Tau Beta Pi salutes new member class

November 18, 2020

The engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi recently inducted 39 students into its new member class.

Mississippi State’s chapter, Mississippi Alpha, was established in 1928 and was the first chapter in Mississippi. Initiates selected to join Tau Beta Pi were selected through GPA and major requirements.

Tau Beta Pi is a nationally recognized honor society for engineering students of all concentrations. TBP was founded at Lehigh University in 1885 and has over 248 chapters and 594,000 members at colleges and universities today.

Tau Beta PiMatthew Priddy, the Tau Beta Pi chapter advisor and assistant professor of mechanical engineering, said Mississippi Alpha members stand out as future innovators.

“Tau Beta Pi embodies the very essence of what it means to be a successful engineer — the pursuit of excellence with integrity.  When you review the resumes of the members of the MS Alpha Chapter of TBP, it is quickly apparent that these students are the future leaders and idea generators,” said Priddy.

Tau Beta Pi is the oldest universal engineering honor society and the second oldest honor society in the U.S. Famous members of TBP include astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Amazon.com founder, Jeff Bezos.

This year’s induction ceremony was a little different, but the Mississippi Alpha chapter was committed to initiating its new members. The list of new initiates includes:

Charmaine Beluso
Addison Black
Kamryn Clymer
Dorian Copeland
Katelyn Crawford
Kamryn Davis
Allyssa Dees
Matthew Demboski
Hannah Douglas
Mallory Duke
Brian Fox
Tyler Fulmer
Malley Gautreaux

Lydia Glover
Maggie Hargrove
Rachel Hendricks
Sarah Issacs
Sashin Karunarathre
Caitlin Luke
Caleb McCreary
Karlee McNeel
Luke Nichols
Claire Picou
Breana Pigott
Chris Powe
Zach Rayburn

Hunter Rush
Brysen Scott
Emily Shelton
Kyle Singleton
Hutton Smith
Spyro Spanos
Ian Swindoll
Matthew Townsend
Joseph Westerfield
Taylor White
Katelyn Williams
Kaylee Wright
Hope Yeager

“We were very disappointed to have to delay the Spring 2020 TBP initiation (because of COVID), so we were committed to hosting the Fall 2020 initiation to honor these exceptional students from all over BCoE.  The student officers spent a significant amount of time updating the initiation process to ensure the safety of all attendees while preserving as much of the tradition as possible,” said Dr. Priddy.

The Bagley College of Engineering is online at www.bagley.msstate.edu and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube at @msuengineering.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.

By Abbie Kate Hancock