Award for Excellence

A professor who has built his lab into a research powerhouse while opening new opportunities for his students and colleagues will have his name etched in stone at Carillon Garden for his service to Clemson University, the student body and the larger community. Brian Powell, the Fjeld Professor in Nuclear Environmental Engineering and Science, is winning this year’s Class of ’39 Award for Excellence.

Powell is not only a professor at Clemson, he is an alumnus who earned his Master of Science in 2001 and Ph.D. in 2004, both in environmental engineering and science. He returned to Clemson in 2008, this time as a faculty member.  “I am immensely proud of Clemson’s growth over the last 20 years,” Powell said. “We have realized our founders’ vision of creating ‘a high seminary of learning’ with some of the greatest students, staff, and faculty in the country. Considering the depth and breadth of our impact on the state and nation, I’m humbled to be selected out of our community of scholars as the 2022 Class of ’39 Award winner.”

Powell’s research on radionuclides is helping form the technical basis for designing repositories to store spent fuel from nuclear power plants and to clean up sites contaminated by nuclear-weapons production. His work at Savannah River Site has helped the U.S. Department of Energy save millions of dollars in remediation costs.Powell has graduated 10 master’s students and nine Ph.D. students since the 2017-18 academic year. Two postdoctoral fellows in his lab were promoted to research professor, and two others to permanent positions.
In those five years, Powell has authored or co-authored 51 publications and has received nearly $5.6 million in new awards to fund research.

The Faculty Senate administers the program. Early in the school year, the call goes out to the entire faculty, asking for nominations for the current year's award. Nominations detail the past five year accomplishments of the nominees. They flow through administrative channels to the Provost, who passes them along to a select faculty committee for assessment. That committee includes the two prior year Award for Excellence winners. The committee studies the nominations and selects a maximum of four for consideration by the entire Faculty Senate, who by secret ballot determine the winner for the year.

At the December graduation exercises, the Provost announces the name of the winner, who is invited to the rostrum to receive a certificate signed by the President of the University and to be given a medal signifying his or her award, which thereafter will be worn as part of the academic uniform. Then in January, the Faculty Senate holds a ceremony at the Class of '39 Bell Tower near Tillman Hall honoring the current winner. Each winner's name is engraved in granite on the Bell Tower. The Class of '39 has a standing invitation to attend this final recognition of the Award for Excellence winner, who at that time is invited to become an honorary member of the class.

Click here to learn about our Awardees.

Resolution to Honor the Clemson University Class of ‘39

“Whereas the Class of ‘39 established the Class of 1939 Award for Excellence “to inspire the greatest possible level of achievement by members of the faculty of Clemson University;” and
Whereas the Award for Excellence is presented annually to one distinguished member of the faculty whose outstanding contributions have been judged by peers to represent the highest achievement of service to the University, the Student Body, and the larger community; and
Whereas Faculty who have received this distinction become members of the Class of ‘39; and Whereas the members of the Class of ‘39 have bestowed the privilege of the Award facilitation to the Faculty Senate; and
Whereas the Class of ‘39 respects and believes in the importance of the faculty and its impact on students and the future of Clemson University;
Resolved that the Faculty Senate does hereby honor and celebrate the members of the Great Class of ‘39 for its trust and confidence in the recognition of the faculty of Clemson University.”
- Passed unanimously by the Faculty Senate, November 11, 1997

List of Recipients: