Dr. Shay Harrison is an accomplished scientist and an active community volunteer. Dr. Harrison exemplified the term “student athlete”;he was the Valedictorian of the class as 1990 as well as a NewsChannel 13 Basketball All-star. Dr. Harrison graduated from Rice Universitywith a double major in Engineering and English. His academic honors included the College Freshmen of the Year in 1991, Jones College Service Award in 1993 and 1994 and the Jones College Sports award in 1994. In addition, Dr. Harrison attended the University of Texas at Austin where he earned a graduate degree in Materials Science and Engineering. In 1990,Dr. Harrison was awarda Doctor of Philosophy in Material Sciencefrom the Universityof Connecticut.While he was at UCONN,he was the President of the Student Chapter of the American Society of Materials.

In his professional career, Dr. Harrison has worked at the Delphi Automotive Systems in Indianapolis Indiana, and at BlaschPrecisionCeramics in Menands. Dr. Harrison was a member of a team that worked on a National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Technology grant. Currently,he works as a Materials Engineer at Knolls Atomic Power Lab.Dr. Harrison holdsseveral patents,ispublished in leading journals, and works as part of the space nuclear propulsion group.

In addition to all of this, Dr. Harrison volunteers as part of the Columbia High School AuthenticScience Research program, and works with 1stand 2ndgrade students at Red Mill Elementary School with Barb Schaffer. He volunteers with the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society and the East Greenbush Library. Dr.Harrison has offered countless hours to the Columbia Girls Basketball team. He is also a member of the Columbia High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Dr.Shay Harrison resides in East Schodack, and was nominated for this honor by fellow Hall of Famer, Michael Bennett.