Honors and Awards
March 2026
Associate Professor Michelle Calabrese (chemical engineering and materials science) was awarded a U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program Award to support her proposal, “Examining Field-Altered Solvation for Contaminant Capture and Critical Element Recovery.”
Associate Professor Ryan Caverly (aerospace engineering and mechanics) were awarded the Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award for their outstanding contributions to undergraduate education.
Professors Bill Arnold (civil, environmental, and geo- engineering) and C. Daniel Frisbie (chemical engineering and materials science) were awarded Graduate & Professional Teaching Awards.
Finance Professional III Lisa Jahr (chemistry) was named the 2026 recipient of the Chemistry Recognizing Outstanding Staff Award (ROSA).
Alumnus Kira Balentine (computer science and engineering) received the 2026 University of Minnesota Excellence in Teaching Award.
Assistant Professor Marien Simeni (mechanical engineering) was selected as a 2026 Frontiers of Science Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
Professor Lynn Walker (chemical engineering and materials science) was elected as Vice Chair of the Division of Polymer Physics (DPOLY) of the American Physical Society (APS)
Undergraduate student Greta Brown (computer science and engineering) received an honorable mention in the CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award.
Professors Renee R. Frontiera (chemistry), Jiarong Hong (mechanical engineering), Andre Mkhoyan (chemical engineering and materials science) and Tom Schwartzentruber (aerospace engineering and mechanics) were named Distinguished McKnight University Professor for the University of Minnesota.
Assistant Professors Chris Bartel (chemical engineering and materials science), Stevie Chancellor (computer science and engineering), Dongyeop Kang (computer science and engineering) and Kyoko Yoshida (biomedical engineering) were named University of Minnesota McKnight Land Grant Professors.
Alumnus Benjamin Magruder (Ph.D., Chemical Engineering) was named a recipient of the 2026 Schmidt Science Fellows award.
Student group Material Advantage (chemical engineering and materials science), the student bladesmithing team, won first place at the 2026 TMS Bladesmithing Competition.
Professors Erin E. Carlson (chemistry) and Maria Gini (computer science and engineering) were named 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows, one of the most distinct honors in the scientific community.
Professor Marien Simeni (mechanical engineering) was selected as a 2026 Frontiers of Science Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
Associate Professor Suo Yang (mechanical engineering) was selected as the inaugural Early Career Award recipient by the Central States Section of the Combustion Institute (CSSCI).
Faculty members Jeff Calder, Tsao-Hsien Chen, Hao Jia, Arnd Scheel and Craig Westerland (mathematics) received 2026 Simons Fellowships in Mathematics.
February 2026
Professor Bethanie Stadler (electrical and computer engineering) received the 2025 MRS Woody White Service Award. The award is presented by the Materials Research Society (MRS), the award is in recognition of her service to the Society and her profession.
Assistant Professor Aryan Deshwal (computer science and engineering) won the Innovative Deployed Application Award at Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI) Conference in January 2026.
Professor Rhonda Franklin (electrical and computer engineering) was named the 2026 recipient of the Rudolf Henning Distinguished Mentoring Award from IEEE.
Professor and Associate Dean for Research Joseph Konstan (computer science and engineering) received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award. The awards identify and honor leaders and shapers of the field of human-computer interaction.
Professor Uwe Kortshagen (mechanical engineering) was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, along with alumni Stacey Yuxin Ma and Yu Sun.
Professor Vipin Kumar (computer science and engineering) was named to Inaugural United Nations Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence.
January 2026
Professor Timothy Lodge (chemical engineering and materials science) was awarded the 2026 Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award from the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society.
Professor Mohamed Mokbel (computer science and engineering) who has been named a 2025 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow.
Professor William C.K. Pomerantz recently (chemistry) won a Bridge Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA). RCSA's Bridge Award program aims to help provide financial stabilization for critical projects led by Cottrell Scholars.
Assistant Professor Benjamin Worsfold (civil, environmental, and geo- engineering) was awarded the American Concrete Institute Walter P. Moore, Jr, Faculty Achievement Award.
Professor Bharat Jalan (chemical engineering and materials science) was elected as Secretary/Treasurer of the American Physical Society's Division of Materials Physics.
Associate Professor Michael Coughlin (physics and astronomy) was part of a team that won an award from the second year of the Scialog: Early Science from the LSST from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA).
Professor Vladimir Šverák (mathematics) has recently received the Heinz Hopf Prize from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich).
Professor Chris Ellison (chemical engineering and materials science) received the 2025 POLY Fellow Award by The Division of Polymer Chemistry, Inc. (POLY), a division of the American Chemical Society (ACS).