UA Premier Awards

As a woman in STEM, Kittson Hamill is setting the bar high for future generations. Holding various leadership roles across campus and receiving numerous accolades while enrolled in a rigorous course load — she’s also showing them that anything is possible. Hamill, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, is a computer science major focusing on data security and analytics and a triple minor in the Randall Research Scholars Program, Chinese and art. She earned first place in the 2022 Alpaca Owners Association Student Design Competition using her weaving skills and showcasing how she excelled not only in her STEM major but also in the arts. She has received recognition for her academic and research endeavors from local, national and international organizations and interned with the U.S. Department of Defense and the NOAA Hollings program, among others. Hamill’s other work in helping to detect Early-Stage Alzheimer’s disease and with the United Nation’s Girl Up program, all while maintaining a perfect GPA, are just more examples of her commitment to doing the work it takes to be part of the global good.

Scholarship, leadership and service are not concepts Liam Smith takes lightly. A student in the Randall Research Scholars Program, he is also a double major in management information systems and mathematics. He is also pursuing a master’s degree in applied statistics and maintains a 4.0 GPA. That caliber of commitment extends beyond the classroom for Smith. His mentors say wherever he goes, leadership follows. That is evident in his involvement with the Adapted Athletics program where he leads the scorer’s table crew. His guidance ensures the games are administered accurately through the unique classification systems that wheelchair basketball programs adhere to worldwide. In this role, he identified a need for a system to help track lineups and catch violations in real time. Smith’s solution was used at multiple national tournaments. On top of his rigorous class load, he also shares his DJ talents with UA’s softball team. He also serves as a statistician and public address announcer at Stillman College. That might seem like a heavy lift for many, but Smith carries it happily. He believes we should all pay our experiences forward.

Studying both aerospace engineering and legal history, Elizabeth Owens is certainly sending her future to great heights. She’s taken every opportunity to turn her curiosity into leadership and collaboration at UA. Her service and commitment to helping others are evident through her work as a member of both the Randall Research Scholars program and the Shelby Institute for Policy and Leadership. She also serves as an ambassador for the Office of Undergraduate Research. Owens has also worked with the Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School to mentor students from all backgrounds to pursue their curiosity about aviation. Owens believes progress must always serve humanity. She feels the goal of education is to connect what you learn in the service of the people around you. She hopes to expand her ideals of versatility, influence and depth of purpose and her world view studying in Italy, England, Switzerland and Germany.

Creating a community for other Asian Americans at UA was something Aparna Bhooshanan wanted to do, even as a freshman. She indeed put that goal into motion first by taking on the role of secretary in UA’s chapter of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers. Bhooshanan also earned the distinction of being one of only two UA students to be accepted into both the Witt University Fellows Program and the Randall Research Scholars program. Through her work in Marion under the Witt Fellows program, she was also encouraged to reach beyond the UA campus to foster cultural collaboration among English and Chinese speakers. Because of Bhooshanan’s unwavering passion for cultural exploration, she studied in Taiwan under the Critical Language Scholarship and Boren Scholarship. During this time, she took a gap year from her computer science major to focus entirely on studying Mandarin. Bhooshanan believes her experiences at UA and the University’s support of her goal of building cultural bridges will continue to impact the UA community and beyond.

Dr. Jeff Gray is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Alabama (UA) and the Director of the Randall Research Scholars Program. He is a National Science Foundation CAREER award recipient and was named the Professor of the Year (Alabama, 2008) by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. At the University of Alabama, he recieved the Morris L. Mayer Premier Award for service and leadership. The University of Alabama System named Dr. Gray as the 2025 recipient of the McMahon-Pleiad Prize. Jeff is a Distinguished Member of the ACM and was selected into the inaugural class of the IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Contoributors. He currently serves as the chair of the Alabama IEEE Computer Society. Dr. Gray also serves as co-chair of the Development Commitee for the College Board's AP CS Principles course. Jeff is co-chair of Alabama Governor Kay Ivey's Computer Science Advisory Council. He was a past member of the Education Advisory Council of Code.org.