Arts & Sciences To Host Inaugural Spring Awards Ceremony Recognizing Students And Donors

The College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University will honor its scholarship and fellowship recipients and their generous donors at its inaugural Spring Awards Celebration, set for Thursday, Feb. 29.

The dinner and awards presentation will be held in the Memorial Student Center's Bethancourt Ballroom on the Texas A&M campus.

In addition to recognizing hundreds of undergraduate and graduate student recipients and their donors, the college will also present four special awards: the Outstanding Young Former Student Award, the Outstanding Former Student Award, the Michel T. Halbouty Geosciences Medal and the Torchbearer Award.

Outstanding Young Former Student Award

After receiving a bachelor of arts in history and philosophy from Texas A&M in 2015 and meriting selection as a Udall Scholar, Clark earned her J.D. with high honors from the University of Texas School of Law in 2018.

Today, she is an attorney with the Institute for Justice (IJ), a national nonprofit civil rights law firm. She serves as intake coordinator for IJ’s governmental immunity and illegal search and seizure projects — a role in which she helps establish the projects’ high-level doctrinal strategies and seeks out cases that serve those strategies.

A second-generation Aggie, she and her husband, Jacob Clark ’15 — a Texas A&M economics graduate — recently welcomed their first child, Judah Clark ’46, and look forward to taking him to his first Aggie football game this fall.

Stevenson received her bachelor of science in meteorology with a minor in mathematics from Texas A&M in 2012. She earned her doctorate in atmospheric science from the University of Albany in 2018.

She currently is a meteorologist and programmer at the National Hurricane Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where she integrates the latest science and technology into hurricane operations.

Stevenson has authored or co-authored more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications and received two high-level awards: the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal and the NOAA David Johnson Award. She serves as a member of the American Meteorological Society Committee on Tropical Meteorology and Tropical Cyclones while also reviewing scientific papers for journals and mentoring undergraduate students through an internship program with the NOAA.

Outstanding Former Student Award

Derry received his bachelor of science in economics with a minor in French from Texas A&M in 1988. He also earned a master’s of business administration in international business management from the University of Dallas and a master’s certificate in corporate finance from Southern Methodist University.

He serves as director of information security and compliance and as an adjunct professor of cybersecurity at Dallas Baptist University. As a recent graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Citizens Academy, Derry also is highly involved with the FBI’s Dallas Office in a variety of programmatic areas, including as vice president of the Dallas Chapter of the FBI/InfraGard Program focused on cybercrimes and cybersecurity awareness.

Derry has been similarly involved with Texas A&M since graduation. He helped organize the first Texas A&M-University of Texas joint conference with the Texas Railroad Commission on the cybersecurity threat to oil and gas infrastructure. He also works with Texas A&M agencies on federal government proposals for the United States Air Force and Army as well as the National Science Foundation and was a past president of Texas A&M’s Black Former Student Network from 2016-20.

Derry married his college sweetheart, Charnella ’85, who received her bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1986, and they have three children, two of whom are Texas A&M graduates.

Kenner received his doctorate in physics from Texas A&M in 1973. As the son of uneducated sharecroppers, he saw education as the way to a better life. After graduating as a double major with honors from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1966, he taught college physics for two years before receiving a fellowship to attend Texas A&M, where he received the Distinguished Graduate Student Award in 1973.

After six years with Teledyne Brown Engineering, Kenner forged a 30-year career with Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control as a defense industry engineer. He gained national recognition for his work in angle-only-track (AOT) for strategic defense initiative (SDI) programs. As a key member of the LTV Aerospace and Defense Co. SDI team, he performed AOT, infrared sensor design and nuclear-hardened detector analysis. For the PAC-3 program, Kenner performed the radome electrical design and also wrote the radar antenna model that had unique modeling capabilities unavailable on any other defense program. Within the laboratory, he developed a technique to electronically simulate target motion and glint using three fixed radiofrequency sources.

Meanwhile, in the business area, Kenner performed the financial analysis, wrote the business plan and oversaw the business operations for Children’s University, a highly successful privately accredited school in Arlington that he founded along with his wife, Lynn. He and Lynn founded the nonprofit Kenner Foundation with the goal of creating a Christian camp for children. This led to a much larger dream: donating the developed land to Rush Creek Church, on which they founded HOPE Ranch, helping the elderly in need.

Michel T. Halbouty Geosciences Medal

This award recognizes distinguished achievement in the development of earth resources and in the application of geosciences to the discovery, use and conservation of earth resources.

Thomas received his bachelor of science in geology from Texas A&M in 1975, then moved to west Texas to begin his petroleum career as a district engineer with Dowell, an oilfield service company. In 1979, he joined a predecessor company of what became EOG Resources, Inc., a well-known industry leader and first mover in horizontal shale. Recognized for his technical expertise in the drive to explore unconventional horizontal shale resources, Thomas served as vice president and general manager of EOG’s Fort Worth, Midland and Corpus Christi divisions and held many progressive leadership roles during his pioneering 42-year-career with EOG — including Senior Executive Vice President, Exploration; President and Chief Executive Officer; and Chairman and CEO — prior to his retirement in 2021.

He broke the code on the shale industry and was instrumental in the early identification of the horizontal drilling potential of the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth basin as well as other key conventional and unconventional resource plays in south and west Texas.

In 2015, Thomas became an independent director for NOV, Inc., where he currently serves as the compensation committee chairman. A member of All-American Wildcatters, his previous career honors include a 2018 Texas A&M College of Geosciences Distinguished Alumni Award and the 2019 Texas Oil and Gas Association Distinguished Service Award.

Thomas and his wife, Jane ’76, met at Texas A&M, where Jane received a bachelor of science in educational curriculum and instruction in 1976. They have three daughters — including two who graduated from Texas A&M — along with three sons-in-law and six grandchildren and will celebrate 47 years of marriage this year. As active supporters of Texas A&M Geology and Geophysics, they sponsor the department’s annual summer field camp, which Thomas credits as a pivotal experience with the biggest impact on his ability to actually learn geology. The couple also supports a variety of other charitable causes, including ongoing global mission work in Africa, Central America and the United States through organizations such as His Voice Global, Children of the Nations and Leadership in Training.

Torchbearer Award

This newly created award acknowledges former students who serve as an inspiration for all Aggies and have led the way in positioning the college for future successes.

The late George P. Mitchell is a distinguished graduate of Texas A&M who received his bachelor of science in petroleum engineering in 1940. He completed the five-year degree program with an emphasis in geology in only four years and graduated as the valedictorian of his class while also captaining the men’s tennis team.

The son of poor Greek immigrants, George made his fortune finding oil and gas where others couldn’t. He was former chairman and chief executive officer of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., one of the largest independent gas and oil producers in the nation before merging with Devon Energy in 2002. He also founded The Woodlands, a master-planned new town north of downtown Houston where he resided for nearly 30 years, as well as the Houston Advanced Research Center.

Throughout a successful career in the petroleum industry, George retained a lifelong interest in physics and astronomy, an interest he shared with his wife, Cynthia Woods Mitchell. In 2005, the Mitchells pledged $35 million toward the construction of the $82.5 million physics buildings, the first on campus to be financed through a public-private partnership involving substantial donor funds. Their family’s generous support of Texas A&M’s programs in fundamental physics and astronomy totals more than $88 million, including funding toward 10 academic chairs and professorships as well as gifts that established Texas A&M as a partner in the Giant Magellan Telescope.

George’s visionary support for his alma mater also includes the 135 acres for Texas A&M University at Galveston’s main campus, major funding for Texas A&M’s statistics and petroleum engineering departments along with the George P. Mitchell ’40 Outdoor Tennis Center and a $20 million legacy gift in 2012 to benefit their namesake George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy that brought the couple’s total commitments to Texas A&M University to more than $95 million, ranking them among the university’s all-time most generous donors.

George became one of the most successful real estate developers in the region, while Cynthia earned numerous awards for pioneering achievement in cultural, community, educational and philanthropic endeavors, amassing a well-deserved reputation as a champion of artistic and humanitarian causes far bigger than herself. Their Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation continues that legacy today through their children and grandchildren.