Staes Earns Michael Tranghese Postgraduate Leadership Award
8/2/2022 10:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
NEW YORK – Seton Hall men's swimming's Thomas Staes (Berlaar, Belgium) has been named the male recipient of the Michael Tranghese Postgraduate Leadership Award as announced by the BIG EAST Conference on Tuesday. Staes becomes the fourth Seton Hall student-athlete to receive the honor, and marks the second consecutive year that the male honoree has been a Pirate swimmer.
Hailing from Berlaar, Belgium, Staes completed his bachelor of science degree in chemistry with a cumulative GPA of 3.89. He achieved BIG EAST All-Academic honors in each of his final three years with Seton Hall, and is a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the National Student-Athlete Honor Society.
Staes will receive a $5,000 scholarship, which may be applied to postgraduate study. The award is named for Michael Tranghese, the BIG EAST's first full-time employee who served as commissioner of the conference from 1990 to 2009 and embodied leadership and dedication from the league's inception.
In the spring of 2021, Staes was awarded Best Research Presentation of the Petersheim Science Exposition by the department of biochemistry and the Petersheim Committee of Seton Hall. In addition, Staes represented Seton Hall this past spring at the 2022 BIG EAST Conference Research Symposium at Madison Square Garden. Staes presented a project that discusses the synthesis and characterization of biodiesel using microalgae as sustainable triglycerides source.
In the pool, Staes was part of Seton Hall's gold-medal winning 200 Medley Relay team during the 2021 BIG EAST Championships. Staes captured four medals at the BIG EAST Championships during his career, a number that could have been higher had an injury not prevented him from competing in the 2022 event.
Staes will continue his education in his native Belgium as he will be pursuing an advanced degree in Chemistry at the University of Antwerp.
Hailing from Berlaar, Belgium, Staes completed his bachelor of science degree in chemistry with a cumulative GPA of 3.89. He achieved BIG EAST All-Academic honors in each of his final three years with Seton Hall, and is a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the National Student-Athlete Honor Society.
Staes will receive a $5,000 scholarship, which may be applied to postgraduate study. The award is named for Michael Tranghese, the BIG EAST's first full-time employee who served as commissioner of the conference from 1990 to 2009 and embodied leadership and dedication from the league's inception.
In the spring of 2021, Staes was awarded Best Research Presentation of the Petersheim Science Exposition by the department of biochemistry and the Petersheim Committee of Seton Hall. In addition, Staes represented Seton Hall this past spring at the 2022 BIG EAST Conference Research Symposium at Madison Square Garden. Staes presented a project that discusses the synthesis and characterization of biodiesel using microalgae as sustainable triglycerides source.
In the pool, Staes was part of Seton Hall's gold-medal winning 200 Medley Relay team during the 2021 BIG EAST Championships. Staes captured four medals at the BIG EAST Championships during his career, a number that could have been higher had an injury not prevented him from competing in the 2022 event.
Staes will continue his education in his native Belgium as he will be pursuing an advanced degree in Chemistry at the University of Antwerp.
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