Several MPGE students and alumni were honored at the Spring 2018 Student and Alumni Awards Banquet held a the 
EmbassySuites in Norman on Thursday, April 19. The program began with a reception where students, alumni and industry professionals had the change to mingle and take photos at the photo booth.
Two MCEE students emceed the event: Tara Putri, a Geology and Geophysics student, and Nate Johnson, a Petroleum and Geological Engineering student. A dinner of braised beef and cheddar risotto was served during the program followed by creme brulee and a chocolate torte for dessert.
Nate and Tara welcomed Dean Stice to the stage to begin the presentation of awards, beginning with the Distiguished Alumni awards and the Distinguished Service award. The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest form of recognition for alumni of the college. The award is presented to the alumni who represent the Mewbourne College tradition of excellence and have brought acclaim to the college and university by their personal accomplishment, professional achievement, or humanitarian service. The recipient of this year’s Distinguished Alumni award was Ted Collins, Jr., who passed away shortly after learning he was to receive the award. Collins son, J. Patrick Collins, accepted the award on his behalf.
The Distinguished Service award is the highest form of recognition for friends of the college. The award is presented to individuals whose accomplishments, affiliations, and careers have honored the legacy of excellence at the University of Oklahoma. There were two recipients of the Distinguished Service award. The first recipient was Larry Grillot, Ph.D., who served as dean of MCEE from 2006 to 2015, and the second was Steve Richards, who is one of the longest-serving members of the MPGE Industry Advisory Board.
The College then presented the Outstanding Senior award to petroleum engineering senior, Josiah Curley. Both the Geology and Geophysics department and the Petroleum and Geological Engineering department had the opportunity to recognize students, faculty and staff throughout the evening. Below is a list of all the awards presented to MPGE students, faculty and staff by the department and our student organizations:
MPGE Awards:
Oustanding Sophomore: Rashmat Ashari and Ducha Hapsari
Outstanding Junior: Kate Oransky
Outstanding Senior: John Borer
Tool Pusher: John Hoffman
Outstanding Master’s Student: Shiv Prakash Ojha
Outstanding Ph.D. Student: Davud Davudov
Graduate Service Award: Andrew Weichman and Emmanuel Akita
AADE Awards:
Company Man Award: Andrew Weichman, Saurabh Agarwal, Erich Solimano and Adonis Ichim
SPE Awards:
Outstanding Freshman: Jacob Sipnefski
Outstanding Sophomore: Rahmat Ashari
Outstanding Junior: Triston Patterson
Outstanding Senior: Justin Sanders
Outstanding Staff: Dalton Brasington
Outstanding Faculty: Deepak Devegowda
Mentoring Award: Jake Cooper and Daniel Ng
Honorary Professor: Kyler Bolyard and Will Ratliff
Floorhand Award: Ammar Chaudry
BOP Award: John Hoffman