The George R. Brown School of Engineering Alumni Awards honor individuals for their outstanding achievements in and service to the engineering profession. The School of Engineering and the Rice Engineering Alumni (REA) board are pleased to announce the 2024 awardees.
This year’s seven honorees are exemplary leaders in the engineering community and will be recognized with the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, the Distinguished Service Medal, Outstanding Engineering Alumni Awards, Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni Awards and the Dean's Appreciation Award.
Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award
The Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed by the School of Engineering and acknowledges a lifetime of professional achievements, leadership, and contributions to society. Cassandra McZeal ’98 ’99 is the recipient of this award.
McZeal has made a profound impact on the energy sector since joining ExxonMobil in 2000 and now leads the modeling, optimization and data science team in the company’s opportunity evaluation and analysis organization. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in computational and applied mathematics and has since served Rice on both the Engineering Advisory Board and the REINVENTS External Advisory Committee.
Distinguished Service Medal
The Distinguished Service Medal recognizes a visionary leader who has shown a deep dedication to the School of Engineering. This year’s recipient is John Jaggers ’73.
Jaggers has been in the venture capital industry since 1983 and with Sevin Rosen Funds since 1988. Throughout his career, he has focused on empowering early-stage technology companies.
He has served on and chaired the REA board and the Engineering Advisory Board, and helped start Rice’s Digital Learning Initiative as a member of the Board of Trustees. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Office of Innovation at Rice and the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Vision Committee. Jaggers earned his B.A. and master’s in electrical engineering from Rice and generously supports the school, including a gift to name The Jaggers Family Collaboration Area in the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science.
Outstanding Engineering Alumni Awards
The Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award honors alumni for professional achievement and service to society. Jim Pyke ’97 and Pretta VanDible Stallworth ’83 ’85 are the 2024 recipients.
Pyke is a longtime champion for engineering education at Rice, having served as a board member and president for the REA, where he was one of the founders of the Rice Summer Engineering Experience. He received his B.A. and B.S. in mechanical engineering and is the founder and principal of the consultancy group TCB Advisors, where he advises business clients’ opportunities in the energy transition.
VanDible Stallworth is the District IX Trustee for the Houston Community College Board. Throughout her diverse career that spans corporate training, curriculum design, and business consulting, she has remained committed to increasing access to education for students in underserved communities. VanDible Stallworth earned her B.S. and master’s in chemical engineering and serves on the REA board.
Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni Awards
The Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni Award honors Rice engineering alumni under the age of 40. This year, the award recipients are Suman Khatiwada ’13 and Mohit Kumar Jolly ’17.
Khatiwada is the co-founder and chief technical officer of Syzygy Plasmonics, one of the most prominent climate tech startup companies in the world. He has helped the company raise four rounds of venture capital funding, win three government grants, and build a team of more than 100 employees. Suman earned his Ph.D. in materials science and nanoengineering and has served as a startup mentor at the Rice Alliance Clean Tech Accelerator.
Kumar Jolly is a leading scholar in cancer dynamics research with an impressive publication record of more than 150 publications and 10,000 citations. He is an associate professor of bioengineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and serves as the editor-in-chief of npj Systems Biology and Applications. Kumar Jolly received his Ph.D. in bioengineering.
Dean’s Appreciation Award
Established in 2018, the Dean’s Appreciation Award is given to a non-alumnus who has had a significant impact on the School of Engineering. Luay Nakhleh, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering, has selected James Truchard to receive this year’s award.
Truchard co-founded National Instruments in 1976 and co-invented LabVIEW, a graphical programming language that has benefitted industries ranging from space and energy to medicine. He has championed Rice Engineering programs such as the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK), OpenStax, and ECE research initiatives. Truchard has also generously funded endowed faculty positions in the ECE and computer science departments.
The 2024 class of engineering alumni award recipients and the 2023 engineering alumni awardees will be formally honored at the George R. Brown School of Engineering Alumni Awards Celebration on September 12, 2024.