Engineering student awarded Morris K. Udall Scholarship

Environmental engineering sophomore Bret Strogen has been awarded a 2001 Morris K. Udall Foundation Scholarship.

Only 80 students in the nation received awards from the 517 nominated.

Strogen, from Berwyn, Pa., said he was "thrilled and ecstatic" when he learned he had won the award.

The scholarship provides up to $5,000 to juniors and seniors in fields related to the environment, as well as to Native Americans and Alaska natives studying health care or tribal policy.

The Udall Foundation was established in 1992 to honor Morris Udall's 30 years of service in the U.S. House of Representatives. Because the congressman was committed to the preservation of the nation's natural environment, the foundation is dedicated to educating a new generation of Americans to preserve and protect the environment.

Strogen said he has always loved and respected the outdoors. When he was 12, the oil tanker, Exxon Valdez, struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sound. As he learned more and more about how the spill was endangering the sound's fishing industry, 10 million migratory shore birds and waterfowl, hundreds of sea otters, harbor porpoise, sea lions and whales, he also became aware of the steps Exxon was taking to fight it.

He said he decided that he wanted to be able to help when environmental disasters, like what happened in Alaska, take place.

Eventually, Strogen said he realized that he could fulfill that goal by designing bioremediation systems that use living organisms to reduce or eliminate environmental hazards resulting from the accumulation of toxic chemicals or other hazardous wastes.

After graduating from Conestoga High School, he entered UD as an environmental engineering student.

An Advanced Placement Program and schoolwide scholar in high school, he has won a Van de Mark & Lynch Scholarship, given to civil engineering students on the basis of scholarship, leadership and personality and has joined the Alpha Lamda Delta, an honors society at UD.

Strogen and Steven K. Dentel, civil and environmental engineering, are testing a polymer used to clean wastewater for damaging side effects.

Ultimately, Strogen said he would like to use his knowledge and skills to find cost-effective and environmentally sound solutions to environmentally sensitive situations. His dream would be to work in Alaska as an environmental engineer.

Strogen's love of the outdoors goes beyond his studies. He belongs to the UD Sailing Club and he rides a bike everywhere, instead of driving a car.

–Barbara Garrison

  Photo by KATHY FLICKINGER