Recent graduate Benjamin J. Fasenfest of the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering has been awarded the prestigious Tau Beta Pi graduate fellowship for the upcoming academic year.
Fasenfest was one of only seven electrical engineering majors in the country to receive the fellowship.
A native of northern California, Fasenfest will pursue graduate work this fall in electrical engineering at UH, where he is working with Stuart Long, associate dean for research, in the Applied Electromagnetics Group in the area of Dielectric Resonator Antennas.
"He is one of the best students I've ever had in 28 years of teaching," Long says.
Fasenfest graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Houston Honors College and received this year's Outstanding Senior Award from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He turned down other attractive fellowship offers to remain at UH for graduate study.
"I had generous offers from MIT and the University of Illinois to do my graduate work there," says Fasenfest, "but the program in electromagnetics here is so strong, and I already had the opportunity to meet the professors through undergraduate research, so I decided to stay here."
Tau Beta Pi Fellowships are awarded on the basis of high scholarship, campus leadership and service, and promise of future contributions to the engineering profession. Membership in the organization represents the highest honor to be obtained by an engineering student and is awarded on the basis of high scholarship and exemplary character.