Jennifer Vondran, a student at Drexel University completing a dual BS/MS in biomedical and materials engineering, is the 2006 winner of NSPE’s George B. Hightower, P.E., Fellowship. The $3,000 fellowship, sponsored by NSPE’s Professional Engineers in Construction, is given each year to an engineering graduate student enrolled in an ABET-accredited program.

Vondran is interested in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, biopolymeric materials, and pharmaceutical drug processing and manufacturing. Her goals is to work for a biopharmaceutical company and gain graduate degrees in business and law so that she can eventually launch a biomaterials and medical device consulting firm.

She has completed co-ops at biotechnology firm Centocor and in the Exponent/Drexel Implant Research Center as well as worked in Drexel’s computer-aided tissue engineering and micro-encapsulation labs.

Vondran is also active in the Drexel Society of Women Engineers and Drexel’s Women in Engineering mentorship program. And she was project leader in a Drexel College of Engineering initiative that carried out engineering experiments in zero gravity at Johnson Space Center in Houston in 2004-2005.

Hightower Fellowship applicants are judged on grade point average, internship/co-op experience and involvement in other activities, faculty recommendations, honors and awards, and an essay on their engineering career goals.

- From PE - The Magazine for Professional Engineers