An award to recognize alumni who have made significant achievements and contributions in the early phase of their careers. Eligibility is for alumni who have graduated from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and are 40 years of age or younger.

To be a Truman Fellowship recipient, what must one achieve? This program seeks individuals who have solved a major scientific or engineering problem in their thesis work or will have provided a new approach or insight to a major problem as evidenced by a recognized impact in their field. Patrick Hopkins is a Harry S. Truman Fellow in National Security Science and Engineering at Sandia National Laboratories.

Patrick first came to the Engineering School as a Rodman Scholar in the fall of 2000. By the spring of 2001 he was doing research in a faculty member’s lab and in 2003 he began his work in micro-scale heat transfer, an evolving and multidisciplinary field.

In his fourth year as an undergraduate student he distinguished himself by winning a Harrison Undergraduate Research Award to support his micro-scale heat transfer work. In 2004, he completed the necessary course work to receive his BS in Mechanical Engineering and a BS in Physics while also minoring in Applied Mathematics.

This academic success resulted in him winning a national competitive Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholar Internship. His work in modeling the molecular constituents in the atmosphere and predicting how molecular changes affect remote sensing devices. This work lead to several publications and Patrick’s receipt of NASA’s Group Achievement Award.

In his first year as a graduate student in our Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program he completed all of the courses required for his PhD. By the end of his second year he attended two technical conferences, gave three oral presentations, and completed six journal publications.

During his third year he collaborated with researchers at Georgia Tech and in the Materials Science and Engineering Department here at SEAS publishing additional papers while successfully defending his PhD dissertation proposal and passing his PhD qualifying exams.

He defended his PhD dissertation at the start of his fourth year and remained at SEAS to totally redesign and teach a micro-scale energy transfer course.

Time does not allow me to detail the many other significant contributions that Patrick made to teaching and mentoring of undergraduates participating in research programs in his department nor his responsibilities in the Micro-scale Heat Transfer Lab’s administration and coordination. But I must conclude by telling you that his work resulted in 11 referred publications with 7 more in various stages of review with an additional 13 referred conference proceedings. This is how you become a Truman Fellow.

While I and all of us look forward to many successes from this young man in the future for now, the School of Engineering and Applied Science is delighted to show its pride and appreciation to Patrick E. Hopkins by awarding him the 2008 School of Engineering and Applied Science Outstanding Young Engineering Graduate Award.