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Alumni and Friends

Recognizing excellence at 2025 Alumni Awards

Meet the six 2025 Alumni Award recipients who made important discoveries, dedicated their time to others and improved the world through science.

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Alumni and Friends

Contributions to experimental chemistry earn Joe Nibler Lifetime Achievement in Science Award

From being at the forefront of innovation in spectroscopy to inspiring the researchers of tomorrow, Nibler has made a lasting impact in science.

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Alumni and Friends

Distinguished Alumni Award winner changes lives for cystic fibrosis and cancer patients

After decades of researching membrane protein folding as a physician scientist, Dr. William (Bill) Skach joined an industry-leading foundation to help hundreds of labs and companies worldwide develop treatments for rare mutations of cystic fibrosis.

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Alumni and Friends

Leader in data science curricula development wins Early Career Alumni Award

Science communication is a raging passion for Heather Kitada Smalley. From interactive statistics and data science workshops to impressive research related to archeology, she demonstrates the impact of data in the real world and inspires students of all ages.

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Alumni and Friends

Distinguished Service Award winners support the next generation of scientists

With years of philanthropy under their belt, Eileen and Norbert Hartmann are committed to a life of giving back.

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Alumni and Friends

Predicting the next outbreak: Disease ecologist wins 2025 Emerging Leader Award

From frogs to global health, Barbara Han’s journey reveals how curiosity can lead to groundbreaking science. Her innovative research uses AI and machine learning to predict and prevent future epidemics around the world.

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Alumni and Friends

Meet Scott Clark, an OSU science alum who built a $30M AI startup

Scott Clark (08) wants artificial intelligence to be powerful — and trustworthy.

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Events

Conferences boost career prospects for statistics and data science students

For statistics students at Oregon State University, it's not unheard of to land a job after attending a conference. That’s how Oregon State alumna Chenyang Duan (Ph.D. Statistics, ‘23) landed a full-time position as senior statistician at AbbVie, one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world.

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Alumni and Friends

Chemistry alumna strides from ROTC to regulatory consultant

In a career spanning forensics and pathology, alumna Lia Murty now facilitates innovation as a senior regulatory consultant.

Eleanor Ford stands on a stone pathway with palm trees in Okinawa, Japan in 1981.
Microbiology

Science and legacy: This 1962 alumna did it all

Eleanor Ford (’62, Microbiology) was six feet tall. Not literally, but when she shared her passion for laboratory safety, her personality could fill a room. Despite being only four feet, eleven inches, and a woman in a male-dominated field in the 1960s, when she talked, people listened.

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Statistics

The versatile statistician: Jon Francis' career across industries

Jon Francis (statistics, ‘96) has built a career working for some of the biggest names in business, including Amazon, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Nike, T-Mobile, Starbucks, PayPal and currently General Motors. What education has allowed him to shift seamlessly from coffee to cars? A master’s degree in statistics from Oregon State University.