#GINNing Podcast Auburn University Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

Caroline Sanders is a senior from North Carolina. And she started off in marketing but switched to biosystems engineering. And she's doing undergraduate research on seaweed's impact on cow flatulence. And she's a Gemini vegetarian. 

A lot of people just whine about brine. But not assistant environmental engineering professor and wastewater recycling wunderkind Nick Zou. The Moses of Reverse Osmosis is using a $1.5 million Department of Energy and National Alliance for Water Innovation grant to part the brackish sea in order to meet the mounting freshwater demands of inland cities, and helping Auburn lead the nation in desalination.

Just a junior? Could have fooled us, not to mention the entire panel of judges awarding the prestigious Kim de Rubertis Scholarship from the United States Society on Dams. Yep, biosystems undergrad researcher extraordinaire Anna Lancaster took down three PhD students and took home the big bucks last month — ten thousand smackeroos — for her work in internal erosion in unsaturated slopes. Talk about makin'...  the grade.

As chemical engineering chair, Mario Eden led the department to its highest-ever U.S. News & World Report Graduate Program ranking; increased undergraduate enrollment to record numbers with incoming freshmen with ACT scores of 30 or higher for 11 years in a row; successfully added 17 tenure-track faculty members and two full-time lecturers during the past 10 years, including the department achieving the highest percentage of female full professors among any chemical engineering department in the country; increased philanthropic support of the program by millions of dollars; and successfully led the department through the national accreditation process in 2016 and 2022. Last month, he was appointed the new dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. But in terms of lasting impact, his latest distinction — #GINNing Podcast guest — stands alone. 

Katie Leonard, Auburn's latest NSF Graduate Research Fellowship recipient, graduates in May with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, something that's been in the works since was 13.  

On Jan. 1, Matt Yarnold, associate professor of structural engineering, took charge of Auburn University's Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory (ASEL) as director. 
 
Find out how that whole thing's going on the latest episode of the award-winning #GINNing Podcast.