The M&IE Outstanding Graduate Research and M&IE Outstanding Graduate Teaching and/or Outreach awards celebrate the exceptional achievement of graduate students. These awards recognize individuals who demonstrate outstanding dedication and impact in their scholarly pursuits and community engagement.

2024 Award Recipients

Three graduate students receiving award

Cailin Casey, Ghazal Vahidi, and Brendan Christensen (left to right)

Cailin Casey - 2024 M&IE Outstanding Graduate Teaching & Outreach Award

The MIE Research Committee is pleased to announce the inaugural winner of the MIE Outstanding Teaching and Outreach Award.  Not long after winning an NSF GRFP, the recipient developed a program to teach both undergraduate and graduate MSU students to craft competitive GRFP applications.  They have led this program for 3 years, and after the student graduates this program will be continued by the Office of Research Development.  In addition to these activities, the recipient volunteers with local STEM education and nonprofit organizations, as well as working part-time in the Office of Research Development.  Excellent work Cailin Casey!

Ghazal Vahidi - 2024 M&IE Outstanding Graduate Research Award

Due to the outstanding nominations we received, the MIE Research Committee is pleased to announce a second inaugural winner of the MIE Outstanding Research Award.  This recipient is highly accomplished in both innovative research and the communication of this research to diverse audiences. They are becoming well-known in the bone biomechanics community for their contributions to understanding osteocyte interactions with the bone matrix.  The recipient has authored 6 publications so far, three of them as first authors.  For their excellent research, the recipient was recognized with a Young Investigator award at the American Bone and Mineral Research Society annual meeting and was also winner of the 3-minute thesis 'People's Choice' award at Montana State University.  The recipient is also appreciated as a wonderful mentor to many undergraduates.  Excellent work Ghazal Vahidi!

BrendenChristensen - 2024 M&IE Outstanding Graduate Research Award

The MIE Research Committee is pleased to announce an inaugural winner of the MIE Outstanding Research Award.  The recipient has demonstrated an amazing degree of research productivity with 3 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and 7 other conference proceedings, despite having a whole other year before finishing their PhD.   The recipient’s work uses an innovative graph database that is uniquely applied to engineering data from high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics simulations to understand the fundamental process of atomization.  After presenting this work at an international conference, the recipient was approached by a world-renowned leader in aerial firefighting and engaged in discussions that led to an ongoing collaboration.  This and other collaborations have taken the recipient’s work and applied it to a diverse range of atomization problems from fighting wildfires to improving fuel efficiency in cars and is leading to a new understanding of the physics of atomization.  The recipient has also participated in many outreach activities and has become a leader and mentor in the lab.  Well done Brenden Christensen!!