Anni Zhang received the Chemical Engineering Service and Leadership Award for 2020-2021
Anni has served in the 2019-2020 Academic Year as the GSAC President, working to improve the communication between GSAC and the department in all aspects of life in ChemE. Her efforts to collect feedback on the qualifying exam process, the graduate student curriculum and the rotation experience have been paramount to helping improve our graduate program. Sharing student experiences and perspectives with faculty in a very candid manner has helped the department to make necessary changes. In the middle of planning the department’s annual recruitment visit weekend, Stanford grappled with the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic spreading throughout the US. After making the difficult decision at the last minute to hold our annual recruitment event virtually, Anni jumped into action with the rest of the Recruitment Committee to quickly pivot the weekend to a virtual format and started immediately generating content. Not only did Anni successfully help lead our Virtual Recruitment to one of the highest student acceptance rates in the department, but Anni also continues to lead the Graduate Student Action Committee from a distance – thoughtfully engaging our students and department with meaningful discussions and continuing to affect change within our department. Her leadership skills were recognized by the School of Engineering and she presently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council.
