Jeremy Taylor '03, has been named this year's 2003 recipient of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Rumbaugh Outstanding Student Leader Award. He will accept the award in March at the SAE World Congress in Detroit. As part of the award, Taylor will receive a free SAE lifetime membership and a monetary stipend.

The award recognizes an outstanding SAE student leader and encourages future participation in the SAE throughout his or her professional career. The award is based on leadership skills demonstrated during the student's senior year of undergraduate studies, and the recipient must be employed in a mobility-related field at the time of nomination.

Taylor was nominated for the award by Greg Davis, professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering, for his exceptional participation and support of SAE while a student at Kettering. Involved with SAE beginning in his freshman year, Taylor eventually served as both vice president and president of the Kettering SAE Student Chapter. He was also co-captain of the Mini-Baja Design Competition Team, and team leader of the Clean Snowmobile Challenge Team for two successive years, winning second and first place in the Clean Snowmobile Competition in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

"The lessons learned in the student competition teams prove invaluable in everything I do," said Taylor. "The teams taught me everything from design and fabrication to responsibility and managerial skills. These skills are immediately recalled during inter-departmental projects at my job."

Popular with SAE teammates, Taylor was one of few to be re-elected as team leader for the Clean Snowmobile Team two years in a row, according to Davis. "He is a natural leader who earns the respect of his peers," Davis said of Taylor.

Taylor graduated cum laude in 2003 majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently a testing engineer in the Product Development Department at LuK Inc., in Wooster, Ohio.