AUBURN – Hanna Gordon, an Auburn University spring 2012 summa cum laude Honors College graduate with a major in French, has been awarded a Fulbright-French Ministry of Education English Teaching Assistantship.

Gordon will be placed in a middle school in the Besancon region of France. She is the third consecutive Auburn University student awarded the assistantship in France, following Kristen Snow in 2011 and Helen Hunter Robertson in 2010.

"Hanna's desire to perfect her French language skills coupled with a sincere desire to embrace the French culture made her a strong candidate for the Fulbright," said Paul Harris, associate director of the Honors College. "It was a pleasure working with her throughout the application process.  She will represent Auburn University and the United States well during her time in France."

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AUBURN – A team of Auburn University interior design students, competing in the Interior Design Educators Council 2012 National Student Design Competition for the first time, earned first place for its design of an art therapy center.

More than 300 students from 45 institutions across the country were challenged to identify the problems faced by South Africa's "Lost Generation," the children who have lost one or both of their parents to HIV/AIDS, such as safe housing, education and access to healthcare. Student teams chose one aspect of a problem and developed a design response located within their country, while representing their culture and heritage.

Lindsay Mercer, Savannah Roberts and Shellie Sauls won the top prize with a proposal called "Canvas" for an art therapy center for the children.

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AUBURN – Lego sculptures have entered our shared cultural experience, whether they are created by a 3-year-old building his first space ship, or a serious artist using millions of blocks to create a one-of-a-kind installation on a grand scale.

At Auburn University, Legos are being used to design and build vehicles, but with a twist. These vehicles can be produced at a rate of 70 cars per hour in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's new automotive manufacturing systems laboratory, located on the ground floor of the Shelby Center.

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AUBURN – Auburn University students Bianca Williams, a senior in chemical engineering, and Devin Kalafut, a senior in mechanical engineering, have been awarded National Science Foundation graduate fellowships; Matthew Ramirez, a 2011 graduate in the College of Sciences and Mathematics was named honorable mention.

Each fellowship provides three years of support at $30,000 annually and an additional $10,500 cost of education allowance. The purpose of the fellowship program is to help ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce in the United States.

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AUBURN – Paul Bergen, a senior in Auburn University's College of Sciences and Mathematics double majoring in microbiology and German, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Germany for the 2012-13 academic year. At the Technical University of Munich, he will continue to pursue his research in microbiology.

"Paul is an inquisitive and engaging young man with a range of interests and activities that go well beyond the lab and range from the study of German politics, culture and language to being an active member of Auburn's nationally recognized mock trial team," said Paul Harris, associate director of the Auburn Honors College. "He will gain so much from his classes and interactions with German students and faculty and he will represent himself, Auburn University and the United States with distinction."

A four-year member of the Honors College with a 3.97 overall grade-point-average in two demanding majors, Bergen is Auburn's fourth consecutive Fulbright scholar, following Rebecca Ludvigsen, Germany, 2009, Helen Hunter Robertson, France, 2010 and Kristen Snow, France, 2011.

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AUBURN –The morning of March 24, more than 3,000 Auburn University students will gather on the green space outside the Student Center for the kick-off of the 10th annual BIG Event. Students describe the annual event as a way of saying thank you to the community for its being an incredible place to live and learn.

After kick-off at 9 a.m., teams will go to more than 200 homes, businesses, churches and schools to perform a variety of tasks including planting flowers, painting homes and doing yard work.

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AUBURN – Nearly 4,000 Auburn University students in 30 residence halls saved more than $12,000 in water and electricity costs in this year's Sustain-A-Bowl, Auburn's annual resource reduction competition. The goal of the competition was for each residence hall to reduce both its electricity and water consumption by 10 percent.

Twenty-three of the 30 residence halls participating reached the electricity reduction goal, while 22 halls reached the water reduction goal. Overall winners for the competition included Broun Hall in the Quad, Toomer Hall in the Hill and Tiger Hall in the Village.

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AUBURN – Seventy-nine Auburn University students and 16 faculty and staff will spend 10 days in China on a musical performance tour taking them to Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.

The tour begins Sunday, March 11, in Beijing at the China National PLA Army Band Hall. The Symphonic Band will give seven performances throughout China, while also visiting such sites as Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. They were invited by the United States-China Cultural and Educational Foundation to the People's Republic of China for the musical tour to promote cultural and educational exchange between the two countries.

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AUBURN – Auburn University engineering students are preventing water-borne diseases in impoverished countries throughout the world with two portable water purifying systems they developed.

Grant Moore, a senior in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Business-Engineering-Technology classmates Lauren McManus, Grant Martin and Sara Yousey decided to develop the water purifiers for a class project that required them to create a business plan and model product.

They developed two products: one called the Advanced Liquid Purification System, or ALPS, and the other, the Salt and Light purifier. Both utilize chemical processes approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to eliminate viruses, bacteria and protozoa by dissolving a small amount of salt in water – or a pinch per pint. Electricity then passes through specially coated electrodes in the water, interacting with the dissolved salt to produce chlorine compounds that sanitize the water. More salt can be added to create a strong disinfectant.

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AUBURN - Auburn University is ranked second nationally out of 145 public institutions in the enrollment of National Merit Scholars, the university's Office of Enrollment Services announced this week. The rankings are included in the recently released 2010-2011 National Merit Scholarship Corporation Annual Report.

Auburn is first in the Southeastern Conference among public institutions and second, behind Vanderbilt, among all Southeastern Conference institutions. Auburn ranked ninth overall out of the 359 institutions where these scholars are enrolled, with Chicago, USC, Harvard, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Washington-St. Louis, Oklahoma and Yale ranked higher. Only Oklahoma was ranked above Auburn among all public institutions.

Auburn enrolled 181 new scholars this summer and fall, which is a 35 percent increase over last year's number of 134. Auburn moved up from third in the SEC and 16th overall last year.

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