HATS OFF TO AWARD WINNERS

SPRING 2021 |

The Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships congratulates the following people for their recent awards, honors and achievements.

Mark Lundstrom, the Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering who served as acting dean for College of Engineering for the past year, has contributed not only to minds in his classrooms at the University but also to nanotechnology research and outreach around the world. His service has been recognized with an Order of the Griffin presented by Purdue President Mitch Daniels.

Jacqueline Linnes, the Marta E. Gross Assistant Professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, has won a prestigious Moore Inventor Fellowship. One of five researchers awarded the fellowship, Linnes was recognized for her invention, the MicroRapid Autonomous Analytical Device (microRAAD). 

William Oakes, engineering education professor and director of the EPICS program, has received the 2020 GEDC (Global Engineering Deans Council) Diversity Award. The award aims to shine a light on successful projects and programs that inspire students from all profiles and backgrounds to study and succeed in engineering. GEDC is part of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), founded in 2006 to connect the world’s engineering education societies and leverage collective strengths to improve engineering education worldwide.

The Society of Toxicology (SOT) has chosen Wei Zheng, a professor of health sciences, to receive the 2021 SOT Education Award for his significant contributions to education in toxicology and his training of toxicologists for more than 25 years as a researcher and educator. Since 2003, Zheng also has inspired more than 3,500 undergraduate students enrolled in his freshman health science course, building their awareness of environmental health and toxicological issues and contributing to pertinent career development in the private and public health science fields. He also has mentored 28 undergraduate students in his neurotoxicology lab; many of these students have presented their research in local, national, and international conferences, and six five of them have earned co-authorship in internationally acclaimed research journals.

Nathalie Duval-Couetil, professor of technology leadership and innovation, was honored with two awards from the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). Because of her outstanding contribution to the development, furtherance and benefit of entrepreneurship, Duval-Couetil was awarded the Justin G. Longenecker Fellow, the USASBE’s highest accolade. She also received the Entrepreneurship Education Innovator Award, which “recognizes a higher education faculty member who has demonstrated extraordinary pedagogy and/or research in minority and/or women’s entrepreneurship.”

Thanos Tzempelikos, professor in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, has received the prestigious Leon Gaster Award from the Society of Light and Lighting as a co-author of the paper “Cross-validation and Robustness of Daylight Glare Metrics.” This award is presented annually, naming the best paper of the year concerned with lighting applications. The award was presented at the society’s Annual Awards evening in December in London.

Three Purdue professors have been chosen to the 2021 class of newly elevated fellows of the IEEE. Ninghui Li, the Samuel D. Conte Professor of Computer Science, was named for his contributions to data privacy and security. Yung-Hsiang Lu, professor of electrical and computer engineering, was named for his contributions to energy efficiency of computer systems. Gesualdo Scutari, the Thomas and Jane Schmidt Rising Star Associate Professor in the School of Industrial Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering, was selected for his contributions to distributed optimization in signal processing and communications.  IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious grade elevation, according to its website.

Five Purdue faculty members have been named to the list of Highly Cited Researchers™ from the Web of Science Group. They are among approximately 6,400 scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant influence through publication of multiple papers, highly cited by their peers, during the last decade.

The Purdue faculty members are Alexandra Boltasseva, the Ron and Dotty Garvin Tonjes Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Kinam Park, professor of pharmaceutics; Vladimir M. Shalaev, the Bob and Anne Burnett Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Letian You, the Charles Davidson Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering; and Jian-Kang Zhu, distinguished professor of plant biology. Researchers are selected for their exceptional performance in one or more of 21 fields (those used in the Clarivate Essential Science Indicators™, or ESI) or across several fields.