Recognition

Recognition in Sustainability.

The Smeal Sustainability awards recognize extraordinary achievement and service in advancing Smeal's sustainability goals in teaching, research and outreach. 

For award guidelines, nomination process and selection timeline, please visit the following links:

Susman Sustainability Leadership Award

The annual Susman Sustainability Leadership Award recognizes exceptional leadership in the advancement of sustainable business strategy, management, and practice. Awardees can be internal or external to Smeal. 

The 2024 inaugural recipient of the award was presented to Brett Cotten, Class of '18 studying Biochem and Engineering Entrepreneurship.

"Brett Cotten is a climate-tech entrepreneur focused on removing animals and plastics from global supply chains. The use and abuse of animals, which humans treat as factories for making raw materials, alongside the rising problem of microplastics for global health, make these issues urgent to solve for people, fellow animals, and the planet.

A passion for sci-fi and biotech led Brett to pursue a BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State from 2014-2018. Wanting to explore the business side of science, Brett completed a minor in Engineering Entrepreneurship, spending time across Eberly, Engineering, and Smeal.

Post-graduation, Brett interviewed founders and wrote a book for a year, Gene-trepreneur, about biotech entrepreneurship impacting the climate through food and materials. One founder interviewed completed the MBA for biotech (MBE) at The University of Cambridge in the early 2000s. Brett followed suit and moved to the UK in 2019.

Post-Cambridge, Brett worked in venture capital due diligence, helped found a venture studio, and did business development for an Austrian startup turning CO2 into amino acids. However, wanting to meet a co-founder and start his own business, Brett joined an accelerator called Entrepreneur First in London, which is basically Love Island meets Shark Tank, and found his match – an Oxford chemist named TJ.

Today, the pair live and work in the craft brewing hub of London, where they founded Arda Biomaterials to transform globally abundant waste streams into valuable, animal-free, and plastic-free biomaterials. Arda’s first transformation is turning spent barley grain from beer breweries and whisky distilleries into a novel material for use in fashion, footwear, and automotive".

Past Recipients

  • 2023 - William E. Flederbach Jr '05 EMBA
  • 2022 - Diane M. Phillips, Ph.D., '88 and '99 Marketing
  • 2021 - Jean Oelwang '87
  • 2019 - Gerald I. Susman 

2019 Recipient of the Sustainability Faculty Award:

Faculty Sustainability award winner Veronica Villena Martinez, Assistant Professor Supply Chain & Information Systems.

Veronica Villena, Assistant Professor Supply Chain & Information Systems

2019 Recipient of the Sustainability Staff Award:

Portrait of Teri Ault.

Teri Ault, Business Manager, Research, Instruction and Information Technology Group

2019 Recipient of the Graduate Student Sustainability Award:

Erik Foley with the 2019 Recipient of the Graduate Student Sustainability Award, Neha Kumari.

Neha Kumari

2019 Recipients of the Undergraduate Student Sustainability Award:

Erik Foley with the 2019 Recipients of the Undergraduate Student Sustainability Award, Will Swart and Michael Lewis

Will Swart and Michael Lewis

Past Recipients

Undergraduate Student

  • 2019 - Will Swart and Michael Lewis
  • 2018 - Matthew Park and Matthew Morgan
  • 2017 - Alec Raymond
  • 2016 – Dang Trinh
  • 2015 – Ethan Espina

Graduate Student

  • 2019 - Neha Kumari
  • 2018 - Ryan Roach and Sophia Schuster
  • 2015 – David DeFelice

Faculty

  • 2019 - Veronica Villena
  • 2018 - Suresh Muthulingam
  • 2017 - Dan Guide and Terry Harrison
  • 2016 - Karen Winterich
  • 2015 - Ron Johnson

Staff

  • 2019 - Teri Ault
  • 2018 - Karen Serago
  • 2017 – Robin Stevens
  • 2016 – Christine Novinskie Olbrich
  • 2015 – JungEn Choi