The Cullen College of Engineering recognized 15 members of the faculty, staff and students at its 2022-23 Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards, held during the Faculty-Staff Meeting on May 2.
A full photo gallery can be found on our Flickr account.
The keynote award given out was the William A. Brookshire Teaching Excellence Award. This year, two were given out.
It recognizes faculty who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to exemplifying the highest levels of teaching excellence inside the classroom. These faculty provide the highest caliber of instruction and mentorship to students while creating a unique and structured learning atmosphere to positively influence the lives and careers of students.
This year's two recipients are:
- Fritz Claydon, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
- Farah Hammami Ep Kammoun, Instructional Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
The W.T. Kittinger Teaching Excellence Award is traditionally the highest teaching award given in the college that recognizes outstanding teaching and service to the students. This year's recipient is Zheng Chen, Bill D. Cook Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
The Career Teaching Award is given intermittently and reserved for faculty who have shown a life-time commitment to University of Houston students. This year's recipient is Gangbing Song, Moores Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
Six people received a Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding teaching and service to students. They are:
- Olga Bannova, Research Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department, and Director of the Space Architecture Graduate Program.
- Marsha Kowal, Instructional Assistant Professor and Director of the Honors Engineering Program.
- Theophilus Kaaya, Teaching Assistant, Mechanical Engineering
- Megan Mendieta, Teaching Assistant, Biomedical Engineering
- Dimitrios Kavvadias, Teaching Assistant, Mechanical Engineering
- Varad Joshi, Teaching Assistant in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
The Research Excellence Award recognizes faculty for their outstanding research contributions. This year's recipient is Alamgir Karim, Dow Chair and Welch Foundation Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, as well as the Director of the International Polymer & Soft Matter Center (IPSMC), and the Director of the Materials Engineering Program.
The Andrea Prosperetti Research Computing Faculty Award recognizes tenured and tenure-track faculty within the Cullen College of Engineering who have demonstrated a singular achievement in the broadly defined topics of scientific computing and data science. This year's recipient is Kalyana Nakshatrala, Associate Professor and Associate Chairman of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
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 recipient is Jian Chen of the Mechanical Engineering Department.
The Best Dissertation Award recognizes the best dissertations developed by our doctoral students. First and second place winners are chosen.
Jacklyn Hall of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering took first place. Her dissertation chairman is Praveen Bollini, Assistant Professor. The second place finisher was Nam-In Kim of the Mechanical Engineering Department. His dissertation chairman is Jae-Hyun Ryou, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering.