The Cullen College of Engineering is proud to recognize the stellar research and teaching efforts of 28 different members of its community with the 2024–25 Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards.
The winners were announced at the Spring 2025 Faculty and Staff Meeting, held April 29 in L2D2. Pradeep Sharma, Dean of the Cullen College of Engineering and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor, gave out the awards following his state of the college presentation.
The keynote award is the William A. Brookshire Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes faculty who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to exemplifying the highest levels of teaching excellence inside the classroom. This year’s winner is Deepa Ramachandran, Instructional Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
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. Dong Liu, a professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, is this year’s winner.
The Career Teaching Award is given intermittently and reserved for faculty who have shown a life-time commitment to University of Houston students. There are two recipients this year:
- Yuhua Chen, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Andy Hines, Associate Professor, Human Development and Consumer
The Research Excellence Award recognizes faculty for their outstanding research contributions, with separate categories for Junior and Senior Faculty. The winners this year are:
- Junior Research Award: Mim Rahimi, Assistant Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Junior Research Award: Na Zou, Assistant Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Senior Research Award: Muna Naash, John S. Dunn Endowed Professor in Biomedical 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. Badri Roysam, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is this year’s winner.
The Career Innovator Award recognizes a track record of successful efforts by faculty in innovation and entrepreneurship during their career at UH. This year’s awardee is Hadi Ghasemi, Cullen Distinguished Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering.
The Early Innovator Award recognizes efforts by the tenure-track faculty in innovation. The nominee must be an assistant professor in the tenure track for a minimum of three years with a record of mentorship of students in innovation. The winner is Marzia Cescon of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.
The Young Innovator Award recognizes efforts by students or postdocs in innovation and entrepreneurship at UH. There are two winners this year:
- Achuth Nair, Biomedical Engineering
- Nagesh Horakedevpura Ramaswamy, Civil and Environmental Engineering
The Instructional Faculty Award recognizes exceptional teaching by instructional faculty and lecturers beyond what is characteristically expected of tenured or tenure-track faculty. This year there are three recipients:
- Blake Mudd, Full-Time Lecturer, Human Development and Consumer Sciences
- José C. Martínez, Instructional Associate Professor, Information Science Technology
- Dan Burleson, Instructional Associate Professor, Engineering Undergraduate Programs
The Outstanding Adjunct Faculty or Lecturer Award is awarded for commitment to excellence in teaching demonstrated by lecturers and adjunct faculty who are not employed on a full-time basis. This year's winner is Nikolaos Malamataris, a lecturer in the William A. Brookshire Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department.
Nine people received a Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding teaching and service to students. They are:
- Lu Gao, Associate Professor in Construction Management
- Birol Dindoruk, American Association of Drilling Engineers Endowed Professor of Petroleum Engineering & Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Lei Fan, Assistant Professor in Engineering Technology
- Na Zou, Assistant Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Biresh Kumar Joardar, Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Kelly Huang, Kalsi Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- Mostafa Momen, Assistant Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Zhengwei Li, Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering
- Praveen Bollini, Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
The Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award recognizes outstanding commitment to instruction by graduate teaching assistants. This year’s winners are Abdulmaliq Abdulsalam of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Leo Mangalath of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
The Andrea Prosperetti Research Computing Student Award recognizes a person that has demonstrated a singular achievement in the broadly defined topics of scientific computing and data science. This year’s recipient is Kripa Adhikari in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.
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 Jiefu Chen, Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
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