The Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston and Dr. Joseph W. Tedesco, Ph.D., P.E., the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Endowed Chair and Dean, are pleased to share the 2020-21 Faculty and Student Excellence Award winners.
The initial announcement was made during the virtual Spring 2021 State of the College Address on May 4.
The W.T. Kittinger Teaching Excellence Award is traditionally the highest teaching award given in the College. It recognizes outstanding teaching and service to students. This year's recipient is Di Yang of Mechanical Engineering.
The Career Teaching Award is given intermittently, and recognizes faculty members who have shown a lifetime commitment to students. Yi-Chao Chen of Mechanical Engineering was honored this year.
The William A. Brookshire Teaching Excellence Award recognizes faculty members that demonstrate an unwavering commitment to the highest levels of teaching excellence. These faculty provide the highest caliber of instruction and mentorship to students while creating a unique and structured learning atmosphere, positively influencing the lives and careers of students. This year's two recipients are:
- Reagan Herman, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Holley Love, Mechanical Engineering
The Teaching Excellence Award recognizes outstanding teaching and service to students. This year, there were seven recipients:
- Megan Robertson, teacher, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Rodolfo Ostilla Monico, teacher, Mechanical Engineering
- Devin Shaffer, teacher, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Harish Krishnamoorthy, teacher, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Yaping Wang, instructional faculty, Industrial Engineering
- Sadaf Pustchi, teaching assistant, Biomedical Engineering
- Sihong He, teaching assistant, Mechanical Engineering
The Cullen College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award is the highest honor afforded to a member of the faculty for research. The award recognizes career excellence in research, teaching and service. Peter Vekilov of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department was this year's winner.
The Research Excellence Award recognizes faculty for their outstanding research contributions. Typically, four college research awards are granted, two to non-tenured, junior faculty members two to senior faculty members, for excellence in research. This year's recipients are:
- Cunjiang Yu, senior faculty member, Mechanical Engineering
- Sergey Shevkoplyas, senior faculty member, Biomedical Engineering
- Taewoo Lee, junior faculty member, Industrial Engineering
- Rodolfo Ostilla Monico, junior faculty member, Mechanical Engineering
The Best Dissertation Awards is given to doctoral students that developed the best dissertation and presentation. The two recipients are:
- Aseem Chawla, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Musa Ozturk, Biomedical Engineering
The Andrea Prosperetti Research Computing Faculty Award recognizes tenured and tenure-track faculty in the Cullen College of Engineering who have demonstrated a singular achievement in the prior calendar year in the broadly defined topics of scientific computing and data science. This year's winner is Lars Grabow of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
In addition, the Andrea Prosperetti Research Computing Faculty Award recognizes graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have made outstanding contributions to research in data science and high-performance computing as well as their applications. This year's recipients are:
- Kosar Mozaffari, Mechanical Engineering
- Jiahao Ding, Electrical and Computer Engineering
The Rising Innovator Award recognizes efforts by faculty in innovation and entrepreneurship at UH. The nominee must be a tenured associate professor with a track record of mentorship of students and postdocs in innovation and entrepreneurship. The nominee must demonstrate innovation and efforts in transferring technology to practice. Hadi Ghasemi of Mechanical Engineering won this year's award.
The Early Innovator Award recognizes efforts by tenure-track faculty in innovation while at UH. The nominee must be an assistant professor in the tenure track for a minimum of three years, with a record of mentorship of students, and in innovation. This year's winner is Jiefu Chen of Electrical and Computer Engineering.