Contact: Maridith Geuder
A Mississippi State University doctoral student from Prentiss is simultaneously receiving two national engineering-related honors.
Sabrina E. Williams is the National Society of Black Engineers' 1999 Graduate Student of the Year. She also is receiving the Student Leadership Award of the Career Communication Group, coordinator of the annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference.
The first honor annually recognizes an outstanding African-American engineer, scientist or technologist. The second honors high achievements by a college student.
After graduating from Prentiss High School in 1988, Williams went on to complete a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Southern University in Baton Rouge, La.
For three years after leaving Southern, she worked in the poultry industry, where her duties often focused on safety training. As a result, she developed an interest in ergonomics-the study of how humans interact with other systems, especially their work environments.
At Mississippi State-where she earlier received a master's degree¾Williams is involved in research with workplace designs for aging workers.
"My goal is to develop an assessment tool to help employers assess worker capabilities and provide needed accommodations for older workers," she said. "I'm looking particularly at strength capabilities and what employers can do to bridge the gap."
Industrial engineering associate professor Lesia Crumpton, director of MSU's ergonomics/human factors laboratory, is Williams' major professor. Crumpton, the 1997 National Black Engineer for Education, also is a 1999 Golden Torch Award winner.
While working on her doctorate at MSU, Williams has taught laboratory classes for the National Science Foundation-funded Increasing Minority Access to Graduate Education program and for a program encouraging minority high school students to study engineering in college.