Contact: Sammy McDavid
Professor G. Euel Coats and senior Matthew W. Allen of Mississippi State University are among 76 faculty and students receiving special statewide recognition.
Coats, a weed scientist at the Starkville campus, and Allen, a Jackson resident serving this year as Student Association president, recently joined the others honored for "outstanding achievement" by the Mississippi Legislature as part of its 13th annual HEADWAE celebration.
HEADWAE, the acronym for Higher Education Appreciation Day/Working for Academic Excellence, was established by lawmakers in 1988 to spotlight individual academic accomplishment and the overall contribution of public and private institutions of higher learning.
The state's business community and the Mississippi Humanities Council also support the annual recognition program.
Coats, a faculty member since 1970 and last year's chair of the Robert Holland Faculty Senate, also is quality assurance coordinator for the MSU-based Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. He holds a doctorate from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Allen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Allen, is a Haley Barbour Scholar in Political Science and a 1999-2000 selection for Who's Who among Students at American Universities and Colleges. His honor societies include the Society of Scholars, Elder Statesmen, Order of Omega, Phi Kappa Phi, and Pi Sigma Alpha.