College of Engineering Celebrates Outstanding Faculty

On Monday, April 27, 2015, the College of Engineering held its inaugural faculty awards reception at Carnall Hall. Five faculty members received awards 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 five 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, the dean announced three new awards called 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. David Zaharoff, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, received the Rising Star award.

Zaharoff holds the Twenty-First Century Endowed Professorship in Biomedical Engineering. He conducts research in the area of cancer immunotherapy, and he has published papers in high-impact journals. Zaharoff has received significant research funding, including a prestigious R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Ranil Wickramasinghe, professor of chemical engineering, received the Senior Faculty award, which recognizes tenured faculty who have excelled in their scholastic activities.

Wickramasinghe holds the Ross E. Martin Endowed Chair in Emerging Technologies. He came to the University of Arkansas as an Arkansas Research Scholar, and he established the U of A as a member of the Membrane Science, Engineering, and Technology Center. Wickramasinghe has also conducted significant research in the area of membrane science. 

The Most Engaging Research Faculty Award, which celebrates a faculty member who excels in collaborative and interdisciplinary research, went to Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering.

Alan Mantooth holds the Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in Mixed-Signal IC Design and CAD. In addition to conducting interdisciplinary research projects, Mantooth leads the campus-wide 3E initiative, and he is director of several interdisciplinary centers, including a National Science Foundation Industry/University Collaborative Center.

Winners of the John Imhoff award were also announced at the event. 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.

Julie Carrier, professor of biological and agricultural engineering, received the Imhoff award for research. Carrier conducts research in the area of bioenergy and bioprocess engineering of nutraceuticals. In 2014, she had eight refereed journal articles, 16 poster presentations, five oral technical presentations, and reviewed 20 technical manuscripts. She had seven grants and also co-authored three grants totaling over 14.7 million dollars.

John Gauch, professor of computer science and computer engineering, received the Imhoff award for teaching. Gauch uses innovative approaches to teach introductory programming courses, as well as other undergraduate and graduate classes. Gauch has developed an online version of Programming Foundations I to reach students at community college around the state, and he represented the U of A at the Arkansas STEM Coalition's "Think Tank for Computer Science Education" and serves on the Arkansas Department of Education's committee to develop computer science classes for high school and middle school students.