Grants, fellowships, awards and other honors that recognize and support innovative research and world-class teaching.
From the College of Social Sciences and Humanities: Qianqian Zhang-Wu, assistant professor of English and director of multilingual writing, has won the 2023 CCCC Research Impact Award for “Languaging Myths and Realities: Journeys of Chinese International Students.” The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) is a constituent organization within the National Council of Teachers of English. Read more about the award below.
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From the College of Engineering: Four professors in the College of Engineering—Carolyn Lee-Parsons, Edmund Yeh, Ryan Koppes, and Yaning Li—are recipients of the Spring 2023 Spark Fund Awards. The awards provide support to commercially valuable inventions (from any field) from university researchers in earlier stages of development. The goal of the award is to advance a technology or suite of technologies from academia towards commercialization. Read more about the professors and their research below.
From the College of Engineering: Assistant professor Jiahe Li was awarded a $636,000 National Science Foundation CAREER award for a project titled “Understanding and Harnessing Host-derived Small RNAs Against Opportunistic Pathogens.” Read more about the project and the award below.
From the College of Engineering: Professor Matteo Rinaldi and research assistant professor Zhenyun Qian were awarded a patent for designing a “Zero power plasmonic microelectromechanical device.” According to the abstract, the “device is capable of specifically sensing electromagnetic radiation and performing signal processing operations…. The devices can continuously monitor an environment and wake up an electronic circuit upon detection of a specific trigger signature of electromagnetic radiation.” Read the full abstract and more about their patent below.
From the College of Engineering: Teaching Professor Beverly Kris Jaeger-Helton was selected as a panel fellow for the 2023 National Science Foundation (NSF) CMMI Game Changer Academies for Advancing Research Innovation Program. The NSF Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) created the Game Changer Academies for Advancing Research Innovation to improve group dynamics during panel discussions, increase awareness of bias and identity, and enhance understanding of high-risk, high-reward ideas. Once trained, “Panel Fellows” will bring enhanced skills and awareness when they participate in panel discussions during NSF merit review.
From the College of Engineering: Associate Professor Yi Zheng was awarded the inaugural American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE) Early Career Researcher Award for his significant contributions to the field of Thermal and Fluids Engineering. Read more about the award below.
Matthew Miller, professor of health sciences and epidemiology, was featured in the Annals of Internal Medicine’s “Best of 2022” list with two articles on firearms research.
Five professors were named by the College of Engineering: Justin Mellette, associate teaching professor in English Edward Witten, lab coordinator in chemistry and chemical biology Camille Gómez-Laberge, associate teaching professor in physics Angelina Jay, assistant teaching professor of the First Year Engineering Program Prasanth George, associate teaching professor and director of undergraduate programs in mathematics See the previous winners below.
I Professor Darin Detwiler, who also serves as Assistant Dean of Academic and Faculty Affairs for the College of Professional Studies, was recently recognized in Quality Assurance Magazine as a member of The Food Safety Set, one of twenty-one individuals who have had a pronounced impact on the development of food safety practices in the past 30 years, since the 1992 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak. Detwiler was featured on the cover of the January-February 2023 issue, among other notables. Detwiler joined the fight against foodborne illnesses “after his son, Riley, died in 1993 due to E. coli as part…
From the College of Engineering: Assistant Professor Sara Rouhanifard was selected to receive a 2023 Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) Rising Star Award for her outstanding impact on the field of cellular and molecular bioengineering.
From the College of Engineering: Assistant Professor Jessica Oakes was selected as the 2023 Y.C. Fung Early Career Award Medalist for outstanding work in respiratory mechanics that has significantly advanced the understanding of asthma, smoking and inhalable drug delivery, and for strong advocacy in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Read more about Oakes’s work and the award below.
From the College of Engineering: Francesco Restuccia, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and member of Northeastern’s Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things and the Roux Institute received, in December of 2022, an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program Award to examine the algorithmic foundations and theoretical performance bounds of the dynamic, data-driven wireless systems of the future. Read more about the award and his research below.
From the College of Engineering: Yiannis Levendis, Distinguished Professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, was selected as a member of the Class of 2023 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Associate Fellows for his technical contributions to fuel combustion physics, chemistry, and diagnostics, and for educating engineering students in the fields of gas turbine combustion and air pollution. Read more about the institute and Levendis’s work below.
From the College of Engineering: A team of researchers with the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT) consisting of computer engineering students Matteo Bordin, PhD’26, and Pietro Brach Del Prever, PhD’27, and led by electrical and computer engineering research assistant professor Salvatore D’Oro, won first prize at the IEEE Advanced Air Mobility – Concepts Innovation Challenge, a challenge to engage undergraduate and graduate students across the world in developing novel concepts in unmanned air transportation. Read more about their work below.
Dean of the College of Science and professor of biology Hazel Sive was awarded an honorary doctorate of engineering from her alma mater, the University of the Witwatersrand (lovingly known as “Wits”) earlier this month, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Sive began her scientific career at Wits when a professor, Robin Crewe, gave her a unique assignment.
From the College of Engineering: Vincent Harris, University Distinguished and William Lincoln Smith Professor, electrical and computer engineering, has been named a 2022 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Harris was chosen for selection for “having demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.” Harris will be inducted as a fellow in June, 2023.
Associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Devesh Tiwari has received the Editorial Excellence Award from the IEEE journal Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS). The award “recognizes exceptional contributions by members of the TPDS editorial board,” according to their website. Read more about Tiwari’s award below.
Researchers at the College of Engineering have won a Trailblazer Award from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) for their interdisciplinary work to cure or improve diseases by modulating microbial metabolism in the gut. The funding provides $628,000 for the team’s research over three years. Read more about their research and their award below.
From the College of Engineering: Associate Professor Yanzhi Wang received the Asia Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association (APSIPA) Distinguished Industrial Leader award at the APSIPA Annual Summit and Conference 2022 held in November 2022.
From the College of Engineering: Professor Yi Zheng was recognized by the Massachusetts House of Representatives for his “Outstanding Contributions to Sustainability and Clean Technology.” Zheng is devoted to clean energy education, research and business, to provide climate-friendly, energy-saving solutions and reduce carbon emissions globally.
From the College of Engineering: Associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering Hongli (Julie) Zhu was awarded a $220,000 Department of Energy grant, in collaboration with the University of Delaware, for the manufacturing of lightweight automotive components. The Zhu Lab will synthesize functional thermal conductive material as filler in the composite. In her lab, thermally conductive material will be prepared and added to thermoset resin to increase thermal conductivity and improve curing kinetics of resin during tool manufacturing.
From the College of Engineering: Associate Professor Hongli (Julie) Zhu, in collaboration with Vox Biomedical, LLC, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was awarded a $154,000 grant for biosensors. Zhu “seek[s] to translate detection of… [volatile organic compound] signatures to a more robust and standardized platform, readily adaptable for the identification of a variety of human diseases with distinct pathophysiologies.”
Professor of entrepreneurship and innovation, Samina Karim, in Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, has been elected to a director-at-large position in the Strategic Management Society. The society publishes three academic journals, hosts several conferences each year, and funds “projects to advance the field of strategic management,” according to their website. Karim will serve a three-year term, from 2023-2025.
From the College of Engineering: Professor Purnima Ratilal-Makris was awarded a $1.28M National Science Foundation grant for “Large-aperture 160-element coherent hydrophone array system upgrades and operational readiness testing for real-time continental-shelf scale ocean acoustic monitoring.” Research on the array system will be conducted in her Laboratory for Ocean Acoustics and Ecosystem Sensing.
From the College of Arts, Media and Design: Northeastern Art + Design professors Derek Curry and Jennifer Gradecki have been selected as one of five artist groups to participate in the MediaFutures support program, part of the European Commisssion’s S+T+ARTS (Science +Technology + Arts) program for social and technical innovation. The program provides €25,000 for the initial build phase and more for a final exhibition along with technical trainings, workshops, demos, and in-person presentations in Barcelona, Rome, and Hamburg. Curry and Gradecki’s project, Sock Puppet Theater, is a performance of animatronic sock puppets speaking the words of social media posts by accounts known…
From the College of Engineering: Teaching Professor Bala Maheswaran was appointed as the Director of the Engineering and Architectural Division (EAD) of the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). The EAD includes Architecture, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Transportation Engineering Units, with leaders from various international institutes leading each unit. The division organizes multiple conferences in Athens, Greece, each year in multiple fields.
From the College of Engineering: Distinguished University and Cabot Professor Laura Lewis was elevated to an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow for contributions to the design of magneto-functional materials. 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 and is awarded to less than 0.1% of voting members annually.
From the College of Engineering: Principal Research Scientist Michele Polese received the Mario Gerla award for research in computer science at the Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation (ISSNAF) Young Investigators Award ceremony. Polese designs and optimizes next-generation wireless spectrum systems.
From the College of Engineering: University Distinguished Professor Art Coury has won the American Chemical Society Rubber Division’s Bioelastomer Award for 2023, which honors significant contributions to the advancement of biomaterials in the field of rubber science and technology. Professor Coury will receive the award at a ceremony in April, 2023.
Assistant Professor Ruobing Bai is a recipient of the 2022 Extreme Mechanics Letters (EML) Young Investigator Award for his paper “Temperature-modulated photomechanical actuation of photoactive liquid crystal elastomers.” The EML Young Investigator Award honors the best young researchers who have published their highly impactful papers in the EML journal.