Special awards and fellowships are given annually to graduate students in our programs in recognition of scholarship and leadership.

Rajendra Rathore Fellowship

Dr. Rajendra (Raj) Rathore, Pfletschinger-Habermann Professor of Organic Chemistry. 

Dr. Rajendra Rathore Fellowship Fund was established in his honor to create academic fellowships to support Marquette University graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in chemistry. The Fellowship that is awarded annually to a promising Marquette chemistry graduate student, which will provide a stipend for research during the summer term.

Recent Rathore Award Winners

2024: Audrey Vice

2023: Abigail Thillman
2022: Ainur Abzhanova
2021: Wehnui Hu

Raymond Bournique Award

Dr. Raymond Bournique was a professor of analytical chemistry who served as the department chairperson in the 1960s. The Bournique Award, established by the family of Dr. Bournique, is given annually to a graduate student whose performance in graduate research has been judged by the faculty to be outstanding. Each student who gives a satisfactory research meeting presentation during the academic year is automatically nominated for the award. The major criteria include the quality and quantity of the student's research, as well as the quality of the research meeting presentation. A small stipend is given to the award recipient.

Recent Bournique Award Winners

2024: Aray Yesmakhan

2023: Dulat Bostan

2022: Nicholas Langer
2020: Ainur Abzhanova
2019: Igor Gayday
2018: Eric Greve
2017: Brian Pattengale
2016: Anna Shishina
2015: Alexander Semenov
2014: Maxim Ivanov
2013: Dymtro Shyshlov
2012: Moven Mututuvari
2011: Aimable Kalume
2010: Vijay Vyas
2009: Irena Mejac

Clifford R. Haymaker Fellowship

The Clifford Haymaker Fellowship was established through the generosity of Professor John J. Eisch, PhD, and his wife, Joan S. Eisch. The Haymaker Fellowship is awarded annually to a graduate student whose performance in teaching has been judged by the faculty to be singularly outstanding. A small stipend is given to the award recipient.

Dr. Clifford R. Haymaker was a distinguished alumnus and faculty member of Marquette University. Born sightless in Milwaukee in 1907, he made his way through school with sighted tutors, and graduated from Marquette University with the highest honors before obtaining his PhD from Marquette University in 1938 with the dissertation, "The Chemistry of Atomic Nuclei." He gave lectures at Marquette on all levels of organic chemistry with the aid of student scribes from 1938 to 1968. He retired with the rank of professor and the warm regard of his many grateful students.

An insightful biography about Dr. Haymaker was written by Dr. Eisch and Dr. Daniel T. Haworth: Eisch, J. J., Haworth, D. T., "The Professional Career of Clifford R. Haymaker: A Life of Chemistry Imagined and Bequeathed." J. Chem. Educ. 2003, 80, 278.

Recent Haymaker Award Winners

2024:Rustam Sabitov

2023: Audrey Vice

2022: Abilgail Thillman
2020: John Aguirre
2019: Dan Burkett
2018: Wasantha Lankathilaka Karunagala Pathiranage
2017: John Ludwig
2016: Alexander Treleven
2015: Azamat Galiakhmetov
2014: Elena Ivanova
2013: Dmitry Khomyakov
2012: Amanda Baum
2011: Matthew Flister
2010: Vijay Vyas, Daniel Kaluka
2009: Terrence Neuman

Dr. John J. Eisch Fellowship

The Eisch Fellowship was established through the generosity of Professor John J. Eisch, PhD, and his wife, Joan S. Eisch (BS in Nursing, Marquette). The Eisch Fellowship is an academic-year research fellowship that is awarded to a graduate student whose performance in graduate research has been judged by the faculty to be outstanding.

Professor John J. Eisch is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a 1952 graduate of Marquette University with a BS degree (summa cum laude) in chemistry. He received the PhD degree in organic chemistry from Iowa State University, working under the direction of Professor Henry Gilman, an internationally renowned organometallic chemist. Upon completing his PhD studies in 1956, Dr. Eisch received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Union Carbide Corporation to study with Professor Karl Ziegler at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim (Ruhr), Germany. Ziegler, along with Giulio Natta, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963 for discovering versatile catalysts for the stereoselective polymerization of olefins, diolefins and acetylenes.

Following a five-month stay at the European Research Associates Laboratory in Brussels, Belgium, Eisch began his academic career in 1957 as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at St. Louis University. As his career progressed, Dr. Eisch held positions successively at the University of Michigan and the Catholic University of America, where he was Ordinary Professor of Chemistry and Department Head from 1966 until 1972. He then joined the faculty of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton as Department Chair in 1972. In 1983, he was named Distinguished Professor, a SUNY-wide honor. Eisch's extensive research career in the field of organometallic research has received many distinctions, including a traveling lecture fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Research Award, Universität München, Germany (1993-1996 and again in 2005-2006); the first Henry Gilman Research Award, Iowa State University (1995); and the Doctor of Science degree, honoris causa, from Marquette University (2002). To date, he has mentored more than 100 doctoral students and postdoctoral associates, 30 master's students and some 70 undergraduate assistants, in addition to having taught undergraduate and graduate courses in organic and organometallic chemistry. He has published two monographs and four edited volumes in organometallic chemistry, as well as over 390 research publications, patents and reviews.

Recently, Dr. Eisch published his reminiscences as postdoctoral fellow with Karl Ziegler and as a young academic in the invited article, "Fifty Years of Ziegler-Natta Polymerization: From Serendipity to Science. A Personal Account," in Organometallics, 2012, 31, 4917-4932, which was one of the journal's most frequently downloaded articles in 2012.

Recent Eisch Award Winners

2024: Audrey Vice

2023: Dulat Bostan

2022: Laxmi Devkota
2020: Bikramaditya Mandal
2019: Wenhui Hu
2018: Sizhuo Yang
2017: Brian Pattengale
2016: Azamat Galiakhmetov
2015: Elena Ivanova
2014: Amanda Baum
2013: Simon Duri
2012: Aimable Kalume
2011: Lei Wang
2009: Ruchi Shukla

Denis J. O'Brien Fellowship

The O'Brien Fellowship was established through the generosity of the Denis J. O'Brien Fund. It is a 12-month research assistantship that is awarded to a PhD student who has completed all coursework and been advanced to candidacy.

Recent O'Brien Award Winners

2024: Sahar Alishiri

2023: Sam Hintzsche

2022: Samantha Sloane
2020: James Makuvaza
2019: Pandula Kirinde Arachchige
2017: Mohammad Hossain
2016: Anne Fischer

American Institute of Chemists Awards

The American Institute of Chemists (AIC) Graduate and Postdoctoral awards are given annually to scholars in the department for achievement, leadership and professional promise. Recent award winners include:

Recent Graduate Student AIC Award Winners
2024: Laxmi Devkota

2023: Aldiyar Shakenov

2022: Elizaveta Grushnikova
2021: Bikramaditya Mandal
2020: Pandula Kirinde Arachchige
2019: Sizhuo Yang
2018: Azamat Galiakhmetov
2017: Elena Ivanova
2016: Alexander Teplukhin
2015: Amanda Baum
2014: Jeewantha Hewage
2013: Simon Duri
2012: Aimable Kalume
2011: Lei Wang
2010: Terrence Neumann
2009: Andrew Olson
2008: Calvin Mukarakate

Recent Postdoctoral Fellow AIC Award Winners
2022: Danushka Ekanayake

2021: Bikramaditya Mandal
2020: Remigio Usai
2019: Md. Hafizur Rahman
2018: Damian Kokkin
2017: Maxim Ivanov
2016: Denan Wang
2015: Neil Reilly
2014: Piotr Mak
2013: Marat Talipov
2012: Dong-Hwan Lee
2011: Haeweon Park
2009: Ruchi Shukla
2008: Piotr Mak