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UT Tyler Office of Marketing and Communications

UT Tyler Students, Faculty Recognized by Alpha Chi Honor Society

May 21, 2021

Media Contact: Beverley Golden
Senior Director of Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.566.7303

The University of Texas at Tyler announced that two students and a faculty member were recognized by the Alpha Chi National Honor Society at the 2021 national convention.

The convention was held virtually and hosted students from across the nation.

“We are always proud to see our students and faculty recognized for their great work,” said Amir Mirmiran, PhD, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. 

Virginia “Ginnie” Jeske of Tyler was awarded the H.Y. Benedict Fellowship for her paper, “An Overview of Feline Dirofilariasis.” Jeske was a UT Tyler Honors students and spring 2021 graduate, earning a bachelor’s degree in biology.

Jeske has been accepted into the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree.

Jason DiStefano of Flint won the Dennis M. Organ Graduate Student Prize for his presentation, “Progress Toward the Design, Synthesis, and Analysis of Paired Coiled-Coil Peptidic Molecular Building Blocks.”

Alpha Chi presented Sean Butler, PhD, UT Tyler associate professor of chemistry, with the Alpha Chi Region II Distinguished Service Award. Butler is the UT Tyler Texas Alpha Xi Chapter primary sponsor.

With a mission to improve educational and healthcare outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 80 undergraduate and graduate programs to 10,000 students. Through its alignment with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with innovative medical research, medical education and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler strives to fulfill our primary missions of education, research and service.