Two College of Engineering faculty members received the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by NC State and the university’s Board of Trustees. Chancellor Kevin Howell will recognize the awardees during the Celebration of Faculty Excellence on Tuesday, May 5.
The 2026 honorees are:
- Francis de los Reyes III, Glenn E. and Phyllis J. Futrell Distinguished Professor, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
- Carol Hall, Worley H. Clark, Jr. Distinguished University Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
The award was named in honor of Alexander Quarles Holladay, NC State’s first professor of history and its first president. This year’s award winners have made outstanding and sustained contributions to the university through achievements in research, teaching, or extension and engagement. Honorees receive an engraved medal and framed certificate, and will also be recognized at NC State’s spring commencement ceremony on May 9.
“This year’s Holladay Medal recipients set the highest standard for research, teaching and service in higher education,” said Chancellor Kevin Howell. “Throughout their respective careers, they have exemplified NC State’s Think and Do attitude and have helped us fulfill our land-grant mission. We are honored to have them as part of our university faculty.”
Dr. Francis de los Reyes III
de los Reyes received his Bachelor of Science in agricultural engineering from the University of the Philippines at Los Banos, his Master of Science in civil engineering from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He arrived at NC State in 2000 as an assistant professor and today is the Glenn E. and Phyllis J. Futrell Distinguished Professor in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor and a University Faculty Scholar.
A pioneering environmental engineer, de los Reyes is internationally recognized for integrating microbiology and engineering to solve pressing problems in wastewater treatment, waste-to-energy and global sanitation. His innovative and interdisciplinary work has advanced both fundamental science and real-world practice — improving public health, protecting the environment and training the next generation of engineers and scientists.
de los Reyes’s research has redefined our understanding of microbial communities in engineered and natural systems. His discoveries on how fatbergs form in sewers, optimization of anaerobic digestion for renewable energy and use of molecular tools in wastewater and sanitation systems have directly influenced design and operation of treatment plants worldwide. His group co-developed methods for sampling and detecting SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, leading to the North Carolina Wastewater Monitoring Network and the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System — now used nationally to inform public health policy. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, de los Reyes co-invented the Flexcrevator, a patented, low-cost, pit-emptying device that helps provide safe sanitation for billions of people without sewer access. For this work, he received the U.S. Patents for Humanity Award and the RELX Environmental Challenge Grand Prize. He also founded and leads the Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Faculty Cluster, bringing together faculty across three colleges to address global water and health challenges and enhance NC State’s visibility as a leader in sustainable development and social impact.
Also a deeply committed educator, de los Reyes is an Outstanding Teacher Award and Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor Award recipient who has mentored more than 130 undergraduate and graduate students in research. His teaching excellence has been recognized through numerous honors, including the R.J. Reynolds Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Extension; the Camp Applied Research Award; the Rudolfs Industrial Waste Management Medal and the Gordon Fair Engineering Educator Medal from the Water Environment Federation; and the Excellence in Environmental Engineering Honor Award from the Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. He is a TED Fellow, Fellow of the Water Environment Federation, a Board-Certified Environmental Engineer and a corresponding member of the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines. de los Reyes is the board chair of the nonprofit Gawad Kalinga USA, which has helped thousands of communities in the last 20 years lift themselves from poverty.
Dr. Carol Hall
Hall received her Bachelor of Science in physics from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in physics from Stony Brook University. She joined NC State’s Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering in 1985 as an associate professor, rising through the ranks to become the Worley H. Clark, Jr. Distinguished University Professor in Engineering in 2021. Since her arrival, she has received a number of internal and external awards, including election to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest honor bestowed upon an engineer in the United States.
Hall is widely regarded in scientific and engineering circles as an intellectual leader and a pioneer who paves the way for others. Her early use of statistical and molecular thermodynamics to solve engineering problems — long before most chemical engineers recognized its value — played a pivotal role in modernizing applied chemical engineering thermodynamics research. Hall’s most significant accomplishments include: demonstrating that statistical mechanics, which had previously only been applied to systems of molecules, could be used to describe the behavior of systems of particles; establishing her Generalized Flory Dimer Theory, a new approach to developing equations of state for polymers; her pioneering work on simulating protein aggregation, the root cause of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS and the prion diseases; and her current effort to computationally design peptides that bind strongly to protein-based targets, which has application in disease detection and drugs.
Beyond her research, Hall is a dedicated and committed teacher and mentor who has had a transformative effect on her students. She has graduated nearly 50 Ph.D. students and supervised 15 postdocs and visitors throughout her career. She has served on many national committees, including for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the National Science Foundation Triangle Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, and the National Association of Engineers. At NC State, Hall chaired the Honors Council from 1992-94, and as part of her responsibilities, she helped establish the Holladay Medal at the request of the NC State Board of Trustees.
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