More than 60 professors from the Cullen College of Engineering were recognized for their accomplishments as scholars, researchers and academic innovators on March 31 as part of the President’s Circle Awards, presented by the University of Houston.
The awards spotlight professors for earning national recognition, contributions to high impact publications, obtaining patents, producing single author books and receiving major grant awards. More than 200 faculty members across the university were honored.
For a full photo gallery from the event, click here!
The President’s Circle Awards continue the tradition set by the 50-in-5 initiative, spotlighting faculty achievements that elevate UH’s national profile. Faculty gathered at the University’s Wortham House for a formal celebration of their work.
“Last year’s 50-in-5 celebration marked the end of our initiative to increase UH’s research and scholarly output by 50 percent over five years … but it didn’t mark the end of our overarching mission to transform lives and communities through education, research, service and innovation,” said UH President Renu Khator. “And you are the engine empowering us to achieve our mission and our bold vision to become a top 50 public university.”
During her remarks, UH Vice President of Research Claudia Neuhauser shared that national awards experienced exceptional growth over the past year with more than $120 million in grant funding.
“Last year was the first time in UH’s history that we had more than $100 million in federal research expenditures,” Neuhauser said.
She also applauded faculty members’ 32 single authored books and 47 high impact journal publications. Likewise, Neuhauser also cited UH faculty’s success in receiving awards, including 10 National Science Foundation CAREER awards, a U.S. Department of Energy Early Career award and a Pulitzer Prize earned by MD Anderson Professor in Hispanic Studies Cristina Rivera Garza.
UH Vice President for Energy and Innovation Ramanan Krishnamoorti complimented those 31 faculty members earning patents in 2024, including 12 professors with multiple patents. These patents alongside academic programs such as the Melvin and Cyvia Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship help inspire start-up business ventures, he said.
“These patents help connect the University to the start-up world and the idea that our students can be entrepreneurs,” Krishnamoorti said.
The inaugural President’s Circle Awards honorees are from each of the University’s colleges. Several are presently featured on the Scholars Walk, the digital installation located behind UH’s MD Anderson Library.
The honorees from Cullen, sorted by department, then name:
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
- Muayyad Al-Ubaidi
- Ran An
- Renita Horton
- Kirill Larin
- Chandra Mohan
- Muna Naash
- Manmohan Singh
- Lars Tebbe
CHEMICAL & BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING
- Vemuri Balakotaiah
- Praveen Bollini
- Vincent Donnelly
- Lars Grabow
- Jerrod Henderson
- Katerini Kourentzi
- Triantafillos Mountziaris
- Jeffrey Rimer
- Navin Varadarajan
- Peter Vekilov
- Binh Vu
- Richard Willson
CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
- Juan Carlos Fernandez Diaz
- Nima Ekhtari
- Craig Glennie
- Konrad Krakowiak
- Mohammad Rahimi
- Hanadi Rifai
- Devin Shaffer
ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING
- Jiming Bao
- Long Chang
- Ji Chen
- Jinghong Chen
- Xin Fu
- Zhu Han
- Harish Krishnamoorthy
- Alae Lakraychi
- Xingpeng Li
- Yanliang Liang
- Dmitri Litvinov
- Kaushik Rajashekara
- Rohith Reddy
- Badrinath Roysam
- Xiaonan Shan
- Yan Yao
- Lihong Zhao
- Jianfeng Zheng
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY
- Zheng Fan
- Francisco Robles Hernandez
- Fatima Merchant
- Luca Pollonini
- Jian Shi
- Weihang Zhu
INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
- Suresh Khator
- Ying Lin
- George Tan
MECHANICAL & AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
- Marzia Cescon
- Zheng Chen
- Hadi Ghasemi
- Venkat Selvamanickam
- Pradeep Sharma
- Gangbing Song
PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
- Christine Ehlig-Economides
- Ganesh Thakur
A breakdown of the number of President’s Circle Awards is as follows:
- Single Author Books: 32
- High Impact Journal Publications: 47
- Major Grant Awards: 81
- Patents: 31
- National Recognition: 46