College of Engineering Celebrates Outstanding Faculty

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Recipients of College of Engineering faculty awards. Top row, from left: Richard Cassady, Christa Hestekin, John White. Bottom row, from left: Ranil Wickramasinghe, Lauren Greenlee, Yanbin Li.

On Wednesday, May 3, the College of Engineering held its annual faculty awards reception at Carnall Hall. Six 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, Norman Dennis, senior associate dean, announced the Dean's Excellence Awards.

Richard Cassady, professor of industrial engineering, received the Dean's Award for Public Service. This award is presented by the College of Engineering annually for outstanding public service. The winner of this award is also the College of Engineering's nominee for the Alumni Association Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award for Outstanding Public Service.

Christa Hestekin, associate professor of chemical engineering and holder of the Ansel and Virginia Condray Endowed Professorship in Chemical Engineering, received the Dean's Award for Excellence for Rising Teaching. This award is presented by the College of Engineering annually for excellence in teaching. The winner of this award will be the College of Engineering nominee for the Alumni Association Rising Teaching Award.

Dennis also announced the winner of the John Imhoff Award for Teaching. 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. John White, Distinguished Professor of industrial engineering, received this award.

Heather Nachtmann, associate dean for research, announced the winner of the John Imhoff Award for Research and the Dean's Excellence Research Awards.

Ranil Wickramasinghe, professor of chemical engineering and holder of the Ross E. Martin Endowed Chair in Emerging Technologies, received the Imhoff Award for Research.

Lauren Greenlee, assistant professor of chemical engineering and holder of the Louis Owen Professorship in Chemical Engineering, received the Rising Star Faculty Research Award. This award recognizes tenure track faculty who are progressing towards tenure in an accelerated fashion. It is given to a faculty member who is tenure track, up through their first year of tenure. The selection for the Rising Star Faculty Research Award is based on classic measures of scholarly activity including publications, graduate student advising, external research funding, and patent submissions.

Yanbin Li, Distinguished Professor of biological and agricultural engineering and holder of the Tyson Endowed Chair in Biosensing Engineering, received the Collaborative Faculty Research Award. This award is given to a faculty member who excels in collaborative and interdisciplinary research. It is based on metrics that reflect collaborative research activities, such as the number of co-principal investigators the faculty member works with, the number of departments engaged in their research program, and recent research expenditures.