Faculty awards and honors

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Awards and honors earned by faculty and staff of the College of Engineering and Knowlton School of Architecture from February 2019 through July 2019.

22nd Annual College of Engineering Distinguished Faculty Awards Honorees:
Harrison Faculty Award for Excellence in Engineering Education:
Thomas Hund, BME
The Clara M. and Peter L. Scott Faculty Award for Excellence in Engineering Education: Joel Johnson, ECE
Dean’s Meritorious Service to Students Award: Elliot and Carolyn (posthumously) Ross
Dean’s Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Lecturer: Satyanarayana Seetharaman, MAE
David C. McCarthy Engineering Teaching Award: Annie Abell, MAE
Ralph L. Boyer Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Engineering Innovation: John Clay, CBE
Faculty Mentoring Award: Dorothée Imbert, KSA – Landscape Architecture; and Michael Mills, MSE
"Building Bridges" Excellence Award: Peter Mohler, College of Medicine
Dean’s Award for Distinguished Outreach Achievements: Deborah Grzybowski, EED
Faculty Diversity Excellence Award: Jason Reece, KSA – City & Regional Planning
Innovators Award : Yi Zhao, BME
Honda-Ohio State Partnership Award: Michael Wiseman, Honda
Charles E. MacQuigg Award for Outstanding Teaching: Tarunjit Butalia, CEGE 

Lumley Interdisciplinary Research Awards 
Joshua Goldberger, Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts & Sciences; Joseph Heremans, MAE; and Wolfgang Windl, MSE 

Jun Liu, BME; Cynthia Roberts, BME; Xueliang (Jeff) Pan, Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine; and Paul Weber, Eye and Ear Institute 

Lumley Research Awards 
Nicholas Brunelli, CBE; Tyler Grassman, MSE; Abhishek Gupta, ECE; David Hoelzle, MAE; Jinwoo Hwang, MSE; Rachel Kajfez, EED; Waleed Khalil, ESL; Randall Mathison, MAE; Matthew Reilly, BME; Alan Ritter, CSE; Hari Subramoni, CSE; Cathy Xia, ISE; Caglar Yardim, ECE; and Yinqian Zhang, CSE

2019 College of Engineering Staff Appreciation Awards 
Outstanding Service to Students Award:  Brian Endres, CBE
Exemplary Support or Advancement of Research Award: Chris Strasbaugh, Knowlton School
Outstanding Service Award: Wenda Williamson, CBE
Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award: Ashley Strong, Engineering Career Services
Exemplary Team Performance or Service Award: ETS Client Services Team: David Brown, Tammy Cimorell, Gustav Lindamood, Gerald Heskett, Geoff Hulse, Tom Knowles, Eric McKinniss, Justin Mengon and Nicholas Rosen

Additional awards and honors

Anish Arora, professor of computer science and engineering, leads a $25,000 project funded by the Honda-Ohio State Partnership to examine ways to build sensors into roadways, bikeways and walkways that can notify drivers, cyclists and pedestrians about other travelers and objects outside their lines of sight.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Paul Berger was elected to the IEEE Electron Devices Society Board of Governors.

Assistant Professors of Architecture Ashley Bigham and Erik Herrmann are recipients of the 2019 Slovene Research Initiative award as visiting exchange scholars. The award is granted by the Ohio State Center for Slavic and East European Studies.

Materials Science and Engineering Professor Alexandrov Boian has been elected to the class of 2019 ASM International Fellows.

Nicholas Brunelli, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, was named the H.C. "Slip" Slider Professor in the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Raymond Cao, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, leads an interdisciplinary Ohio State team that received $2.75 million from the Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation for nuclear proliferation research. He will also lead a $1.05 million project funded by the Department of Defense to assess the use of solar panels in detecting nuclear detonation.

City and Regional Planning Assistant Professor Zhenhua Chen and co-author Kingsley E. Haynes published the bookHigh Speed Rail and China’s New Economic Geography: Impact Assessment from the Regional Science Perspective.

Manoj Choudhary, adjunct professor of materials science and engineering, received the President’s Award from the International Commission on Glass in recognition of outstanding lifetime contributions to the international glass community.

Ann Christy, assistant dean for teaching and learning, has been named a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Henk Colijn, assistant director of research operations at the Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis, received the 2019 Institute for Materials Research’s Distinguished Service Award for his dedicated and impactful career in research at Ohio State.

Architecture Assistant Professor Andrew Cruse received a 2019-2020 Fulbright Scholar Award to Australia, where he will conduct research on promoting indoor climate change.

Karen Dannemiller, assistant professor of civil, environmental and geodetic engineering, was named the 2019 Institute for Materials Research Early Career Innovator by the Ohio State Institute for Materials Research.

Lakshmi Dasi was promoted from associate professor to professor of biomedical engineering.

Dennis Dimiduk, professor of materials science and engineering, was elected Fellow of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society.

Kiran D’Souza, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, received a $413,876 National Science Foundation grant to improve the design process of a variety of engineered systems where intermittent contact between components significantly affects performance.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Atilla Eryilmaz is part of a multi-university team that received a five-year, $7.5 million Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant from the Office of Naval Research to help explore data freshness.

Kyle Ezell, professor of practice in the Knowlton School of Architecture, received a 2019 Ohio State Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, which honors superior teaching.

Martin Feinberg, professor emeritus of chemical and biomolecular engineering, published the new book, Foundations of Chemical Reaction Network Theory (Springer, 2019). 

Datta Gaitonde, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, received a $3 million 2019 Collaborative Center for Aeronautical Sciences award from the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate to build strategic, high-fidelity computational aerodynamics capabilities.

Nima Ghalichechian, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, received a five-year, $500,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation for his work on a new generation of radio frequency devices capable of advancing space communications, smart phones and self-driving cars.

Perena Gouma, the Edward Orton, Jr., Chair in Ceramic Engineering, was named a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society.

Associate Dean for Research Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska was named to the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to “geodetic science and satellite navigation, including integration with artificial intelligence.” She also received Ohio State’s 2019 Distinguished Scholar Award, which honors exceptional scholarly accomplishments, and was named a Distinguished University Professor.

Mike Groeber, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and integrated systems engineering, leads a team utilizing $1.2 million in combined federal and matched funding to advance knowledge of additive manufacturing defects for the Department of Defense.

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Associate Professor Lisa Hall was elected director of The Ohio State University STEAM factory, an organization that promotes interdisciplinary collaboration, networking and research.

Distinguished Professor of Engineering Winston Ho received a $3 million grant from the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy to develop and test innovative membranes for carbon dioxide capture from flue gas.

John Horack, Neil A. Armstrong Chair and senior associate dean, received a 2019 Ohio State Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching in recognition of his superior teaching.

Jinwoo Hwang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, received a five-year, $625,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation for his research on thermal conduction in materials.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Joel Johnson received the Burn Lin and Sue Lin Endowed ElectroScience Laboratory Professorship in recognition of excellence in teaching, research commitment and dedication to collaboration 

Rachel Kajfez, assistant professor of engineering education, received a Battelle Engineering, Technology and Human Affairs (BETHA) Endowment grant for her investigation of how Girl Scout engineering badges and journeys impact girls’ views of themselves as future engineers.

Mandar Kathe, research associate engineer in the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, received a 2019 Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award from Ohio State’s Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry.

Jung-Hyun Kim, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is a research partner on a $2.5-million grant Ohio-based Nexceris received from the Department of Energy to develop the next generation of electric vehicle batteries. He also leads a $25,000 project funded by the Honda-Ohio State Partnership to build thicker electrode technology to develop a higher-energy lithium-ion battery to power electrical vehicles.

Robert Lee, professor of electrical and computer engineering, leads a $25,000 project funded by the Honda-Ohio State Partnership to build a smart steering wheel that can support distracted-driver detection.

Blaine Lilly, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, received a 2019 Ohio State President and Provost's Award for Distinguished Faculty Service for being a “tireless champion for Ohio State.”

Biomedical engineering faculty members Jun Liu, Matthew Reilly, Cynthia Roberts and Katelyn Swindle-Reilly received the 2019 Barbara L. Crow Investigator-Concept grant from Lions VisionGift.

Materials Science and Engineering Professor and Ohio Research Scholar David McComb was designated a Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America.

Professor Michael Mills was named chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He also received The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society’s 2019 Oleg D. Sherby award for his work on creep behavior in complex metallic alloys using advanced characterization methods.

Shawn Midlam-Mohler, associate professor of practice of mechanical and aerospace engineering, leads a $25,000 project funded by the Honda-Ohio State Partnership to build a better way to evaluate the user experience in autonomous vehicles.

Stephanie Morgan has been named the inaugural Executive Director of the Air Transportation and Aerospace Campus at The Ohio State University Airport. 

Shannon McGloughlin Morrison, curriculum and assessment manager for the Center for Aviation Studies, received an Ohio State College of Education and Human Ecology New Leader Award, which recognizes significant professional accomplishments of service to the college by its alumni.

Arnab Nandi, associate professor of computer science and engineering, was named to Columbus Business First’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2019 in recognition of his research, teaching and STEM outreach accomplishments.

Distinguished Professor Umit Ozkan was appointed chair of the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Andre Palmer, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, received a 2019 Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award from Ohio State’s Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry.

Kevin Passino, professor of electrical and computer engineering, received a Battelle Engineering, Technology and Human Affairs (BETHA) Endowment grant for his research that aims to use adaptive ambience technology to reduce trauma-induced stress in vulnerable children by altering their environment.

Satyanarayana Seetharaman, a lecturer in mechanical and aerospace engineering, received the Michael J. Moran Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Lecturer to acknowledge excellence in instruction at the departmental, college and university levels.

Ajay Shah, assistant professor of food, agricultural and biological engineering, received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to test the effectiveness of a new method of collecting and delivering corn plant material for making ethanol. He also received the Young Engineer of the Year award at the Northeast Agricultural and Biological Engineering Conference for his outstanding contributions to the profession.

Professor Scott A. Shearer has been reappointed as chair of the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

Jonathan Song, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Gina Sizemore, assistant professor of radiation oncology, were awarded a two-year, $200,000 Pelotonia-funded grant from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center to investigate the role of blood vessels in brain metastases.

Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs La’Tonia Stiner-Jones received a three-year, $386,231 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site award from the National Science Foundation to provide an annual summer program for underrepresented students to conduct research on biomechanics and mechano-biology. She also leads a $270,000 grant-funded project from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Clare Boothe Luce Program to help recruit and retain high-achieving female doctoral students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 

Katelyn Swindle-Reilly, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering, was elected program chair of the Society for Biomaterials’ Ophthalmic Biomaterials Special Interest Group for 2019-2021.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Jin Wang leads a $2.3 million Advanced Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) BREAKERS project to develop a medium-voltage direct-current circuit breaker prototype based on a modular design using silicon carbide.

Maryn Weimer, director of mobility and senior associate director of the Center for Automotive Research, has been appointed to the Ohio Governor’s Advisory Committee on Transportation Infrastructure by Governor Mike DeWine.

Ryan Winston, assistant professor of food, agricultural and biological engineering, and civil, environmental and geodetic engineering; received a 2019 Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award from Ohio State’s Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry.

Çağlar Yardim, assistant research professor in electrical and computer engineering, received a $510,000 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award for his marine atmospheric research. 

McConnell Chair of Aviation Seth Young and a multi-disciplinary team of industry partners received a $300,000 grant from the Transportation Research Board’s Airport Cooperative Research Program to enhance academic programs to prepare future airport industry professionals.

Hongping Zhao, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and materials science and engineering; leads a three-year, $2.2 million DOE Advanced Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) OPEN+ program project to develop gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor materials suitable for high-voltage power control and conversion. Electrical and computer engineering faculty Siddharth Rajan, Jin Wang and Steven Ringel are co-investigators on the project. Zhao also recently received nearly $600,000 from the Department of Energy to create high-efficiency, indium gallium nitride-based LEDs in green, amber and longer wavelengths.

Materials Science and Engineering Professor Ji-Cheng (JC) Zhao has been elected Fellow of the Materials Research Society.

Yi Zhao was promoted from associate professor to professor of biomedical engineering.

Categories: AwardsFaculty