Clarkson University Student Jared Smith of Bay Shore, N.Y., Awarded National Tau Beta Pi Fellowship

2013 Jun 20

Jared Smith of Bay Shore, N.Y., a senior majoring in environmental engineering, was recently awarded a National Tau Beta Pi fellowship, and will receive $10,000 for the 2013-2014 academic year.

Tau Beta Pi, the oldest engineering honor society in the United States, awards only about 40 fellowships nationwide.

Smith, former vice president of the Tau Beta Pi chapter at Clarkson, will be attending Cornell University for an M.S./Ph.D. in environmental and water resource systems engineering, studying the risks posed by hydraulic fracturing on surface water and groundwater resources.

Smith first became interested in quantifying the risks of hydrofracking while he was an exchange student at the University of Newcastle, Australia. While there, he learned of the impact that humans may have on subsurface freshwater resources by drilling for oils and fracking for natural gas.

Smith says that he aspires to invoke environmentally safe and sustainable protocols, and develop environmentally conscious engineering solutions for hydrofracking into policy. After graduate school, he would like to remain in academia, research and teaching, as a professor. He also hopes to become a licensed Professional Engineer.

Tau Beta Pi's fellowship program is its single most important project for the advancement of engineering education and the profession. Since its beginning in 1928, the purpose has been to finance, for a select group of members chosen for merit and need, a year of graduate study at the colleges of their choice. Tau Beta Pi fellows are free to do graduate work in any field which will enable them to contribute to the engineering profession.

Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in five alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park in Potsdam, N.Y., Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.