ODK Award Honors Two Seniors for Leadership Qualities

Michael Nites and Dhanalakshmi Thiyagarajan have been named Seniors of the Year by the University of Pittsburgh’s chapter of Omicron Delta Kappa. The honor society presents the award to students who possess and exhibit outstanding leadership qualities in service to the University. 

Their names will be engraved in a walkway between the Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Memorial Chapel alongside the names of previous award recipients. 

Michael Nites, who served as president of Pitt’s Student Government Board (SGB) in 2014, graduated in December 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Swanson School of Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and economics from the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Nites is working on special projects in Pitt’s Office of the Chancellor until July, when he will begin working for McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. 

In addition to being SGB president, Nites served as a member of the board and the SGB Allocations Committee, including one year as committee chair. He also served as a student liaison to three Pitt Board of Trustees’ committees (Student Affairs, Academic, and Budget) and four University Senate committees (Student Affairs, Computer Usage, Tenure and Academic Freedom, and Budget Policies). He was a member, as well, of the University Sexual Assault Task Force, the Alcohol Task Force, the University Review Board, and the Honors College Advisory Board. 

A native of Shaler, Pa., Nites was a University Honors College ambassador. As a volunteer coordinator for Pitt’s Engineers for Sustainable Medical Development student organization, he organized weekly trips to Global Links, an international medical relief agency, and worked to repair and ship usable wheelchairs to patients abroad. He was also part of an interdisciplinary team of six undergraduate Pitt students who went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to perform research on bamboo gridshells, which are rapidly deployable structures that can be used to provide shelter in developing countries during times of natural disaster.

In 2013, Nites was named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. This national merit award recognizes the top students in the country studying mathematics, science, or engineering. Nites also won the 2014 George Washington Prize as the Swanson School’s top graduating senior, the Blue Stars Red Carpet Outstanding Student Government Board member award, the McKay Prize for academic excellence in Pitt’s Department of Economics, and the Undergraduate Chancellor Research Fellow Award. 

Dhanalakshmi Thiyagarajan, from Bethlehem, Pa., graduates today with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from the Swanson School and a minor in chemistry from the Dietrich School. She also will earn a Certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. She has been accepted to Temple University’s School of Medicine and will begin her medical studies in the fall.

Thiyagarajan is the founder and president of the Gluten Free Awareness League on campus, and she has been promoting gluten-free awareness in the United States and India, working with national organizations, companies, and restaurants. For her efforts, she was profiled in the Fall 2013 edition of Allergic Living magazine. 

Thiyagarajan’s leadership on campus included her role as president of the Society of Women Engineers chapter at Pitt, after serving the organization since 2011 as historian, membership chair, and secretary. She also was an ambassador of the University Honors College, vice president of the Outside the Classroom Honorary Society, member of the Biomedical Engineering Society and of CHAARG (Changing Health, Attitudes, and Actions to Recreate Girls), and a tutor for students enrolled in courses based in science, technology, engineering, and math. 

In 2014, Thiyagarajan won the Swanson School’s Sustainability Design Expo for Product Realization for a new dental implant mesh she developed. She also was selected by Pitt’s Innovation Institute to represent the University in the national “1000 Pitches” competition in the health category for her idea of a gluten-free sleeve to prevent cross-contamination of foods. 

Thiyagarajan received the Swanson School’s 2015 George Washington Prize, was named the outstanding sophomore student leader through Blue Stars Red Carpet in April 2013, and won the president’s award through Blue Stars Red Carpet in April 2014.

During her undergraduate years, Thiyagarajan conducted an independent research project on celiac disease with guidance from Marc Schwartz, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition in Pitt’s School of Medicine, and she served as an undergraduate research assistant with James H-C. Wang, director of the MechanoBiology Laboratory in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Bioengineering, and Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science.

 Her volunteer experience includes assisting mothers and babies at Magee-Womens Hospital, assisting discharged patients at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, and helping at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in its Automated Blood Center.