NEWARK, Oct. 23-- The student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) at New Jersey Institute of Technology will receive in early January at the annual AIChE meeting in Reno, NV, a national award for being the outstanding AIChE Chapter for the 2000-2001 academic year. Roseland resident, Angelo Perna, Ph.D., professor of chemical engineering and associate dean of Newark College of Engineering, will also receive an award for being an outstanding advisor to this student chapter.

Student officers in the winning chapter at NJIT include the president Carlos Guarda of Oakhurst; the vice president Jose Sousa Jr. of Newark; the secretary Calvin Christian of Avenel, and the treasurer Susana Cruz of Newark.

"NJIT's AIChE student chapter has won this award in 27 of the last 30 years, an unprecedented achievement for a student organization," says Perna. This chapter has also won the award consecutively for the last five years. Among the qualities the award signifies are scholarship, student and faculty participation, the quantity and quality of meetings and activities, and the chapter's involvement in local, regional and national events.

"Once again our students have made us proud. Our thanks to them and their advisor Dr. Angelo Perno," says Basil Baltzis, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the department of chemical and environmental engineering.

This NJIT chapter has also recently received kudos for winning the recent New Jersey AIChE local section annual college bowl competition. Princeton, Rutgers and Seton Hall universities vied for the title. "NJIT has won the competition twice in the last three years for correctly answering questions based on chemical engineering," says Perna. "What I enjoy most about working with these students is not only that they are intelligent, but that they are great kids too. The sense of camaraderie amongst them is just as commendable as their academic talent and diligence. We had 18 chapter members who showed up at the competitions just to cheer on their team mates."

The NJIT student team included seniors Ankush Agarwal of Edison; Guarda, Leila Houser of Bangor, PA; Amit Kumar of Avenel and Scott Lomberk of Vineland.

NJIT is a public, scientific and technological research university enrolling more than 8,800 students. The university offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees to students in 80 degree programs throughout its six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. The division of continuing professional education offers adults eLearning, off campus degrees and short courses. Expertise and research initiatives include architecture and building science, applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering and science, information technology, manufacturing, materials, microelectronics, multimedia, telecommunications, transportation and solar astrophysics. Yahoo! Internet Life magazine cites NJIT as a “perennially most wired” university.