Alfred University senior Maria Voss named SUNY Chancellor’s Award winner

ALBANY, NY – Maria Voss, a senior ceramic engineering major at Alfred University, has been named a winner of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. Voss and other 2022 award winners will be recognized by SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras at a ceremony held Tuesday, April 26, at the Hall of Springs in Saratoga Springs, NY.

The Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence is the highest honor bestowed upon undergraduate students within the State University of New York system, which comprises 64 SUNY campuses. It honors SUNY students who have best demonstrated their integration of academic excellence with other aspects of their lives, which may include leadership; campus involvement; athletics; career achievement; community service; the arts (creative or performing); diversity, equity, and inclusion; military service; overcoming the odds; and special service.

Voss, a resident of Palmyra, NY, is set to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in ceramic engineering at Alfred University’s May 14 Commencement. She has a cumulative grade-point average of 3.89, has been in the Alfred University Honors Program since 2018, and has been named to the Dean’s List each of her seven semesters at Alfred University.

“Maria Voss represents everything we hope to achieve in preparing “T-shaped” engineering students that have phenomenal technical depth but also incredible breadth of skillsets in other disciplines,” said Gabrielle Gaustad ’04, dean of the Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred University, in nominating Voss for the Chancellor’s Award.

Voss is a leader on campus and currently serves as president of Alfred University’s engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi. She is a member of several other honors groups, including Omicron Delta Kappa, Keramos (a ceramic engineering specific honor society), and Phi Kappa Phi. She is active in many student clubs and organizations as well, including the University’s American Solar Energy Society, Society for Women Engineers, and Outdoor Club.

During the Fall 2021 semester, Voss studied abroad at the Universita Delgi Studi Di Pavia in Italy. “This global experience meant so much to her,” Gaustad wrote. “After it being cancelled twice, she had to work countless hours to see it to fruition—I couldn’t be more proud that she is able to have this amazing experience in the face of COVID,”

Voss completed an internship at Knowles Precision Devices in Cazenovia, NY, last summer, working as a ceramic engineering research and development intern, performing coating synthesis, pressing, and sintering.

“Her compositional characterization work set the stage for a major breakthrough for the entire dielectrics team. Because of this, she was given the opportunity to demonstrate the new product in front of her supervisors and the president of the company,” Gaustad said. “Having an undergraduate student lead such pioneering work is unique and speaks to the exceptional nature of Maria’s scholarship.”

Among the awards Voss has won during her time at Alfred University: the Outstanding CEMS (Ceramic Engineering and Materials Science) Junior Award (2021), the Thermo Fisher Scientific Scholarship (2020), and the Presidential Scholarship (2018).

Voss gives of her time, serving as a teaching assistant in the General Chemistry Lab and as a tutor for her undergraduate classmates. “Maria consistently volunteers with recruiting and outreach events, and you can see that she has a real passion for inspiring young women to go into engineering and other STEM programs,” Gaustad wrote.