2020 BPMI Award Winners

The Biological/Pre-Medical Illustration Program is pleased and proud to announce the Spring 2020 winners of the three annual awards given in recognition of student achievement.

The H.T. (Jack) Horner Scholastic Excellence Award ($200 prize) recognizes both academic achievement and quality of artwork by a student in the first or second year of the program. This year’s winner is Katelyn Sima. The Charles E. Townsend Studio Achievement Award ($300 prize), for which quality of artwork is the main criterion, is given to a student in their junior year or equivalent in the curriculum. This year’s winner is Libby Siedell. And the Warren D. Dolphin Studio Excellence Award ($500 prize), intended for a graduating senior, recognizes quality of artwork representing the overall breadth and depth of the BPMI curriculum, accomplishments, and professionalism in the presentation of both the portfolio and resumé. This year’s winner is Grace Herzberg.

We congratulate Katelyn, Libby, and Grace, and thank all of the applicants for rising to the occasion (virtually) during this challenging time.

2020 H.T. (Jack) Horner Scholastic Excellence Award ($200 prize): Katelyn Sima

Natalee Thompson
Natalie Thompson

Above: Self-portrait
Medium: colored-pencil on paper
Fall 2019, DSN S 131
Completed from direct observation for Drawing I, taught by Chuck Richards.


2020 Charles E. Townsend Studio Achievement Award ($300 prize): Libby Siedell

Irah Dhaseleer
Natalie Thompson

Above: Morchella esculenta
watercolor and graphite on paper
Spring, 2020, BPMI 337

The purpose of this assignment was to learn botanical/mycological illustration conventions as well as how to research a subject and choose it’s most defining features in order to highlight them through illustration.


2020 Warren D. Dolphin Studio Excellence Award ($500 prize): Grace Herzberg

Libby Siedell


Above: Phases of the Moon Jelly – Aurelia aurita
2D animation
Fall 201920

I combined references and research to create an animation about the life cycle of Aurelia aurita so that it can be understood by the general public