{"403271":{"#nid":"403271","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Allen Wins Ruffin Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAshley Allen capped an action-packed fifth year in the Bioengineering (BioE) Ph.D. program by winning the Christopher Ruffin BioE Graduate Leadership Award, highlighting the second annual BioE Day at the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe award, established last year to honor the memory of Ruffin, former BioE academic advisor who died in 2013, recognizes a current graduate student for superior contributions to the program, a student whose influence, ideals and activities create a lasting and positive impression, raising the standard of excellence for future students. Allen follows in the footsteps of Patricia Pacheco, who won the first Ruffin Award in 2014.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cAshley is an amazing young woman with an incredibly positive nature and boundless energy. She\u2019s a true champion for the BioE program, which reflects Chris\u2019s spirit,\u201d says Laura Paige, who has followed Ruffin as academic advisor for BioE. \u201cAnd she\u2019s been very supportive of me since I stepped into this role.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn what must now be considered a tradition, BioE Day began in the Petit Institute atrium with student research presentations and the awards ceremony, and ended outdoors in the commons area, where students, staff and professors tossed a Frisbee, played corn hole, and threw water balloons at each other while enjoying refreshments. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Ruffin Award remains the unifying theme for BioE Day, but several other students and a faculty member also were recognized: Erin Hannen, a student in the lab of Susan Thomas, won the Best Poster Award. Jennifer Lei, from Johnna Temenoff\u2019s lab, took the prize for Rapid Fire Presentation. He Zheng, from Garrett Stanley\u2019s lab, presented her research from a Best Paper Award that was announced at BioE Recruitment Day earlier in the semester. And Brandon Dixon accepted his award for Best Faculty Advisor (also announced originally during BioE Recruitment Day).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAllen, who works in the lab of Petit Institute Executive Director Bob Guldberg, was the ideal candidate for the Ruffin Award, according to her fellow BioE students, 18 of which signed a letter of nomination on her behalf.\u0026nbsp; They point out her implicit and explicit leadership positions through the years, including her extensive work within the Bioengineering Graduate Association (BGA \u2013 she was president in 2011). They wrote of her volunteer work at recruitment events, coming up with the idea for BioE Day, and other community-building events.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EShe also served as education and outreach chair for the Bioengineering and Bioscience Unified Graduates (BBUGS), spreading her interest in science to the next generation of students. And earlier this school year, Allen spent two weeks in Israel doing research as part of her Nerem International Travel Award, working the lab of Zulma Gazit, who may sum up this year\u2019s Ruffin Award best when she says of Allen, \u201cshe directs as high a degree of energy, kindness, and enthusiasm toward learning and engaging with people as she does towards research.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOr, as Allen\u2019s friends in BioE conclude in their letter, \u201cThe BioE program and the role of BGA have seen significant growth over the past few years, which we strongly believe would have been impossible without Ashley\u2019s passionate involvement and leadership.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"BioE Day returns with presentations, honors and water balloons"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBioE Day returns with presentations, honors and water balloons\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"BioE Day returns with presentations, honors and water balloons"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-05-09 00:32:28","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:17","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-05-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-05-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"403251":{"id":"403251","type":"image","title":"Ashley Allen, Ruffin Award","body":null,"created":"1449252000","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:00:00","changed":"1475895124","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:04","alt":"Ashley Allen, Ruffin Award","file":{"fid":"75962","name":"ashley_trophy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ashley_trophy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ashley_trophy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1000978,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ashley_trophy.jpg?itok=TMU3G8bb"}},"403261":{"id":"403261","type":"image","title":"BioE Day Awards","body":null,"created":"1449252000","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:00:00","changed":"1475895124","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:04","alt":"BioE Day Awards","file":{"fid":"75963","name":"award_winners.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/award_winners.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/award_winners.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":958534,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/award_winners.jpg?itok=FiU-PX_c"}}},"media_ids":["403251","403261"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"569","name":"bioengineering"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}