Mississippi State's chapter of an international research fraternity is bestowing its highest honor on one of the university's most senior faculty members.
Lewis R. Brown, a professor of biological sciences, recently received Sigma Xi's 2002 Ralph E. Powe Research Award.
A Sigma Xi member since 1958 and a faculty member since 1961, Brown is recognized worldwide for his basic and applied research in environmental, industrial, and petroleum microbiology. He holds bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Louisiana State University.
Over more than four decades at MSU, Brown has obtained more than $7 million dollars in sponsored research grants, garnered some half-dozen patents from the culminations of his scientific investigations and directed the research projects of 27 master's and 13 doctoral-degree candidates. The results of his studies have been featured in more than 125 scientific journals.
The Powe Award is a campus memorial to the former Sigma Xi member and university research vice president who died in 1996. The award was first presented in 1997.
Founded in 1886, Sigma Xi is a non-profit organization of almost 75,000 scientists and engineers elected to membership because of their research achievements or potential. Its more than 500 chapters are spread among universities and colleges, government laboratories and industrial research centers.
