TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Robbie Laney, a senior in metallurgical and materials engineering, recently received a national scholarship from The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.

The society’s division of extraction and processing awards only four scholarships of this type annually. Laney, a native of Cullman, is the only Alabamian to receive the scholarship this year.

He will attend The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society/Extraction and Processing Division’s annual meeting in San Francisco on Feb. 13-17 to receive his award, which is a scholarship in the amount of $2,000 and $500 for travel expenses to attend the meeting. As a recipient, Laney also will be given a $200 book scholarship, which he will use to donate two books to UA’s Eric and Sarah Rodgers Library for Science and Engineering.

Laney was named Most Outstanding Junior in metallurgical engineering for the 2003-2004 school year and is a member of the University Honors Program.

TMS is an organization designed to promote the global science and engineering concerned with minerals, metals and materials. It annually awards thousands of dollars to students to help defray the costs of school and travel to society meetings.

In 1837, The University of Alabama 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 has about 1,800 students and more than 95 faculty. It has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.