Spectrum - Volume 18 Issue 31 May 9, 1996 - Phi Kappa Phi recognizes inductees

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Phi Kappa Phi recognizes inductees

Spectrum Volume 18 Issue 31 - May 9, 1996

The Virginia Tech chapter of the national Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi held its annual banquet and initiation of new members in April.

The primary objective of Phi Kappa Phi is the recognition and encouragement of superior scholarship in all academic disciplines. Among the new initiates this year were 58 graduate students and two faculty members. Graduate students eligible for induction to Phi Kappa Phi must be within two months of their final examination and in the upper 10 percent scholastically of those who are candidates for graduate degrees.

Faculty membership is considered only through a letter of nomination submitted by a current member of the chapter. The two faculty members elected to membership this year were Michael Denbow from animal and poultry sciences and Frieda Bostian from English.

Graduate students inducted were Jacqueline M. Bilyeu, Marci Lynn Bozeman, Jennifer L. Byrnes, Thomas E. Carter Jr., Christina Chang, George Chin Jr., Jessica N. Coffey, Debra Stacy Colley, Sarah Kate Ellis, Kristi L. Elmore, Yigang Fan, Craig M. Favor, John D. Foster, Janis M. Geyer, Frederick W. Gibson, Leonard C. Gilroy, Haroldo T. Hattori, Michelle D. Hinn, Jan P. Hjelmgren, Fu-Hua Huang, Barbara E.G. Humphrey, Barbara L. Jessee, Melissa Hope Keen, Jong Hyung Lee, Sookyoung Lee, Jamie Osborne Little, Daniel Lowry Lough, Julie Meltzer, Zane W. Mitchell Jr., Leslie D. Murrill, Shafic Sami Oueini, Kristi L. Partlow, Karen A. Patterson, Terry Anne Perotti, Donald Allen Prater, Marlene M. Preston, Shaohong Qu, Kambiz Rahnavardy, Dean J. Rattazzi, Andrew Scott Repp, Sandra G. Reynolds, Whitney S. Riner, Elizabeth A. Rivkin, Rebecca Deaner Rose, Diana Rubio, Rhonda K. Ryan, Alicia Slater, Joyce J. Smaragdis, John David Snead, Debra V. Stanley, Mary W. Sutherland, Mary H. Todd, Kimberly D. Toland, Laura S. VanDyke, Lori E. Walker, Starlin D. Weaver, Kimberleigh Hawkins White, Lori C. Whitley, Robert H. Williams Jr., Zhiwei Zhang, and Chenbo Zheng

Also recognized at the banquet were the national and chapter award winners for graduate study fellowships. Lori Sue Ratliff, a student in finance, was awarded a National Graduate Fellowship by the National Fellowship Committee of Phi Kappa Phi. Ratliff's nomination was forwarded by the chapter with evaluations from Finance Professor Don Chance and Charles Dudley and Barbara Cowles of the University Honors Program. The National Graduate Fellowship of up to $7,000 will be used by Ratliff to pursue her juris doctorate in international human-rights law.

The Chapter Graduate Fellowship award was presented to Andrew John Landahl, a double major in physics and mathematics. Landahl will receive $1,000 to pursue his graduate work in physics. Other awards presented at the banquet included the Medallion Award for each college. Each award recipient-the senior in each college receiving the highest QCA-was introduced by the respective dean of their college, who presented the award.

New chapter officers for 1996-97 are: president-Anna Marshall Baker, assistant professor, housing, interior design and residential management; vice-president-Jerry Williams, associate professor, horticulture; secretary-Don Garst, associate professor, civil engineering; treasurer-David Parrish, professor, crop and soil environmental sciences; membership-Eldridge Collins, professor, biological systems engineering; marshall-Don Mullins, professor, entomology; and publicity-Paul Heilker, assistant professor, English.