UALR senior Saad Azam, only the second Arkansan ever invited back to NASA for multiple internships, is this year’s Edward L. Whitbeck Memorial Award winner.

He will receive his award at the UALR Distinguished Alumni Awards Luncheon on Friday, May 15, at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. Azam graduates as a UALR Donaghey Scholar and Science Scholar. He interned at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology and has been offered a permanent position after graduation.

A double major in chemistry and biology, received a NASA Workforce Development Fellowship to intern at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he worked on solid-state electrochemistry and chemical physics.

The following year he was hired for a second internship to help develop rechargeable, high energy, aqueous metal hydride-air batteries for electric vehicles.

He will return a third time to continue his work at NASA this summer.

Azam represented UALR at four conferences at the local, state, and national levels where he won awards at every conference, including the Emerging Researchers National Conference, where he placed second in a pool of 300 students.

In 2013, Azam received a $6,500 Statewide Undergraduate Research Fellowship grant from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education to help fund his project of synthesizing renewable electrodes for fuel cells application.

He served as a co-author on three publications related to this work, including the Journal of Applied Polymer Science

He has served on school organizations, including the UALR Chapter of American Chemical Society for two years as president, and he serves as vice president of the national health pre-professional honor society, Alpha Epsilon Delta.

Winner of the National American Chemical Society Chapter Award, College of Science Leadership Award, and Chemistry Departmental Service Award, Azam has given his work and vision to help UALR and the future of STEM in Arkansas.

In 2013, Azam received a $6,500 Statewide Undergraduate Research Fellowship grant from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education to help fund his project of synthesizing renewable electrodes for fuel cells application at UALR under the mentorship of Dr. Tito Viswanathan.