NC State BAE has no shortage of outstanding alumni. This year, Ray Best was named the Outstanding Alumnus and Nicole Bridgers was named Outstanding Young Alumnus. Learn more about them and their continued contributions to the department.

Outstanding Alumni

Ray Best is the Region Manager of Energy Services with Duke Energy. A graduate of NC State University with a BS in Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Ray is a licensed professional engineer in North Carolina and South Carolina, a Certified Energy Manager, and a licensed General Contractor. Ray currently sits on the Board of the NC Agriculture Foundation and the NC 4-H Development Fund Board (past president). He has also served on the NC State Industrial Extension Service Advisory Board, the BAE Advisory Board, the NC FFA Foundation Steering Team, as well as the Clemson University Agricultural Engineering Advisory Board. Ray is past president and board member of the NC Agribusiness Council.

Outstanding Young Alumni

Nicole Bridgers is the Senior Technical Project Manager at Kymanox. Nicole attended North Carolina State University where she earned two BS degrees in Biological Sciences and Biological Engineering and a MS degree in Biological and Agricultural Engineering. During her time in the BAE department, she conducted undergraduate and graduate research focused on ethanol production from purple sweetpotatoes and sweet sorghum. Her previous work experience includes providing technical support for drug substance and drug product production as part of the Manufacturing and Sciences Technology team at Seqirus (formally Novartis). Prior to joining Kymanox, Nicole worked for Seqirus, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies where she acquired knowledge of cell culture, fermentation, and recovery processing schemes. She is currently an active member in the BAE Advisory Board.