UAF colleges honor 2024-2025 top students
Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
May 2, 2025
                              		
                              	
Schools and colleges at the ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº have named their outstanding students for the 2024-2025 academic years. Students are selected for a variety of accomplishments, including exceptional academic achievement, leadership, contributions to their field or community. Following is a list of those students:
College of Engineering and Mines
- Petroleum engineering: Harrison Riggs
 - Mining engineering: Elizabed Angel
 - Mechanical engineering: Vance Underwood
 - Computer science: Andrew Mattson
 - Civil engineering: Darya Kholodova
 - Geological engineering: Noah Goltz
 - Electrical engineering: Seth Waln
 - Computer engineering: Jack Kendall
 - Center for Teaching and Learning outstanding dissertation: Gwen Holdmann, "At the Crossroads of Technology, Policy, and Society: Energy Transitions in Rural Alaska"
 - Center for Teaching and Learning outstanding thesis: Kaarle Strailey "Developing a Proof-of-Concept Non-Scalable Active Vacuum Insulated Building Envelope Prototype"
 
College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
- Dean’s Recognition Award – outstanding graduate student: Josianne Haag
 - Dean’s Recognition Award – outstanding undergraduate student: Linnaea Doerner
 - Outstanding freshman: Sam Cheng
 - Outstanding sophomore: Rachel Cox
 - Outstanding junior: Rory Claussen
 - Outstanding senior: Tony Blade
 - Center for Teaching and Learning outstanding dissertation: Matt Cheng, "Addressing Non-Stationary Fishery Dynamics and Demographic Complexity in Integrated Stock Assessment Models"
 - Center for Teaching and Learning outstanding thesis: Emily Reynolds, "Sea Otter Interactions with Mariculture Oyster Farms"
 
College of Indigenous Studies
- Kuskokwim Campus outstanding student: Ida Shannon Qak’vaq David of Bethel
 - Tribal governance outstanding student: Darlene Pete
 
College of Liberal Arts
CLA award winners can be viewed on the UAF news website.
- Center for Teaching and Learning outstanding dissertation: Varpu Lotvonene, "'Ballad of the Laablaaqs:' The Relational Worlds of Sámi Reindeer Herders in Alaska"
 - Center for Teaching and Learning outstanding thesis: Joseph Ransdell-Green, "Collective Action in Marine Mammal Co-Management: Relationships as Tools of Cooperation"
 
College of Natural Science and Mathematics
- Biological sciences: Michelle Ramirez
 - Chemistry and biochemistry: Sydney Wade
 - Geosciences: Xochitl Munoz
 - Mathematics: Torin Hooge
 - Natural resources and environment: Teddy Krauss
 - Physics: Vivian Palmer
 - Statistics: Rosie Fordham
 - Wildlife biology and conservation: Monica Casner
 
Outstanding teaching assistant and course assistant award recipients:
- Physics: Keshab Pokharel
 - Biology: Dakota Keller
 - Chemistry and biochemistry: Daniel Fabrizio (TA), Iva Thomason (CA)
 
Chemistry and biochemistry departmental award recipients:
- Freshman award: Ainsley Sauer
 - Graduate in biochemistry: Ali Moazezi Ghavihelm
 - Graduate in environmental chemistry: Tianlang Zhao
 - Undergraduate in biochemistry: Gabriel Gray
 - Undergraduate in environmental chemistry: Iva Thomason
 
American Chemical Society award winners:
- Undergraduate in physical chemistry: Hannah Hausmann
 - Undergraduate in organic chemistry: Klara Gengler
 - Undergraduate in inorganic chemistry: Owen White
 - Undergraduate in analytical chemistry: Mackenzie Hawkins
 - Undergraduate in environmental chemistry: Ryan Owens
 
School of Education
- Elementary education: Libbey Gionet, Alice Tulik, Caylann Thomason
 - Outstanding clinical mental health counseling graduate: Quincy Fuller
 - Outstanding school counseling graduate: Kaitlin Brown
 - Outstanding school counseling certificate graduate: Yaa Sakyi
 - Secondary education: Kayanna Healy and Aron Cronsberry
 - Special education: Hope Jennings, Payton Baker, Holly Makowsky
 
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