Faculty, Staff honored at 2025–26 Excellence Awards

The Cullen College of Engineering recognized the stellar work of its researchers and staff at the 2025-26 Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards.

Winners were announced following the Spring 2026 Faculty and Staff Meeting, held the first week of May in L2D2. Pradeep Sharma, Dean of the Cullen College of Engineering and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor, introduced the awards following his state of the college presentation. A photo gallery is available on the College’s Flickr account.

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. Yuhua Chen, Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, is this year’s winner.

The William A. Brookshire Teaching Excellence Award recognizes faculty who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to exemplifying the highest levels of teaching excellence inside the classroom. This year featured three winners:

• Paul Ruchhoeft, Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
• Alex Landon, Director of the Cullen Honors Program
• Diane De La Rosa-Pohl, Instructional Associate Professor of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and Director of Endeavour S-STEM Program

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. Yan Yao, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor, is this year’s winner.

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: Vedhus Hoskere, Kaspar J. Willam Assistant Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering.
• Senior Research Award: Miao Pan, Professor of Electrical and Computer 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 Taiwo Anuoluwapo Adebiyi 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 Daniel Floryan, Kalsi Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering.

This year, three Staff Excellence Awards were given out. The winners were Can Le, Andres Acosta and Brianna Cook.

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 Wei-Chuan Shih, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The Rising Innovator Award honors efforts by faculty in innovation and entrepreneurship. The nominee must be a tenured associate professor with a track record of mentoring students and postdocs in innovation and entrepreneurship, that demonstrates innovation and efforts in transferring technology to practice. This year’s winner is Zheng Chen, Bill D. Cook Associate Professor of Mechanical and 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. Two winners were recognized this year:

• Mim Rahimi, Kaspar J. Willam Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Ran An, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

The Young Innovator Award recognizes efforts by students or postdocs in innovation and entrepreneurship at UH. This year’s winner is Tico (Thomas) Hannan, a Ph.D. student in the Mechanical Engineering Department.

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 five recipients:

• Ajit Bopardikar, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Jaime De Vega, Information Science Technology
• Albert Flavier, Engineering Technology
• Mahdi Safa, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Yaping Wang, Industrial and Systems Engineering

The Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award recognizes outstanding commitment to instruction by graduate teaching assistants. This year featured six winners:

• Nipun Sutradhar, Mechanical Engineering
• Wissam Al Ali, Industrial and Systems Engineering
• Adarsh Poojary, Cybersecurity in the Information Science Technology Department
• Musfika Rahman, Petroleum Engineering
• Venkat Maduri, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Rahatun Akter, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

The Outstanding Lecturer Award is given to an instructional faculty member in recognition of their prowess. This year’s winner is Quentin K. Stewart, of the Human Development and Consumer Science Department.

Nine people received a Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding teaching and service to students. They are:

• Chandra Mohan, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Endowed Professor and Associate Chair for Research and Development
• Gül Zerze, Assistant Professor in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Behrooz Ferdowsi, Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
• Kinam Kim, Assistant Professor in the Construction Management Program
• Jianfeng Zheng, Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
• Wajiha Shireen, Professor in the Engineering Technology Department
• Ying Lin, Associate Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department
• Kyuin Lee, Assistant Professor in the Information Science Technology Department
• Ben Xu, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

The Faculty Service Award recognizes an outstanding contribution by a member of the faculty toward their fellow professors. This year’s awardee is Omar Abdelrahman, an Associate Professor in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Congratulations to this year’s winners!