The Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania has awarded University of Pittsburgh undergraduate student Cailey Dolata with a 2026 George Washington Prize. Dolata will receive a $2,500 cash prize and a $7,500 Dean’s Fellowship to pursue graduate studies.
A member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemical Society, and the Women’s Chemists Committee, Dolata will graduate from the Swanson School of Engineering next December with an honors degree in chemical engineering.
Dolata has served as an undergraduate teaching assistant in chemical engineering and has conducted research into sodium alginate films with Susan Fullerton, associate professor of chemical engineering and Bicentennial Board of Visitors Faculty Fellow and Vice Chair of Education. She has completed a co-op with the Hershey Company as a process engineer, and she interned at Thermo Fisher Scientific. The co-president and co-founder of Pitt’s Hooks and Books, a club that celebrates reading and fiber arts, she also runs a small baking business, Crumbs of Perfection. In 2024, Dolata received the $10,000 Future of Chemistry Scholarship for Women through the Chemours Women’s Network.
This year’s finalists also include:
As finalists, McGuire and Phipps will receive a $500 cash prize and a $2,500 Dean’s Fellowship to pursue graduate studies.
“The George Washington finalists are remarkable students and individuals,” said Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor in Industrial Engineering. “Cailey, Katie, and Garret have made lasting contributions to the Swanson School and the larger Pitt community, and all three are highly deserving of this recognition.”
Each year, the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania awards the George Washington Prize to recognize the incredible work of engineering students in Western Pennsylvania and to encourage them to pursue graduate degrees.
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