Honors and Awards - 2013

December 2013

Professor Vladimir Cherkassky (electrical and computer engineering) presented a lecture titled “From Big Data to Little Knowledge” to NIH Biomedical Computing Interest Group on Dec. 12, 2013. Cherkassky’s talk focused on the methodological aspects of knowledge discovery via data-analytic modeling in life sciences and healthcare.

Professor Massoud Amin (electrical and computer engineering) provided articles and information to IEEE about the Smart Grid’s security, safety and privacy; modernizing the Grid (in a 6-part series); and providing power backups during hurricanes.

Chemical engineering Ph.D. student David Riehm was awarded the Fall 2013 Dow Outstanding Senior Unit Operations Laboratory TA Award for his contributions to teaching.

November 2013

Professor Sally Gregory Kohlstedt (earth sciences) has been awarded the Margaret W. Rossiter Prize for the History of Women in Science for her book, Teaching Children Science: Hands-On Nature Study in North America, 1890-1930 (University of Chicago Press, 2010).

Professor Max Donath (mechanical engineering) will lead The Roadway Safety Institute, a new center funded by the US Department of Transportation. The $10.4 million center will be a regional focal point for transportation safety research, education, and technology transfer initiatives.

Professor Allison Hubel (mechanical engineering) received a Scholar Award from the National Blood Foundation in recognition of pivotal scientific research and commitment towards the NBF and its mission.

Associate professor Arindam Banerjee (computer science and engineering) is the recipient of a $20,000 IBM Faculty Award. The IBM Faculty Awards are a globally competitive program intended to "foster collaboration between researchers at leading universities worldwide and promote courseware and curriculum innovation."

October 2013

Professor Jorge Vinals (physics) was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society for his contributions to pattern formation in nonequilibrium systems, especially quasi crystalline patterns in Faraday waves, domain coarsening in modulated phases, and the general study of coarse grained fluids described by an order.

Professor Robert Lysak (physics) has been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society for pioneering contributions to the theory of Alfven wave processes, including kinetic effects, their role in magnetosphere ionosphere coupling in planetary magnetospheres and development of gloval models of MHD wave processes in dipolar geometries.

Professors Perry Li and Jim Van de Ven (mechanical engineering) for obtaining a patent on their Open Accumulator for Compact Liquid Power Energy Storage.

The University's School of Mathematics' Master of Financial Mathematics (MFM) Program was recently ranked 20th in QuantNet's 3rd bi-annual rankings of the Best 25 Master Programs in Financial Engineering, Mathematical Finance, and Quantitative Finance in North America.

Assistant professor Craig Westerland (mathematics) is the winner of this year's Australian Mathematical Society Medal which is awarded to a member of the Society under the age of 40 years for distinguished research in the mathematical sciences.

Professor Ramesh Harjani (electrical and computer engineering) will give a keynote talk at the IEEE 10th International Conference on ASIC, in Shenzhen, China. His topic is "Low Power RF Circuits for Broadband Signals."

Professor Stergios Roumeliotis (computer science and engineering) has been awarded a $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation as part of the National Robotics Initiative. The award will fund research in collaborative robotics, particularly humanoid robots designed to assist humans with carrying and manipulating large and heavy objects.

Assistant professor Brent Hecht (computer science and engineering) was selected to receive the 2013 Yahoo! Academic Career Enhancement (ACE) Award. Established in 2011, the ACE award is designed to help newly hired faculty launch research programs in areas of relevance to Yahoo!

Professor Christy Haynes (chemistry) has received the Outstanding Mentor of Postdoctoral Scholars award for her extraordinary performance and achievement in mentoring postdoctoral fellows, postdoctoral associates, and research associates.

Hermann Gies, a professor of crystallography in the Department of Mineralogy in the Institute of Geology, Mineralogy, and Geophysics at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, FRG, in Germany, has been named the George T. Piercy Distinguished Visiting Professor for 2013 in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.

September 2013

Professor John Gunnar Carlsson (industrial and systems engineering) is the winner of the 2013 ICS Prize for the best English language paper dealing with the Operations Research/Computer Science interface.

Ph.D. student Joshua Vander Hook (computer science and engineering) was recently selected to receive an ARCS Scholar Award for the next two academic years in the amount of $5,000 per year.

Associate professor Nicholas Hopper (computer science and engineering) and his collaborator, Roger Dingledine, have been awarded a National Science Foundation grant totaling $1,137,268, which will fund their project, Measurement-Based Design and Analysis of Censorship Circumvention Schemes.

Professor Emeritus Charles Fairhurst (civil engineering) has been chosen to receive a French Medal of Honor.

Professor Paige Novak (civil engineering) has been selected to serve on the National Academies standing Committee on Chemical Demilitarization, which oversees studies in support of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency and the Program Executive Officer, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives as they execute the United States' Chemical Demilitarization Program.

Greg Frankenfield (ChE '81, MBA '84), CEO and co-founder of Magenic, won the University of Minnesota Entrepreneur of the Year Award as part of the recent Minnesota Cup competition. Magenic is a custom software development firm that focuses on Microsoft technology.

Kevin Nguenkam, an undergraduate student (chemical engineering) has been awarded the 2013 Genentech Outstanding Student Award in recognition of his outstanding academic achievement and passion for biotechnology.

Graduate student Michelle Hall (biomedical engineering) has been awarded a 2013-14 Career Development Grant from the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

Professor Peter Carr (chemistry) has received the J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education for 2013 from the American Chemical Society of Analytical Chemistry, recognizing his contributions to analytical chemistry and for enhancing the personal and professional development of students who are studying analytical chemistry.

Two College of Science and Engineering student researchers are being honored by the Minnesota chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) for 2013-14. They are Joshua VanderHook (computer science) and Kianna Gedwillo (biomedical engineering).

August 2013

Professor Peter Olver (mathematics) was recently honored by the Springer journal, Foundations of Computational Mathematics (FoCM). Read the full news release on "Mathematics professor honored by national research journal."

Professor Kumar Tamma (mechanical engineering) was awarded the International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (ICCES) Outstanding Research Medal for his research in computational structural dynamics.

Professor Chris Hogan (mechanical engineering) has received the Smoluchowski Award 2013, named after the physicist Marian Smoluchowski (1872-1917), to recognize significant research contributions to aerosol science.

Professor Uwe Kortshagen (mechanical engineering) and Ph.D. student, Lance Wheeler, along with colleagues from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, have overcome technical hurdles in the quest for inexpensive, durable electronics and solar cells made with non-toxic chemicals. The research was published in the most recent issue of Nature Communications, an international online research journal.

Professor Michael Tsapatsis (chemical engineering and materials science) and Jurgen Caro, professor of physical chemistry at Leibniz University received the 2013 Breck Award from the International Zeolite Association (IZA) for their pioneering work on the processing of zeolite and MOF nanostructures enabling separation membranes.

Professor Chris Kim (electrical and computer engineering) and his research team (Bongjin Kim and Weichao Xu) won the ISLPED Low Power Design Contest. They will present their research “An Adaptive PLL in 32nm SOI for Optimal Processor Power and Performance under Resonant Supply Noise” at the Sept. ISLPED Conference.

July 2013

Professor Allison Hubel (mechanical engineering) has been named a semi-finalist in the Minnesota Cup competition, a statewide contest for up-and-coming businesses hoping to get their ideas noticed by top investors. Hubel's idea is called Meso-Flow, which is a technology that improves the cell cryopreservation process.

Professor Paul Imbertson (electrical and computer engineering) will receive the 2013 Award for Global Engagement during National Education Week (Nov. 18-22). The award, presented by the Office of the Vice President for International Initiatives, recognizes Imbertson’s involvement in a variety of international projects as well as his role as a stellar ambassador of the U of MN.

Professor Murti Salapaka (electrical and computer engineering) has been appointed to the Vincentine Hermes-Luh Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering in recognition of his extensive contributions to control systems and its applications to nanotechnology.

Professor Mo Li (electrical and computer engineering) and his research group received a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop the next generation opto-electrical neural probes for multimodal interrogation of brain activity.

Professor Keshab Parhi (electrical and computer engineering) received the 2013 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India.

Professor Sachin Sapatnekar (electrical and computer engineering) will be visiting the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain under a 2013-14 Fulbright Senior Researcher Award to work on research in electronic design automation.

Associate professor Arindam Banerjee (computer science and engineering) was selected for the 2013 Yahoo! Faculty Research and Engagement Program (FREP) for his proposal "Contextual Ranking for Content Personalization.”

Assistant professor David Flannigan (chemical engineering and materials science) received an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator grant that will provide for $100,000 in research funds over two years.

Professor Michael Tsapatsis (chemical engineering and materials science) is the 2013 recipient of the AIChE Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research, recognizing his breakthrough contributions in the design, synthesis and applications of molecular sieve membranes, adsorbents and hierarchical catalysts.

June 2013

Professor Joe Labuz (civil engineering) has accepted a five-year appointment as head of the Department of Civil Engineering running through June 2018. Prior to his appointment, Professor Labuz had served as interim department head since July 2012.

Professor William Pomerantz (chemistry) has been awarded an American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant to support research designing a class of peptide mimetic, which is called polarity switch peptides.

Professor Massoud Amin (electrical and computer engineering) has been nominated for a 2013 College of Engineering Outstanding Senior Alumni Award from the University of Massachusetts Amherst for his significant achievements and leadership within the electrical and computer engineering industry and profession.

Professor Mikahil Shifman (physics) will receive the 2013 Pomeranchuk Prize, an international award for theoretical physicists given by the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics in Moscow. Shifman was cited for outstanding results in nonperturbative quantum field theory.

Assistant professor Wojciech Lipinski (mechanical engineering) received the 2013 Elsevier / JQSRT Raymond Viskanta Award in Radiative Transfer at the 7th International Symposium on Radiative Transfer in Kusadasi, Turkey.

Professor Peter Hudleston (earth sciences) was awarded the GSA's Structural Geology & Tectonics Career Contributions Award for his distinguished career of scholarly research, his long history of generous service to the structural geology and tectonics community, and his impressive record of teaching and mentoring geoscientists.

Professor Yousef Saad (computer science and engineering) has won a 2013 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Outstanding Paper Prize for "The trace ratio optimization problem for dimensionality reduction" written with Thanh Ngo and Mohammed Bellalij.

Professor Timothy P. Lodge (chemistry; chemical engineering and materials science) has been named a Regents Professor by the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. This designation is the highest level of recognition given University faculty members.

Professor Christy Haynes (chemistry) has received a 2013 Minnesota Futures Grant to conduct research on maximizing magnetic relaxation and heating in nanoparticle therapeutics.

Regents professor Donald Truhlar's (chemistry) 1,000th journal article "Adsorption on Fe-MOF-74 for C1?C3 Hydrocarbon Separation," co-authored by Pragya Verma and Xuefei Xu, has been published.

May 2013

Professor Anar Akhmedov (mathematics) has received the Guillermo E. Borja Award, which recognizes exceptional research and scholarly accomplishments by a candidate for tenure during the probationary period.

Professor Beth Stadler (electrical and computer engineering) received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the President’s Distinguished Faculty Mentor Program. The program, established in 1986, pairs high-ability students of color with distinguished faculty members as mentors.

Professor Nikos Sidiropoulos (electrical and computer engineering) has received the University of Maryland – College Park Distinguished ECE Alumni Award.

Professor Beth Stadler (electrical and computer engineering) was voted Top Instructor by students who attended the 2012 IEEE Magnetics Society Summer School in Chennai, India. She will be teaching for the IEEE program in Assisi, Italy, June 9-14.

Professor Marc Hillmyer (chemistry) was awarded the 2013 Medema Award from Polymer Technology Netherlands (PTN). This award is given to a prolific polymer scientist who also interacts and/or has close ties with the Dutch polymer community.

Professor Renata Wentzcovitch (chemical engineering and materials science) has been elected a 2013 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Sharon Emde, Administrative Director for the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, has been named a recipient of the University of Minnesota President's Award for Outstanding Service.

Professor Chris Leighton (chemical engineering and materials science) has received the 2013 George W. Taylor Distinguished Research Award.

Assistant professors Kechun Zhang and David Flannigan (chemical engineering and materials science) have received a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award. Zhang's award will support his research on developing innovative fermentation approach to biomimetic superglues for applications ranging from underwater adhesives to tissue engineering. Flannigan's award will support his research into the ultrafast (femtosecond) atomic-scale visualization of energy transport and conversion in nanostructured materials.

Assistant professor Kechun Zhang (chemical engineering and materials science) has been awarded a National Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association.

April 2013

Professor Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos (computer science and engineering) has received the 2013 Richard P. Braun Distinguished Service Award, which is presented annually to a transportation professional for outstanding leadership in research and innovation.

Associate professor Svitlana Mayboroda (mathematics) has been named as the first recipient of the AWM-Sadosky Research Prize in Analysis, which is awarded by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) to highlight to the community outstanding contributions by women in the field and to advance the careers of the prize recipients.

Assistant professor Henry Liu (civil engineering) and the development of SMART Signal System has been named a finalist in the 2013 BEST of ITS (Intelligent Transportation Society of America) awards. SMART Signal, now a startup company, was created out of Liu's research to better manage the flow of traffic at intersections controlled by signal lights.

Assistant professors Hoai-Minh Nguyen and Pavlo Pylyavskyy (mathematics) have been named Sloan Research Fellows by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Assistant professors Berenice Mettler and Pete Seiler (aerospace engineering and mechanics) have received prestigious CAREER awards from the National Science Foundation which recognizes and supports junior faculty who demonstrate excellence in research and education.

Professor Christopher Cramer (chemistry) has been awarded the 2013 George W. Taylor Award of Distinguished Service, which recognizes outstanding service to the University of Minnesota and voluntary public service.

Professor Gerald Sobelman (electrical and computer engineering) has received the 2013 Charles E. Bowers Faculty Teaching Award, which recognizes a University of Minnesota professor who has demonstrated exceptional interest and commitment to teaching.

Professor Hans Othmer (mathematics) has been named a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for contributions to mathematical biology, in particular the theory of pattern formation in biological systems.

Professor Joe Labuz (civil engineering) has accepted a five-year appointment as head of the Department of Civil Engineering, from April 2013 through June 2018.

March 2013

Professor David Pui (mechanical engineering) has been awarded the Einstein Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Assistant professor Daniel Keefe (computer science and engineering) has been awarded a $15,000 3M Nontenured Faculty Award. 3M provides this grant to exemplary new faculty in order to help them advance their careers.

Instructor Chris Dovolis (computer science and engineering) was selected to recieve the Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education. In addition to teaching, Dovolis is an active advisor to upper division computer science students and the ACM Student Chapter.

Professor Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos (computer science and engineering) has awarded the 2013 recipient of the Richard P. Braun Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding leadership in research and innovation.

Professor Massoud Amin (electrical and computer engineering) has been named Government Technology’s “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for 2013” as one who sets the standard for using innovative technology to solve public sector challenges and improve the performance of critical government programs.

Professor Ned Mohan (electrical and computer engineering) has been awarded the 2013 Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) Innovative Program Award for his pioneering work in reforming the Electric Energy System Curriculum.

Professor Keshab Parhi (electrical and computer engineering) has been selected as one of the recipients for the University of Minnesota Award for Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education for 2012-2013.

Professor Peter Carr (chemistry) has been honored with the 2013 LCGC (liquid chromatography, gas chromatography) Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the field of liquid chromatography and surface chemistry.

February 2013

Professor Jaideep Srivastava (computer science and engineering) has been awarded the PAKDD 2013 Distinguished Contributions Award by the Pacific-Asia Conference in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD).

Professor Berenice Mettler (aerospace engineering and mechanics) has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her research project, "Modeling the Dynamic Interplay of Control, Planning and Perceptual Functions in Agile Human Guidance."

Professor Pete Seiler (aerospace engineering and mechanics) has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his research project, "Probabilistic Tools for High Reliability Monitoring and Control of Wind Farms."

University of Minnesota President and Professor Eric Kaler (chemical engineering and materials science) is among the 101 top scientists, innovators and leaders from the academic world named as a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The honor recognizes exceptional achievements "in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society."

College of Science and Engineering Dean Steven Crouch has been named a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to simulation methodology for the behavior of fractured rock masses. Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.

Professor James Kakalios (physics) was elected a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science for distinguished contributions to the field of condensed matter and materials physics, particularly for experimental studies of amorphous semiconductors, and for innovative efforts in science communication.

Assistant professor Rusen Yang (mechanical engineering), assistant professor Jasmine Foo (mathematics), and assistant professor Mo Li (electrical and computer engineering) have been awarded a McKnight Land-Grant professorship for 2013. The goal of the program is to advance the careers of the University's most promising junior faculty at a critical point in their professional lives.

Professor Jian-Ping Wang (electrical and computer engineering) has been named director of Center for Spintronic Materials, Interfaces, and Novel Architectures (C-SPIN). He will lead the new national research center at the University of Minnesota that received a $28 million grant from the Semiconductor Research Corporation. Other electrical and computer engineering faculty involved with the research will be professors Steven J. Koester (associate director), Chris H. Kim, Mo Li, David J. Lilja, Sachin S. Sapatnekar, and Randall H. Victora.

Professor Joe Konstan (computer science and engineering) has been selected to receive the 2013 SIGCHI Lifetime Service Award, which is awarded to individuals who have contributed to the growth of SIGCHI in a variety of capacities.

Professor Connie Lu (chemistry) has been awarded a prestigious 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.

Assistant professor Kechun Zhang (chemical engineering and materials science) has received a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award to support his research on developing innovative fermentation approach to biomimetic superglues for applications ranging from underwater adhesives to tissue engineering.

Assistant professor David Flannigan (chemical engineering and materials science) has received a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award to support his research into the ultrafast (femtosecond) atomic-scale visualization of energy transport and conversion in nanostructured materials.

Graduate student Xian Chen (aerospace engineering and mechanics) was awarded the Lawrence E. Goodman Fellowship in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.

Professor Fotis Sotiropoulos (civil engineering) has been named a Sackler Lecturer in the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies for the academic year 2013/2014 at Tel-Aviv University.

January 2013

Professor Connie Lu (chemistry) has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her research project, “Configuring New Bonds Between First-Row Transition Metals.”

Professor Joe Konstan (computer science and engineering) recently became a Fellow of the IEEE Fellow for contributions to human-computer interaction and social media applications.

Professor Kenneth Heller (physics) was elected a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science for distinguished contributions to the field of experimental high energy physics for investigations of spin dependent strong interactions and neutrinos, and to physics education research in the field of teaching problem-solving in college level introductory physics.

Graduate student Baris Mutlu (mechanical engineering) with Sujin Yeom of the Medical School, were finalists for the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award (SISCA) for their project, "Development of a Silica Gel Encapsulated Cell Bioremediation System for Wastewater Treatment."

Doctoral student Raghuveer Devulapalli (industrial and systems engineering) has received Third Prize in the Interactive Session Competition at the INFORMS 2012 meeting in Arizona for his presentation "Equitable partitioning of territory with obstacles."

Professor Gerald Sobelman (electrical and computer engineering) has been named as a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society for calendar years 2013-2014.

Assistant professor John Collins (computer science and engineering), associate department head Maria Gini (computer science and engineering), associate professor Paul Schrater (computer science and engineering), and professor Alok Gupta (Carlson School of Management), together with Wolfgang Ketter of Erasmus University have received a 2012 INFORMS ISS Design Science Award for their work Design of Automated Agents Capable of Recognizing and Forecasting the Economic Environment.

Professor Valerie Pierre (chemistry) has received a fall 2012 Translational Grant Award from the University of Minnesota's Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Her research encompasses siderophore aptasensors for immediate point-of-care diagnosis of urinary tract infections.