Provost's Award for Graduate Research/Creative Mentoring
Brent Peyton
Brent Peyton, a professor of chemical and biological engineering in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering, has won the Provost’s Award for Graduate Research and Mentoring. The award recognizes a faculty member who exemplifies leadership in graduate education and shows a history of successful guidance of graduate students from their arrival at MSU through the launch of their professional careers. The award includes a $2,000 honorarium.
Peyton, who researches the areas of biofilms, biofuels, thermophiles bioprocessing and in situ biocatalyzed heavy metal transformations, is prolific at disseminating the results of the research that his graduate students conduct. He and his students have given more than 100 conference presentations, most of which have involved the graduate student being the presenter. More than 50 of the papers he has published and three of the five U.S. patents he holds have included students as coauthors.
“Dr. Peyton is an exemplar of success in all areas of his faculty appointment,” wrote Brett Gunnink, dean of the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering, in a letter of nomination. “His love of science and research is infectious, and he does a superb job of incorporating ‘place’ in his research with his emphasis on extremophiles that live in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park.”
Nine of Peyton’s 19 doctoral students and 13 of his 29 master’s students have been women, which is notable considering that the percentage of undergraduate students receiving degrees in chemical engineering nationally is only 35%. Peyton has also worked with 24 additional doctoral students over the past three years through the National Science Foundation’s Research Trainee Program, although he is not their primary adviser.
“Some of MSU’s finest students work in his lab,” Gunnink wrote. “When they leave, they are extremely well prepared for a career in science and engineering.”