TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Birmingham chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers named Meredith Raybon, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering at The University of Alabama, the recipient of a William B. Sanford Memorial Scholarship.

Raybon, a Birmingham (35114) resident, is one of only two students to receive the $1,000 award for the 2003-2004 academic year.

Founded in 1880, ASME International is a nonprofit educational and technical organization with 125,000 members.

In 1837, UA became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering, with about 1,900 students and more than 90 faculty, is one of the three oldest continuously operating engineering programs in the country and has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.