Several Clemson College of Science faculty and staff members were honored for excellence during an awards ceremony on May 1.
The honorees were:
Outstanding New Teammate: Serenity Wolf
Serenity Wolf is the assistant director of recruitment and retention for the College of Science. She is also involved in COSMIC (College of Science Mentoring and Inclusion Collaborative) and Bridge to Clemson and serves on the Community of Practice for the F1RST Program.
Nominators remarked on how Wolf provides consistent, exceptional dedication and versatility and that she steps up when needed and fiercely advocates for students. She has given personal tours of the University and provides one-on-one experiences as required. A student wrote about Wolf’s mentorship and how it helped their transition from Nigeria to the United States.
In addition to Wolf, nominees for the award were Annie Joye, Biological Sciences; Caleb McGill, Dean’s Office; Chris Krouchick, Dean’s Office; Dana Baird, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences; Jeff Hamilton, Biological Sciences; Kate Price, Genetics and Biochemistry; Lindsey Burns, Biological Sciences; and Sam Panzica, Physics and Astronomy.
Outstanding Staff Member: Rick Moseley
Rick Moseley is the project coordinator and facilities manager for the Life Sciences Building and the Center for Human Genetics facility in Greenwood.
Award presenters noted that Moseley’s exceptional work ethic, dedication and contributions have improved the overall efficiency of facility operations. His quick thinking and hands-on approach ensure that the facility runs smoothly and remains a safe, productive environment for everyone.
Examples of outstanding contributions include ensuring packages made it to people in LSF when deliveries to the building stopped. He makes special trips to get whatever is needed to fix whatever needs fixing. He teaches students how to fix equipment and helps people pump flat tires and jump start their cars. He is reachable after his posted hours and comes in early or stays late to troubleshoot issues or coordinate maintenance crews.
Outstanding Staff Member: Annie Joye
Annie Joye is a Lab Specialist II in biological sciences.
She is highly regarded for her unwavering dedication, diligence and problem-solving skills and known to foster a collaborative and positive work environment. She displays positivity and enthusiasm no matter how stressful or challenging a situation.
Her award nomination notes she is meticulous at planning the labs and managing finances. She will go above and beyond to ensure each lab has what it needs when it needs it, even if that means waking up at 4 a.m. to beat parking restrictions and dodge tow trucks during a Saturday football game to solve substantial fungal contamination to a cell culture lab.
Other nominees for the Outstanding Staff Member awards were Brandi Elliott, Biological Sciences; Kim Webb, Physics and Astronomy; Kimi Brown, Genetics and Biochemistry; Lindsey Burns, Biological Sciences; Serenity Wolf, Dean’s Office; Shannon Lattimore, Center for Human Genetics; and Tonya McManus, Dean’s Office.
Hattie B. Wagener Award: Kim Webb
This prestigious award was established in memory of Hattie Boone Wagener, a longtime administrative support staff member at Clemson. The award recognizes an individual who displays job enthusiasm, embraces new challenges, contributes to the unit’s success, presents a positive attitude, works exceptionally well with everyone, and exhibits loyalty to the College and University.
Kim Webb, office manager for Physics and Astronomy, holds a role with significant responsibility and performs at a level that elevates the department and everyone around her. She is smart, efficient and competent. She embraces a challenge and continually seeks solutions; she learns on the fly and takes on additional challenges with grace. She was instrumental in recruiting and hosting candidates during a faculty search that that resulted in multiple new hires.
It is said that “beyond her technical abilities, what truly sets Webb apart is her warmth and approachability. She brings a kind, calm presence to every interaction, and her respectful approach creates a welcoming environment for everyone.”
The other nominee for the award was Shannon Lattimore of the Center for Human Genetics.
Outstanding Team Award: Genetics and Biochemistry Advising and Registration Services team
This award recognizes a group of three or more individuals who have worked together on a project, process or service that positively impacts the College of Science or individual units within the College.
Britney Maston and Alyssa Taylor are assigned as the primary advisors to 500 genetics and biochemistry undergraduate majors. In January 2025, they were ranked second and seventh in the College of Science workload out of almost 50 advisors. They manage more than 1,200 advising appointments each year.
Kimi Brown manages schedules and requests from undergraduate majors, more than 500 non-majors in service courses and almost 80 graduate students.
The team also participate in recruiting efforts, open house events and prospective student visits. Additionally, all have served in leadership roles, including membership on University retention committees and registration coordinator groups.
The impact of their work is reflected among graduating seniors, with 95% reporting being highly satisfied or satisfied with our student services.
Other nominees were the College of Science Bylaws and Election team and the College of Science Precision Medicine team.
Excellence in Student Engagement: Tania Houjeiry
The Excellence in Student Engagement Award recognizes a faculty member with demonstrated excellence in service and innovative teaching with emphasis on the most recent three years.
Tania Houjeiry serves as the advisor of the chemistry department’s student affiliate chapter of the American Chemical Society, teaches the department’s capstone class and is a part of the department’s National Science Foundation Research REU program.
A former student wrote that Houjeiry made general chemistry, a fast-paced, complex subject, a positive experience. In reference to that capstone class, another student wrote due to Houjeiry’s support, she had the confidence to accept a position as a chemical process engineer.
Other nominees were Sooyun Choi, Chemistry, and Kelly Willemssens, Biological Sciences.
Excellence in Teaching: Heidi Anderson
The Excellence for Teaching Award recognizes demonstrated excellence in traditional instruction and excellence in other aspects of instruction.
Since joining the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry in 2020, Heidi Anderson has taught over 2,000 undergraduates in one biochemistry service course alone. Her innovations promoting engagement and building community have led to her selection as a lead on a faculty learning community devoted to large lecture courses.
In addition to a regular teaching portfolio, she has created and led multiple Creative Inquiry teams drawn from inside and outside the College, with recent student successes including medical/dental school admissions and some former students reporting perfect scores on the biochemistry/biology portion of the MCAT.
One student said Anderson always notices and adjusts to her students’ needs during lectures, a trait that supports students in notetaking and gives them the confidence to say something if they have a question or need an extra minute before moving on. Another student from a biochemistry course said, “I am so thankful she taught a course that is typically hated because she made this my favorite class.”
Other nominees were Ashlyn Smith and Dennis Taylor, both from Chemistry.
Rising Star in Discovery: Rafael D’Oliveira
The Rising Star in Discovery Award recognizes an assistant professor or first-year associate professor who has demonstrated excellence in forefront research, with an emphasis on work conducted at Clemson.
Rafael D’Oliveira from the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences has established himself as a rising star, pioneering research on secure distributed computing and post-quantum cryptography.
D’Oliveira is co-principal investigator on a $1 million NSF award with MIT researchers that is a part of a multimillion-dollar investment by NSF to accelerate research in next generation networking and computing systems. His work has appeared in various high-profile, high-impact journals, with one article notably receiving more than 7,000 citations.
Other nominees were Chris Chouinard, Chemistry, and Xinyi Li, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences.
Excellence in Discovery: Timo Heister
The Excellence in Discovery Award recognizes a tenured faculty member with demonstrated excellence in forefront research with emphasis on work performed in the previous three years.
Timo Heister, a professor in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, is honored for his research into the creation of open-source software for solving large-scale problems of scientific interest on supercomputers. His work has appeared in some of the leading journals in his disciplinary area, numerical analysis and scientific computing, as well as in interdisciplinary venues beyond mathematics such as earth science.
His code ASPECT (Advanced Solver for Problems in Earth’s ConvecTion) has been adopted by the computational infrastructure for geodynamics group.
This year, he and his team of developers received the 2025 SIAM/ACM prize in computational science and engineering, a prestigious award for software in computational science and engineering.
Other nominees were Carlos Garcia, Chemistry; and Sumanta Tewari, Physics and Astronomy.
Excellence in Community Outreach: Kylie Rock
This award recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates exceptional commitment to community engagement through science outreach.
Kylie Rock from the Department of Biological Sciences serves as the lead principal investigator of the Repro-Eco Tox lab, which is an interdisciplinary research group that actively participate in community outreach. Rock and her group have partnered with the Clemson Rural Health Program to create educational materials. They’ve also worked with the Science Outreach Center and Littlejohn Community Center running hands-on sessions for summer campers, who subjected planaria to caffeine.
One nominator wrote that Rock’s most impactful initiative is the “Meet the Professor” summer camp, which she developed and implemented at the Littlejohn Community Center.
“She has implemented the importance of science outreach into her goals as a researcher and has inspired her mentees to do the same,” another nominator wrote.
James Plampin of Chemistry was the other nominee.
Excellence in Mentoring Students: Irina Viktorova
This award recognizes demonstrated excellence in student mentoring of graduate or undergraduate students, in particular activities that go beyond the one-on-one mentoring model for students and advisors, including activities that augment traditional learning and help develop the next generation of scientists and science learners.
Since joining the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Irina Viktorova has taught calculus to over 10,000 students. It is on top of that load that she has been an active researcher (projects with ITRON and NSF-supported projects) and a mentor through Creative Inquiry courses.
Her CI courses have led her to mentor over 300 students, which has led to 32 refereed journal articles and reviewed proceedings with student coauthors. These students have received first place distinctions at national conferences. She has mentored two teams in the College’s Catalyst entrepreneurship competition.
One nominator said Viktorova has been sustainably and effectively mentoring in a variety of ways for over two decades, positively impacting hundreds of students, contributing to their growth, inspiring them with scholarship and helping them obtain jobs or further their education.
Excellence in Mentoring Faculty: Julia Brumaghim
This award recognizes demonstrated excellence in science faculty mentoring, including one-on-one and group mentoring.
Chemistry’s Julia Brumaghim has a long history of advocacy for and mentorship of faculty at Clemson and beyond. She has served in the Faculty Senate as a member of the welfare committee, developing the family support and accommodation plan. She also served on the Women’s Commission, chairing the support services, training and mentorship committee.
As a mentor, she was in the Trailblazers, focusing on women in STEM, returning as a presenter on leadership and as an executive mentor. In the College of Science, she served on the Engagement, Advocacy and Retention Committee and helped develop the Circles mentorship program. As a direct mentor, Brumaghim has worked with 15 lecturers, assistant faculty and full professors.
Brumaghim has given numerous talks to the American Chemical Society on faculty mentoring.
The other nominee was Ken Marcus, Chemistry.
Excellence in Faculty College Service: Andy Tennyson
This award recognizes exemplary service to the College of Science, over and above expectations for regular faculty service work and is limited to senior and principal lecturers and associate and full professors.
Andy Tennyson is an inorganic chemist focusing on organometallics, but he has also made a mark as an effective liaison between faculty and upper administration. He served on the Faculty Senate for the scholastic policies committee and as the College of Science’s lead senator.“Dr. Tennyson is a brilliant scholar and the kind of colleague you want in your department and university… We love Dr. Tennyson because of his astute observations, witty commentary and clear articulation when challenging unsupported assertions, logical inconsistencies
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