College of Engineering Celebrates Outstanding Faculty

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Alan Mantooth, Jin-Woo Kim, Dale Thompson and Kartik Balachandran were honored at the College of Engineering Faculty Awards event.

On Wednesday, April 28, the College of Engineering held its annual faculty awards reception at University House. Five awards were given at the event.

"The purpose of this event was to celebrate the hard work and great achievements of our faculty," said engineering dean John English. "These individuals have really gone above and beyond in their dedication to students and to research, and it felt good to let them know they're appreciated."

At the reception, English announced the Dean's Excellence Awards. These awards include the Rising Star Award, the Senior Faculty award and the Most Engaging Research Faculty Award.

The Rising Star Award recognizes tenure track faculty who are progressing towards tenure in an accelerated fashion. It can be given to a faculty member who is tenure track, up through their first year of tenure. Kartik Balachandran, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, received the Rising Star award.

Balachandran joined the U of A faculty in 2012. His research focuses on understanding the multi-scale relationship between structure, architecture and mechanics related to the biological behavior of cells and tissues in disease processes. His research could lead to new treatments for heart valve disease.

Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and holder of the Twenty-First Century Research Leadership Chair, received the Senior Faculty award, which recognizes tenured faculty who have excelled in their scholastic activities.

Mantooth has published over 200 refereed articles on modeling and IC design. He serves as director for the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission, Grid-Connected Advanced Power Electronics Systems and the Cybersecurity Center for Secure Evolvable Energy Delivery Systems. He is deputy director of the Power Optimization for Electro-Thermal Systems Center, which is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center.

The Most Engaging Research Faculty Award, which celebrates a faculty member who excels in collaborative and interdisciplinary research, went to Jin-Woo Kim, professor of biological and agricultural engineering.

Kim's expertise spans interdisciplinary fields of biological and biomedical engineering, biology, chemistry, and nanotechnology. In the past three years, Kim has collaborated as a co-PI with 11 departments and national and international institutions in 65 grant applications totaling about $25 million.

John White, chancellor emeritus and Distinguished Professor of industrial engineering, announced the winners of the John Imhoff award. The Imhoff awards were established in 2004 by John Imhoff, former head and founder of the industrial engineering department, to recognize faculty members who have excelled in research and teaching in the College of Engineering. Mantooth received the Imhoff award for research.

Dale Thompson, associate professor of computer science and computer engineering, received the Imhoff award for teaching. Thompson's teaching evaluations are significantly higher than the department average. He serves on the department's undergraduate curriculum committee and on the College of Engineering Distance Education Committee for the MSE program. Thompson also serves as the ABET Coordinator for the department.