Ram Samudrala PhD `97
Samudrala invented a pioneering technique to predict disease treatments, analyzing how every drug interacts with every protein in the human body.
Alumni Excellence Awards
The Terp Magazine Awards
Graduates of the University of Maryland are among the best and brightest in their fields. From scholars and innovators to entrepreneurs, teachers, and researchers, our alumni are leaving their mark on our state, nation, and world. The Alumni Excellence Awards recognize the accomplishments of select Terps and honor these recipients with distinction.
The three award categories mirror the Forward campaign’s core priorities—advancing discovery, uplifting communities, and empowering the next generation—ensuring our recognition aligns with the vision guiding Maryland’s future.
Award Categories
- Forward for Tomorrow’s Trailblazers
This award honors alums who are expanding access to education, empowering the next generation of leaders, and advancing innovation. Their work supports student success—from scholarships and experiential learning to mentorship and entrepreneurship—helping Terps thrive in an evolving world. These changemakers exemplify Maryland’s commitment to excellence, opportunity, and impact.
- Forward for Bold and Brave Solutions
This award recognizes alums who are advancing knowledge, driving innovation, and creating real-world solutions to society’s most urgent challenges. Whether through breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, quantum science, literacy, or global health, these Terps are shaping a better, more equitable future by turning bold ideas into lasting impact.
- Forward for Stronger Communities
This award celebrates alums who embody the spirit of connection, civic responsibility, and creative impact. Through service, innovation, the arts, and advocacy, these Terps are uniting communities, inspiring action, and driving meaningful change on campus and around the world. They exemplify what it means to do good and do well.
- All nominations will be reviewed by a committee composed of university staff.
- There may be up to three honorees per award category.
- Nominations will be reviewed every November.
- Honoree names and titles will appear in the Spring Issue of Terp Magazine, published in May.
2026 Award Recipients
Forward for Bold and Brave Solutions
Jennifer Jenkins `16
A 2007 Nobel Prize recipient with former Vice President Al Gore, Jenkins fights climate change through innovation in the voluntary carbon market.
Luke T. Kues `25
Working to galvanize a “wellness revolution,” Kues founded True Community, which provides first aid and CPR certification in 20 American cities, and in Africa.
Forward for Stronger Communities
Marie Brodsky `24
Brodsky launched WISE Connect to create social opportunities for older Americans. The online platform seeks to cut health risks, including dementia and stroke, associated with isolation.
Christopher Koper `88, `92, PhD `95
Koper is a pioneer in evidence-based crime policy, creating the globally used Koper Curve Principle to help police departments organize patrols in crime “hot spots.”
Forward for Tomorrow’s Trailblazers
M. Jaysson Eicholtz `99
Eicholtz is an operations professional who has developed labs and other physical spaces that help biotech and pharmaceutical companies create life-saving therapeutics.
Amy Neugebauer `06
As founder and director of The Giving Square, Neugebauer helps kids between the ages of 7 and 14 shape their world through the power of altruism.
Lyric Amodia `25
Amodia is the founder of The Movement Street, which reimagines volunteerism and wellness through everything from community gardens to financial literacy workshops.