MSU’s AIChE student chapter excels at AIChE Annual Student Conference

Mississippi State University’s American Institute of Chemical Engineers student chapter received top honors at the organization’s 2025 student conference this past fall.

AIChE, a leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, invited students from more than 200 schools to participate in four days of social and competitive events in Boston.

MSU’s student chapter received the Outstanding Student Chapter Award, marking the 23rd time the chapter has received this award over 25 years.

Three students were individually recognized for their achievements at the conference.

Student awards include:

• First Year Student Recognition Award¾James Caldwell, junior
• Donald F. Othmer Second Year Student Academic Excellence Award¾Jonathan Gray, senior
• Donald F. & Mildred Topp Othmer Scholarship Award¾Joshua Bowman, senior

Members of the chapter also competed in two different competitions, hosted a workshop and presented three research posters.

Competitions include:

ChemE-Sports Competition

• Joshua Bowman
• Hunter Chunn, senior
• Paul Gramelspacher, senior

AIChE K-12 STEM Outreach Competition, “Hot Slime Highway”

• Beau Barnette, senior
• Riley Jackson, senior
• Rayne Rutherford, junior

Workshop and Presentations include:

“Beyond Equations: Service and Outreach,” workshop

• Avery Byars, senior
• Katie Evans, senior

“Spiked for Success: Validating Pyrene as an External Reference for Raman Spectroscopy,” poster

• Hunter Chunn

“Computational Study of Low Temperature Dithiocarbamate Decomposition with Butylamine and Butanethiol for Nanocrystal Applications,” poster

• Paul Gramelspacher

“Advancing Regulatory Genomics in Alzheimer’s Disease with Machine Learning and Single-Cell Data Integration,” poster

• Rayne Rutherford