UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Engineering will recognize 21 alumni with the 2026 Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award and Early Career Award in a ceremony on April 9 in the State Theatre. The event marks the second year in which the two awards will be presented during a combined ceremony.
Established in 1966, the Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Engineering and recognizes graduates who have reached exceptional levels of professional achievement. The Early Career Award recognizes alumni who have made significant professional accomplishments within the first decade aftergraduation.
“The recipients of the Early Career and Outstanding Engineering Alumni Awards are solving problems and creating positive change across disciplines, from health care and agriculture to additive manufacturing and AI to environmental sustainability and more,” said Tonya L. Peeples, the Harold and Inge Marcus Dean of the College of Engineering. “These alumni have used their Penn State engineering education as a foundation from which to accelerate impact in their professional lives. We are proud of their accomplishments.”
2026 Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award recipients
- Corey J. Cochrane (bachelor of science, class of 2004; master of science, 2007; electrical engineering; doctorate, 2013, engineering science and mechanics), research scientist at the California Institute of Technology
- Adrien Couet (master of science, class of 2011 doctorate, 2014; nuclear engineering), professor and associate chair for graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Matthew P. Ferringer (bachelor of science, class of 2002; master of science, 2005; doctorate, 2009; aerospace engineering), general manager and deputy chief information officer at the Aerospace Corporation
- Thomas E. Lawson (bachelor of science, class of 1972, civil engineering), senior consultant at Verdantas
- Justin J. Leto (bachelor of science, class of 2003, computer engineering; master of business administration, 2006), global principal solutions architect for private equity at Amazon Web Services
- Luke C. Leung (bachelor of architectural engineering, class of 1987; master of science, 1990; architectural engineering), principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
- Edward G. Liszka (bachelor of science, class of 1965, electrical engineering; master of science, 1967, acoustics), director emeritus of the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State
- James S. McGlone (master of science, class of 1985, bioengineering), president and CEO of Vitara Biomedical
- Matthew M. Mench (bachelor of science, class of 1994; master of science, 1996; doctorate, 2000; mechanical engineering), dean of engineering at the University of Tennessee
- John E. Palamara (bachelor of science, class of 2000; doctorate, 2003; chemical engineering), vice president and general manager at Honeywell
- J. Whitney Shlesinger (bachelor of science, class of 2004, industrial engineering), vice president of global supply chain and logistics with McCormick
- Aniruddha S. Vaidya (doctorate, class of 1999, computer science and engineering), senior director of artificial intelligence (AI) computing at NVIDIA Corporation
- Jisheng Wang (doctorate, class of 2008, electrical engineering), vice president of engineering at Cisco Systems Inc.
2026 Early Career Award recipients
- Nasser S. Al Azri (bachelor of science, class of 2017, chemical engineering), process innovation engineer at the Lubrizol Corporation
- Christopher P. Cartwright (bachelor of science, class of 2012; master of science, 2014; civil engineering), engineering manager at Sargent & Lundy
- Jason K. Cornelius (bachelor of science, class of 2018; master of science, 2019; doctorate, 2023; aerospace engineering), co-founder and CEO of Perseus Defense
- Perry S. Edwards (bachelor of science, class of 2007; master of science, 2009; doctorate, 2013; electrical engineering), founder and CEO of Croptix
- Bradley W. Hanks (master of science and doctorate, class of 2020, mechanical engineering), principal engineer at Solar Turbines
- Sudeepta Mondal (doctorate, class of 2020, mechanical engineering; master of arts, 2020, mathematics), principal research engineer at RTX Technology Research Center
- Miranda D. Richter (bachelor of science, class of 2008, industrial engineering), founder and CEO of Merit Project Solutions LLC.
- Sarah J. Wujcik (bachelor and master of architectural engineering, class of 2012), principal and president of MCLA Inc.