The American Institute of Chemical Engineers named a UA student the top chemical engineering student in the nation for 2004.

The AIChE awarded the $5,000 John J. McKetta Undergraduate Scholarship to Stephanie Freeman, a chemical engineering senior.

The McKetta award emphasizes leadership, a requirement Freeman fulfilled by serving as the vice president of the UA chapter of AIChE last spring.

Other criteria for the selection of the top student award were an essay detailing the student's future plans, including the student's career goals, along with three letters of recommendation, Freeman said.

Freeman's plans for the future involve studying abroad in Europe post-graduation, and then getting her Ph.D in the United States.

"I would like to gain a global perspective with my graduate education and earn a master's degree abroad before returning to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D in environmental engineering," Freeman said.

The University of California at Berkeley, Stanford, and the University of Texas in Austin are a few of the schools Freeman is considering for her master's degree, she said.

"I am also looking into a few foreign universities like Wageningen University and the Technical University of Delft, [both] in the Netherlands," Freeman said.

In the future, Freeman says she would like to work in the field of research and development for wastewater treatment utilizing bioremediation.

Bioremediation involves removing or neutralizing contaminants in polluted water or soil.

The AIChE is a national professional association of 50,000 members that promotes and distributes chemical engineering knowledge and uses scientific and technical knowledge to help society.

The AIChE has student chapters across the country that not only enhance communication between faculty and students, but allow students to hear speakers from the industry talk about internships, graduate schools and career opportunities.

Freeman says she became interested in the environmental side of chemical engineering during her freshman year at UA.

"The research I started doing my freshman year with Dr. Jim Fields and Dr. Reyes Sierra drastically influenced my interest in the environmental side of chemical engineering," Freeman said. "Without that experience, I would not be aware of the research being conducted in this field."

Freeman is spending this semester in the Netherlands, conducting research on biological waste treatment at Wangeningen University.

Freeman will be back in the states to officially accept the award in November, said Edward Stiles, an editor at the college of engineering.

She will return to UA in January to finish her chemical engineering degree.

Freeman said that although the work of chemical engineering can be very time-consuming and complex, the enormous support she gets from other students, faculty and research professors helps her along the way.

"I find that it is usually manageable when I have a good group of friends to study with that have the same work ethic and commitment," Freeman said.