Honors and Awards - 2022
November 2022
Postdoctoral researcher Saikat Mukherjee (mechanical engineering) received a 2022 University of Minnesota Postdoc Award from the UMN Postdoctoral Association, an honor that recognizes UMN researchers' valuable contributions to the University's mission.
Associate Professor Lana Yarosh’s research team (computer science and engineering) earned the Distinguished Paper Award from the Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies Journal.
Assistant Professor Jessica Lamb (chemistry) was been recognized three times in 2022 for her catalysis research, with a National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemistry’s Disciplinary Research Programs (CHE-DRP) grant, a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (NTFA), and an award from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF).
Professor Aditya Bhan (chemical engineering and materials science) won the North American Catalysis Society's Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis, recognizing his contributions in the field of catalysis.
Professor Emeritus Chris Macosko (chemical engineering and materials science) was named the 2023 Charles Goodyear Medalist, the most prestigious award given by the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Ph.D. student Paulina Eberts (chemical engineering and materials science) won the University of Minnesota's Three-Minute Thesis Competition for her presentation on Alzheimer's research.
Alumnus Sauviz Alaei (B.S. Physics, '22) was named an American Physical Society 2022 Leroy Apker Award Finalist, an honor that recognizes outstanding achievements in physics by undergraduate students.
Postdoctoral scholar Emily McGuinness (chemical engineering and materials science) was awarded an American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) eFellows postdoctoral fellowship, with funding provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Undergraduate student Michelle Quan (chemical engineering and materials science) was among 24 participants selected to attend the recent "Future Leaders in Chemical Engineering Symposium" at North Carolina State University.
Associate Professor Cara Santelli (earth and environmental sciences) has received the 2022 “Post Tenure” Outstanding Geobiologist Award from the Geobiology and Geomicrobiology Division of the Geological Society of America.
October 2022
Professor Maxim Pospelov (physics and astronomy) has been named a 2022 fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).
Alumna Marie Lopez del Puerto (Ph.D. Physics ‘08), currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, was a recipient of the American Physical Society Excellence in Physics Education Award.
Professor Rajesh Rajamani (mechanical engineering) is the 2022 recipient of the ASME Charles Stark Draper Innovative Practice Award, given biennially for either excellent sustained contributions or for an outstanding major, singular contribution in innovative applications or dynamic systems, measurement, or control in engineering practice.
Postdoctoral researcher Plinio Jaqueto (earth and environmental sciences) has received the Brazilian national award for best PhD thesis in Geophysics 2022, and GSA Karst Division's Young Scientist Award.
Doctoral student Lulu Ge (electrical and computer engineering) has won first place at the 2022 IEM Annual Conference Poster Competition in the neuroengineering area.
Professor Mohamed Mokbel (computer science and engineering) and his research group were awarded the 2022 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Spatial Information (SIGSPATIAL) 10-Year Impact Award.
Alumna Jane Lansing (B.S. CivE '76) was honored with the 2022 Alumni Service Award, which recognizes graduates for outstanding volunteer service to the University of Minnesota.
Researcher Ivan Alekseichuk (biomedical engineering) has been awarded the Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Postdoctoral scholar Raisa Carmen Andeme Ela (chemical engineering and materials science) has been selected for a 2022-23 Mistletoe Research Fellowship (MRF) from the Momental Foundation.
September 2022
Professor Saif Benjaafar (industrial and systems engineering) received the 2022 MSOM Society Award for Management Science Journal Best Paper in OM Award for his paper “Peer-to-Peer Product Sharing: Implications for Ownership, Usage, and Social Welfare in the Sharing Economy."
Assistant Professor Ying Cui (industrial and systems engineering) was named a finalist for the INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group (JFIG) Competition for her paper "A Decomposition Algorithm for Two-Stage Stochastic Programs with Nonconvex Recourse."
Professor and Zsolt Rumy Innovation Chair Chris Ellison (chemical engineering and materials science) has been selected to receive a Professional Achievement Citation in Engineering (PACE) Award from the College of Engineering at Iowa State University.
Doctoral candidates Duarte Pereira de Sousa, Neel Chatterrjee, and Xinwei Zhang (electrical and computer engineering) are among the recipients of the 2022-23 doctoral dissertation fellowship awarded by the University of Minnesota Graduate School.
Alumnus Ben Tutolo (Ph.D. ESci '15) has received the high honor of being named the 2022 recipient of the Mineralogical Society of America Award.
August 2022
Ph.D. student Peng Zhou (mechanical engineering) won the Best Student Paper Award at the International Conference on Manipulation, Automation, and Robotics at Small Scales.
Recent Ph.D. graduate Xiaowei Jia (computer science and engineering) won the 2022 University of Minnesota Graduate School Best Dissertation Award in the "Physical Sciences and Engineering" category.
Ph.D. candidate Kshitij Tayal (computer science and engineering) won the Best Paper Award at the 2022 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM).
Ph.D. students Sam Boland and Carly Donahue (biomedical engineering) won two of the six divisions of the Ph.D. student paper competition at the 2022 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C).
A high school internship program from the Department of Biomedical Engineering received the 2022 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the largest and oldest diversity and inclusion publication in higher education.
Assistant Professor Ryan Caverly (aerospace engineering and mechanics) received the NASA Early Career Faculty Award for his research on advanced technologies for solar sail control.
Assistant Professors Kangjie Lu (computer science and engineering), Tsao Hsien-Chen (mathematics), Max Engelstein (mathematics), Changhyun Choi (electrical and computer engineering), Michelle Calabrese (chemical engineering and materials science), Vinod Srinivasan (mechanical engineering), and Associate Professor Alexander Opitz (biomedical engineering) all received 2021-2022 NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Awards for their research.
Assistant Director of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) Katherine Dowd (mathematics) received a 2023 Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) extraordinary professionalism, wisdom, and care she bestowed upon the AWM as host of the 2022 AWM Research Symposium.
Graduate student Hongyuan Zhan (mechanical engineering) won the Martin Summerfield Graduate Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
June 2022
Professor Mike McAlpine (mechanical engineering) received a 2021-2022 Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Advising, which recognizes the central role that postdoctoral advising plays at the University of Minnesota.
Professor David Kittelson is a recipient of the California Air Resources Board's 2020-2021 Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award, which recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to improving air quality and meeting climate goals.
Doctoral candidate Rachit Shrivastava (electrical and computer engineering) received the Student Research Achievement Award (SRAA) at the 2022 Biophysical Society (BPS) meeting for his poster on the role of cargo motor interaction kinetics during intracellular cargo transport.
Professor Marc Riedel (electrical and computer engineering) has been named a fellow of the inaugural cohort of Oracle’s Research Fellows Program.
Master's student Bob Sturm (data science) was awarded the "People's Choice Award" at the Spring 2022 Data Science Poster Fair for his project, "Towards Efficient IACT Calibration with Deep learning-based Muon Identification."
Department Director of Operations Chuck Tomlinson (chemistry) has received the 2022 University of Minnesota President's Award for Outstanding Service.
Professor Renee Frontiera (chemistry) has been named a finalist for the 2022 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, the world’s largest unrestricted prize honoring early-career scientists and engineers.
A vaccine research image captured by Assistant Professor Brittany Hartwell (biomedical engineering) and team has won a Koch Institute Image Award, which celebrates extraordinary visuals produced through life sciences and biomedical research.
Ph.D. students Efraín Torres and Parker Jenkins (biomedical engineering) are part of a graduate student team that won the University of Minnesota Walleye Tank competition's student division, an award that recognized the business potential of their patent-pending MRI technology.
May 2022
CSE Professor and Associate Dean for Research Joe Konstan (computer science and engineering) and Director of Operations Chuck Tomlinson (chemistry) received 2022 President's Awards for Outstanding Service.
Regents Professor Larry Que (chemistry) was elected into the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors in science.
April 2022
Undergraduate students Michelle Quan (chemical engineering and materials science) and Yukino Nakamura (chemistry) are recipients of the 2022 Donald R. Zander Alumni Award for Outstanding Student Leadership.
CSE students Michelle Quan, Bhargavi Rathore, Linnae Johansson, Anna Karos, Grace Kresge, Leah Baker, Jacob Bechtold, Leyan Sayeh, Blessie Mande, Sneha Sinha, Cole Skadeland, Marissa Munley, Katherine Taylor, Elizabeth Crist, Trisha Trinh, Yukino Nakamura, Jackson Deal, Isabel Patrick Pacheco, and Jennifer Freedberg received 2022 President's Student Leadership and Service Awards (PSLSA) from the University of Minnesota.
Professor Phil Buhlmann (chemistry) is a recipient of a 2022 College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Professorship.
Graduate student McCleary Philbin (mathematics) is a recipient of the 2022 College of Science and Engineering Jon Bowers Excellence in Teaching Assistance Award.
Professor Jon Weissman (computer science and engineering) is a recipient of the 2022 College of Science and Engineering George W. Taylor/CSE Alumni Society Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Professor Keshab Parhi (electrical and computer engineering) is a recipient of the 2022 College of Science and Engineering Charles E. Bowers Faculty Teaching Award.
Faculty members Alena Talkachova (biomedical engineering) and Shaul Hanany (physics and astronomy) are recipients of the 2022 College of Science and Engineering George W. Taylor Award for Distinguished Service.
Professor Chad Myers (computer science and engineering) is a recipient of the 2022 College of Science and Engineering George W. Taylor Distinguished Research Award.
Alumna Sanja Hameed (Ph.D. Physics '21) was selected as a recipient of the biennial Neutron Scattering Society of America (NSSA) Prize for Outstanding Student Research.
Graduate student Jared Anderson (chemistry) has received a 2022-2023 Predoctoral Fellowship from the American Chemical Society, Division of Medicinal Chemistry.
Undergraduate students Benjamin Alva (biomedical engineering) and Clara Lemaitre (computer science and engineering), and Ph.D. student Taylor Berger (biomedical engineering), all received 2022 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships.
March 2022
Assistant Professor Alex McLeod (physics and astronomy) has been awarded the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics 2022 Young Scientist Prize in the Structure and Dynamics of Condensed Matter.
Assistant professor Sayan Biswas (mechanical engineering) is one of two recipients of the Innovation Impact Case Award, the most prestigious award given by the University of Minnesota's Office of the Vice President for Research, for his "Plasma Technologies for Clean Transportation" project.
Ph.D. student Sai Ranjeet Narayanan (mechanical engineering) won an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF) from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Graduate School.
Senior Academic Advisor Kelly Thomas (computer science and engineering) has been awarded a University of Minnesota 2022 Outstanding Community Service Award.
Graduate students Maya Gilchrist and Clementine Hamelin (earth and environmental sciences) have been awarded Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards from the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.
Faculty members Martina Cardone (electrical and computer engineering), Xue Feng (civil, environmental, and geo- engineering), Patrick Kelly (physics and astronomy), and David Poerschke (chemical engineering and materials science) received 2022 University of Minnesota McKnight Land-Grant Professorships.
Undergraduate student Sarah Tanck (chemistry, chemical engineering and material science) is a recipient of the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship, given to the nation's top young researchers.
The University of Minnesota named faculty members Chris Kim (electrical and computer engineering), Lee Penn (chemistry), and Claudia Scarlata (physics and astronomy) Distinguished McKnight University Professors.
Teaching Associate Professor David Orser (electrical and computer engineering) received a 2022 Morse-Alumni Undergraduate Teaching Award.
The University of Minnesota (UMN) American Chemical Society (ACS) student chapter received special recognition for the 2020-2021 academic year, earning both Commendable and Green Chemistry Chapter Awards.
Professor Nikos Papanikolopoulos (computer science and engineering) received a 2021-22 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professional Education, which honors exceptional candidates who have been nominated by colleges for excellence in graduate and professional education.
February 2022
Assistant Professor Suo Yang (mechanical engineering) received an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program award for his project, "Physics-Based Modeling of Multicomponent Transcritical Phase Change and Spray Breakup in High-Pressure Liquid-Fueled Combustors."
Professor Maria-Carme Calderer (mathematics) was elected to be a 2022 Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Fellow.
Professor Tyler Lawson (mathematics) was elected to be a 2022 American Mathematical Society (AMS) Fellow.
Alumnus and research associate Kai Wu (electrical and computer engineering) received the best poster award at the 15th Joint MMM-INTERMAG conference for his work on handheld magnetic particle spectroscopy for rapid, one-step, wash-free detection of SARS-CoV-2.
Postdoctoral scholar Bhaskar Das (chemical engineering and materials science) was awarded a prestigious American Physical Society (APS) Physics Division of Materials Physics (DMP) Post-Doctoral Travel Award for research on "Unconventional electronic transport near the insulator-metal transition in Co-doped pyrite FeS2 single crystals."
Ph.D. student Mariah Dorner (civil, environmental, and geo- engineering) received the Minnesota Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholar Award for the academic years of 2021-2023.
Associate professor Casim Sarkar (biomedical engineering) was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows.
Professor Allison Hubel (mechanical engineering, Technological Leadership Institute) received a Department of Defense Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) Patriot Award.
Professor Rhonda Franklin (electrical and computer engineering) was recently named a McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor.
January 2022
Professor Maria Gini (computer science and engineering) on winning the ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award for 2022, a prestigious prize that recognizes years of research and leadership in the field of robotics and multi-agent systems.
Alumnus Arman Shahriar (B.S. BME) was selected as a finalist in the American Medical Association’s (AMA) 2021 Research Challenge for his poster called, “Socioeconomic Diversity of Matriculating U.S. Medical Students by Race and Ethnicity, From 2017 to 2019.”
Ph.D. candidate Yingying Zhang (mechanical engineering) won best poster award at the the 2021 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.
Alumnus Kai Wu (Ph.D. ECE '17) is a recipient of the best poster award at the 15th Joint MMM-INTERMAG conference.
Distinguished University Teaching Professor Joseph Kapusta (physics and astronomy) has been named as lead editor of Physical Review C, the world's leading nuclear physics journal.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society, has elected Professor Susan Jones (History of Science, Technology, and Medicine) to its newest class of AAAS Fellows.
Assistant professor Ognjen Ilic (mechanical engineering) has received a 2022 Air Force Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Professor Rajesh Rajamani (mechanical engineering) has been elevated to an IEEE Fellow.
Ph.D. student Yingying Zhang (mechanical engineering) won a competitive student poster award at the Materials Research Society (MRS) fall 2021 meeting in Boston.
Ph.D. graduate Biswaranjan Mohanty and Professor Kim Stelson (mechanical engineering) took home the best paper award at the International Conference on Bond Graph Modeling and Simulation.
Professor Mos Kaveh (electrical and computer engineering) received a Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award from his alma mater, Purdue University, for attaining the "pinnacle of excellence" in his field.
Regents Professor Ned Mohan (electrical and computer engineering) was awarded the 2022 IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education medal for his contributions to engineering education.
Associate Professor Vivian Ferry (chemical engineering and materials science) is a member of the 13-person inaugural Editorial Board of the American Physical Society (APS) journal PRX Energy.