Student and Departmental Support Funds

Philanthropic support gives us the power to think and do. Funding from private donors improves the department’s ability to recruit top talent, and it gives our students and faculty the tools to tackle the grand challenges. Make a donation online.

• The Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Class Scholarship Fund relies on contributions from graduating undergraduate students to directly support scholarships for undergraduate students. These scholarships are based both upon merit and financial need.Once the fund reaches $25,000, an endowed scholarship will be created for an undergraduate student in the department. Due to the high price of such an endowment, different graduating classes may band together their contributed funds for the establishment of an endowment.
• The Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Class Fellowship Fund relies on contributions from graduate program alumni directly support fellowships for our current graduate students. Once the fund reaches $300,000, an endowed fellowship will be created for a graduate student in the department. This fellowship supports the department’s ability to recruit exceptional students and conduct research that addresses society’s grand challenges. Due to the high price of such an endowment, different graduating classes may band together to contribute funds for the establishment of an endowment.
• The Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department Fund supports a diverse range of department activities including research funding, course development, student participation at conferences, new faculty startup funding, equipment and instrumentation, and more. These unrestricted funds are particularly helpful in meeting the department’s needs and achieving its goals.
• The Dr. Edward M. Schoenborn Graduate Student Fund was established to support the graduate student research program. The Schoenborn Award, intended to honor outstanding senior Ph.D. students, is based upon students’ academic records, research productivity, and quality of technical presentations associated with the Schoenborn Graduate Research Symposium. Dr. Schoenborn was the second department head in our history. Serving from 1945 to 1966, he oversaw a total curriculum overhaul. the undergraduate program’s first accreditation and the approval of a Ph.D. program in 1949. He was named a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in 1973.
• The Graduate Student Recruiting Fund directly aids our efforts to recruit the very best students to our department. Recruiting is a costly endeavor. This fund augments department money used for our annual Recruiting Weekend, paying for student travel, hotels, food and drink, and the capstone of the visit: the evening at the Cardinal Club, which is universally enjoyed by the prospective students, our current students, and our faculty and staff.
• The Lisa G. Bullard Undergraduate Enhancement Fund supports activities that enhance the experience of undergraduate chemical engineering students. Activities that receive support from the fund include the senior banquet, educational and professional development materials, travel assistance for invited speakers, the freshman welcome event, commencement ceremony photography, and mementos for graduating seniors. Dr. Bullard, the current director of undergraduate studies, earned her bachelor’s degree from NC State in 1986. After finishing her Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon, she spent a decade working for Eastman Chemical. Since returning to NC State in 2000, Bullard has received numerous awards for her teaching and advising work.

• The Senior Design Fund supports the capstone of the chemical engineering curriculum: the senior design experience. The senior design course sequence challenges student teams to design a wide variety of chemical engineering-related processes and products. Successful completion of a project requires team members to complement their technical skills with teaming, leadership, project management, and communication skills.This fund supports team activities at the discretion of the course instructor and a representative of the Engineering Foundation. The teams oftentimes fabricate prototypes, assemble instructional or promotional materials, and sometimes travel outside the Raleigh area to consult with industrial technical advisers.
• The AIChE Student Chapter Fund supports the activities of our student chapter of the AIChE, keeping our award-winning chapter strong.
• The Richard M. Felder Teaching Excellence Endowment to honor Dr. Felder, who not only made an enormous impact on the students at State during his thirty years of teaching in the department, but who has been one of the preeminent chemical engineering educators in the country for the last half a decade.  The Endowment, when filled, will enable the selection of an annual faculty recipient of the Richard M. Felder Teaching Excellence Award and is designed to demonstrate the department’s commitment to excellence in teaching and to promote and honor faculty excellence in teaching.  Dr. Felder received his B.Ch.E. degree from the City College of New York in 1962 and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1966. He worked for the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (Harwell, England) and Brookhaven National Laboratory before joining the North Carolina State faculty in 1969.  He retired from his faculty position in 1999 but has continued to promote excellence in teaching through his writings, presentations, and workshops.  He has won numerous awards for his work, including being the inaugural recipients of theGlobal Award for Excellence in Engineering Education from the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies in 2010, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Engineering Education  from the American Society for Engineering Education in 2012.

Faculty Memorial Funds

• The Caldwell-Seely Alumni Scholarship has been established in honor of Seely, professor emeritus of chemical engineering. Honored as the “heart of the department,” Seely earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from NC State. His academic career began in fall 1941 and ended with his retirement in 1982 as an alumni distinguished professor. Among his many honors were election as an AICHe fellow and his appointment by the governor of North Carolina to the State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors.
• The James K. Ferrell Memorial Fund honors Ferrell, who was head of the department from 1966 to 1980. Dr. Ferrell was instrumental in the development of Eos, the NC State College of Engineering’s distributed computing system. He also helped initiate the Triangle University Computation Center, a computer system that linked NC State, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• The George Roberts Memorial Fund honors Roberts for his 21 years of extraordinary service to the department as an excellent teacher, researcher, and administrator. As department head from 1989 to 1994, Roberts launched the the departmental alumni relations program; restructured the departmental corporate relations programs; secured $750,000 in grants to support faculty development, graduate education and facilities improvement; and garnered more than $1.2 million in outside grants and contracts to support research on alternative fuels.
• The Vivian T. Stannett Memorial Fund memorializes Stannett, who was dean of the Graduate School from 1975 to 1982. An internationally renowned polymer chemist, Stannett was a pioneer in the use of high-energy radiation to form new polymers or alter existing ones. He was a recognized leader in the study and application of membrane science and technology, and his research led to the development of a wide range of beneficial products.