Dr. Helen Durand (Ph.D. 2017) and Dr. Larry Gao (Ph.D. 2017) have been selected to receive major awards for their Doctoral Dissertations. Specifically, Helen has been selected to receive the 2017 UCLA Engineering Edward K. Rice Outstanding Doctoral Student Award and Larry has been selected as the first place 2017 Doctoral Dissertation Award winner for the California/Nevada American Water Works Association section. Helen is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Wayne State University and Larry is a Senior Engineer in Applied Materials. Helen was advised by Professor Christofides and Larry was jointly advised by Professor Cohen and Professor Christofides.