SOCORRO, N.M. – New Mexico Tech has named four outstanding rising seniors as Macey Scholars for the 2020-2021 school year. The Macey Scholarship is NMT’s most prestigious academic honor for seniors.

This year’s winners:

• Catherine Batchelder, Biology
• Sabina Gulick, Environmental Engineering
• Casper Huang, Mechanical Engineering
• Brandon McReynolds, Chemical Engineering

Macey Scholars are academic standouts, as well as “super-citizens.” They represent the best of and most well-rounded Tech students – brilliant young scientists and engineers who are involved in their communities and give of their time to worthy causes.

The Macey Scholarship is among the most prestigious scholarship awarded at New Mexico Tech. The program is named after 1942 New Mexico Tech graduate William B. Macey. Mr. Macey was among the biggest supporters of New Mexico Tech over the years, including significant contributors to the Macey Center building fund in the early 1980s and the Macey Family Childrens Center in recent years. Mr. Macey passed away in 2017.

Macey Scholars are Tech undergraduate students who have a cumulative GPA of 3.4 or greater. Qualified students apply for the program, along with nominations from faculty and staff members, employers and research associates. Those selected as Macey Scholars receive an award of $5,000.

The selections are based upon accomplishments in the classroom, research laboratory, service projects, volunteerism, awards, honors and other activities. Each of this year’s winners have an impressive resumé, full of research projects, internships, volunteer work and extracurricular activities. They are all well-rounded young scientists who have marked their careers at Tech with academic achievement, campus involvement and devotion to helping others.

Catherine Batchelder

A native of Carlsbad, N.M., Batchelder was inspired to come to NMT by her high school biology teacher. It also helped that her older brother was a Techie.

Batchelder has served as a tutor with the Writing and Communication and has volunteered as a peer mentor on campus and at the Socorro Animal Shelter. She completed a summer internship with the Bureau of Land Management as a range technician in 2019.

Her nomination was supported NMT faculty members Dr. Linda DeVeaux and Dr. Jesse Priest, and local veterinarian Dean Wilkinson, who is also an NMT instructor.

Batchelder has been involved in the Tri Beta, the Ballroom Dance Club and the NMT Equestrian Club, which she founded.

Sabina Gulick

A native of Santa Fe, N.M., Sabina Gulick transferred to NMT after graduating from Santa Fe Community College. In her first year at Tech, she joined the Watershed Living Learning Community, giving her research experience right awa.

Along with advisor Dr. Kip Carrico, Gulick worked at Los Alamos National Lab in 2019, where she participated in the summer student research symposium.

Her nomination was supported by Carrico and professor Dr. Clint Richardson.  Gulick has served as president of the ASCE chapter and the SWE campus chapter and has been an active member of several other clubs.

Casper Huang

A native of Socorro, N.M., Casper Huang sports a 4.0 GPA and has his eyes set on dental school. He took his first class – Intro to Engineering – at NMT when he was 13 years old. In that class, he designed and 3D printed a catapult that won the class competition.

While in high school, he started working in Dr. Snezna Rogelj’s lab in the Biology Department.  Huang has tutored at local elementary schools, and for the NMT Office of Student Learning. He currently serves as an officer in the Engineering Honor Society. For the past three years, he’s worked in the Physics Department machine shop for the R&ED Division. That experience resulted in him serving as technical advisor for the Soapbox Derby Challenge for local middle schoolers. He wrote a paper about that initiative, which he presented at the American Society for Engineering Education conference earlier this year.

For the past two years, Huang has worked as a dental assistant at the Socorro office of Dr. Duane Beers, D.D.S. That experience inspired him to pursue dentistry.

His nomination was supported by Dr. Beers and Dr. Julie Ford of the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Brandon McReynolds

A native of Aztec, N.M., McReynolds decided to attend New Mexico Tech after visiting campus and loving that experience.

He has been doing research with Dr. John McCoy in the Materials Engineering Department for the past two years. In that position, he’s learned to operate several instruments not typically available to undergrads. He also served a TA for Dr. Sally Pias in the Chemistry Department.

McReynolds has been active with the AiChE ChemE car competition, and participated in demonstrations of the car around the state. He is leading the ChemE Car Jeopardy team this year.

His nomination was supported by Dr. McCoy and Dr. Pias.

– NMT –