Doctoral students Kerry Hamilton, Kimberlee Marcellus and Adams Rackes within the
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) Department are recent recipients of The Steven E. Giegerich Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded annually to one or more graduate students in the department. In 1984, John Giegerich established this scholarship to honor his son Steven. While a student at Drexel, Steven was killed in a motorcycle accident. Since its founding, more than 40 Drexel students have benefited from the scholarship. In addition to this generous gift, Mr. Giegerich hosts an annual luncheon that provides the opportunity for current and past scholarship recipients to meet.
Kerry Hamilton is from Rockville Centre, New York and is a doctoral student in Environmental Engineering. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in Public Health and in 2009 with a master's in Environmental Health Sciences. She completed her thesis work on well water quality in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and was a public health fellow for two years at the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development. Hamilton is currently president of
Drexel Graduate Women in Science and Engineering which organizes academic, social and community outreach events for graduate students. Hamilton’s research interests are quantitative microbial risk assessment and dose response modelling. She is advised by
Charles Haas, department head of CAEE and LD Betz Professor of Environmental Engineering.
Kimberlee Marcellus graduated with a bachelor's in 1998 and a master's in 2007 from Drexel in Civil Engineering, Geotechnical and Construction Management concentrations. She is originally from Aston, PA. Before returning to Drexel in 2010 to pursue her doctorate in Civil Engineering, Marcellus worked at Bovis Lend Lease, The Norwood Company (Project Manager) and The Philadelphia Housing Authority (Senior Real Estate Development Manager). She is currently a part-time teaching fellow for the College of Engineering and is also working with the NewBio Consortium (USDA) and CAEE assistant professors Sabrina Spatari and Anu Pradhan to write a data management plan for the Consortium’s efforts to develop woody and perennial grass biomass resources on marginal land in the US Northeast for developing biofuel markets. Marcellus is advised by
Patricia Gallagher and
Sabrina Spatari.
Adams Rackes is a doctoral student with a concentration in Architectural Engineering. His research interests include indoor air quality (IAQ), building energy consumption, building automation and control, and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) components and systems. Rackes received a bachelor's degree in Architectural Engineering from Drexel in June 2012 and also holds a bachelor of arts in History and Literature from Harvard University. He has also recently been awarded with the following: a 2013 Koerner Family Fellowship, a 2013 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention, and a 2012 Grant in Aid from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Rackes' current research under advisor
Michael Waring is part of the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub in Philadelphia, a US DOE Energy Innovation Hub.
Charles Haas notes “Kerry, Kim and Adams are all stellar students who strive to master their research in their respective engineering fields. Their commitment to engineering as well as their interactions with faculty members and students truly shows that they are dedicated to representing the CAEE Department to the best of their abilities. I am very pleased to honor them as this year’s Giegerich recipients.”