of the top student honors awarded in the Bagley College of Engineering.
Martha “Missie” Smith received the 2010 Harry C. Simrall Award for Engineering Excellence during a December banquet. The recognition also includes a monetary prize.
This award caps Smith’s already honor-filled undergraduate career at Mississippi State. In 2010 she also earned recognition as the John L. Tilley Outstanding Senior Honors Student, Industrial and Systems Engineering Outstanding Senior, and membership in the BCoE Student Hall of Fame.
Reserved for the highest achieving and most ambitious engineering students, this award for excellence is presented by the Association of Retired Faculty to honor Simrall, who served as dean of engineering from 1958 to 1978.
“Missie has been an extremely dedicated and active student while at Mississippi State,” said Robert Green, BCoE undergraduate coordinator. “She epitomizes the values by which Dean Simrall lived his life and I believe he would have enjoyed meeting her.”
With minors in both mathematics and Spanish, Smith completed her undergraduate work with a perfect 4.0 GPA and immediately began working towards a master’s degree in industrial engineering. By remaining at MSU she will be able to continue in her role as a research assistant in the fields of human factors and ergonomics.
An avid traveler, Smith has completed study abroad courses in Spain, Korea and Australia, which along with mission work in Ghana, Africa, has helped her move closer to her goal of visiting every continent.
Smith is an active member of the campus Wesley Foundation, as well as the Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi and Alpha Pi Mu honor societies. Through the Engineering Living and Learning Community, the Society of Women Engineers, and as a representative for her major, she has helped inspire and lead younger engineers as they begin their college careers.
A native of Columbus, Miss., Smith is the daughter of Leonard and Martha Smith. Her older sister, Josie, received the same award in 2007.
The Simrall Award for Engineering Excellence was established in 1999 to honor the educator who served the university for 44 years and is credited with helping shape the direction and future of engineering at Mississippi State University.