Kaplan Wins Freeman Medal, Excels in CHEE Department as Flinn Scholar and Science Diplomat

Leah Kaplan has always been passionate about building things -- as a child, she loudly objected to her mom cleaning away a Lego project -- and that love has earned the chemical and environmental engineering major a 2018 Merrill P. Freeman Medal.

The medal -- given annually to two UA seniors for outstanding moral force of character and one of four university-level senior honors -- is one of many accomplishments Kaplan has attained in her time studying at the UA. She is also part of the Flinn Scholars program, treasurer of the Arizona Model United Nations and president of the UA branch of Tau Beta Pi.

Now, Kaplan plans to pursue a career in science diplomacy. She has made plenty of headway in that plan, as she was the only undergraduate selected to attend the 2017 American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science Diplomacy and Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.