Olivia Lea Brown is among 70 University of Mississippi students to receive a 2015 Marcus Elvis Taylor Memorial Medal, the university’s highest academic award. The students were recognized April 9 during UM’s 72st annual Honors Day Convocation, at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts.

Brown is a senior mechanical engineering major who plans to pursue a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction at UM following graduation. She is a member of Transfer Leadership Organization. A graduate of Collins High School, she is the daughter of Marcy Brown and the late Tim Brown.

The Taylor Medals were established at UM in 1904 by Dr. William A. Taylor of Booneville in memory of his son, an honored 1871 alumnus of the university. The award recognizes no more than one percent of the student body each year.