Five researchers from the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science were among 15 UVA faculty members recently honored at the sixth annual Research Achievement Awards ceremony, hosted by the Office of the Vice President for Research.
Six additional engineering faculty are among 25 UVA researchers who earned the most funding in fiscal year 2024, and 37 colleagues earned national or UVA accolades last year.
Lori L. McMahon, attending her first Research Achievement Awards ceremony as UVA’s vice president for research, presented the awards with University president James Ryan and executive vice president and provost Ian Baucom.
The University reached $549 million in funding last year and has continued to grow since, McMahon said at the ceremony.
UVA Engineering’s top award winners are featured below. A complete list of all 2024 Research Achievement Awards honorees is published on the VPR’s website.
Distinguished Research Award
Aidong Zhang, the Thomas M. Linville Professor of Computer Science, who also holds appointments in biomedical engineering and data science, received the Distinguished Research Award.
Zhang is one of the first researchers to apply advanced data mining and machine learning techniques to biological and medical problems. Her work has produced many influential techniques for extracting new insights from large data sets. One example is her WaveCluster algorithm, which is considered one of the best clustering algorithms for spatial data.
Zhang has published over 400 papers and been cited more than 18,300 times. She is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Vipin Kumar, Regents Professor and William Norris Chair in Large-Scale Computing at the University of Minnesota, has cited Zhang’s research and worked with her on workshops and grants.
“Based on her outstanding publication and funding records, I can confidently assert that Professor Zhang’s accomplishments are among the most significant contributions to the fields of bioinformatics and machine learning in recent years,” Kumar said.
Research Excellence Award
Associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering Chloe Dedic earned the Research Excellence Award for developing advanced optical measurements to study gas and particle behavior and improve design of next-generation aircraft engines and high-speed aerospace vehicles.
Dedic’s laser-based measurement techniques help reveal how gases and particles behave in extreme conditions, such as combustion engines or high-speed flight. Her techniques achieve up to 100 times better spatial resolution than traditional methods.
Her research has been applied to study novel aerospace engines and clean energy technology.
From 2017 to 2018, Dedic was a visiting researcher at the NASA Langley Research Center and, in 2023, was an invited presenter at a Gordon Research Conference. Since 2020, she has received highly competitive young researcher program awards from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Air Force Office of Scientific Research and UVA’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
“Professor Dedic is one of the very best young researchers in the world addressing problems of great importance — designing new, clean diesel engines that move our goods and build our communities and creating hypersonic engines for our aircraft and rockets to protect our national security,” said Richard Kent, Frederick Tracy Morse Professor and UVA MAE chair.
Research Collaboration Award
In the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Charles Henderson Chaired Professor John R. Scully, AT&T Professor of Engineering Robert G. Kelly and associate professor and Copenhaver Fellow James T. Burns received the 2024 Research Collaboration Award for their work on the effects of corrosion processes on materials.
The team has collaborated on more than 40 papers and received over $30 million in research funding from sponsors such as DARPA, the U.S. Department of Defense, Rolls-Royce and NASA. They focus on creating resources and informing decision-making when it comes to choosing engineering materials exposed to corrosive environments during service.
The team is known internationally for resetting benchmarks for extensive assessment of corrosion.
“The applicants are exceptionally worthy recipients of this honor and recognition by UVA,” said Nick Birbilis, one of the team’s research collaborators and a past visiting scholar at UVA.
“I believe the award will encourage others to emulate the collegiality, positive nurturing and strategic planning that the team has so wonderfully achieved,” said Birbilis, the executive dean of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment at Deakin University in Australia.
Other Honored Researchers
Sponsored Funding Leaders
The following were among the University’s 25 researchers who received the highest amount of funding at UVA for fiscal year 2024.
- Benton H. Calhoun, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Jason L. Forman, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- Kevin A. Janes, Biomedical Engineering
- Arthur W. Lichtenberger, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Elizabeth J. Opila, Materials Science and Engineering
- Xu Yi, Electrical and Computer Engineering
National Honors
The following researchers were recognized nationally in their respective fields, such as being elected or named to a distinguished society or receiving an award for excellence from sources external to the University.
- Homa Alemzadeh, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Timothy Allen, Biomedical Engineering
- Liheng Cai, Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering
- Qing (Cindy) Chang, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- William Epling, Chemical Engineering
- Roseanne Ford, Chemical Engineering
- Wajih Ul Hassan, Computer Science
- Brian Helmke, Biomedical Engineering
- Rachel Letteri, Chemical Engineering
- Shayn Peirce-Cottler, Biomedical Engineering
- Mircea Stan, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Rupa Valdez, Systems and Information Engineering
UVA Honors
The following researchers were nominated by their school deans to be recognized for substantial contributions to their field of study, influencing the academic community, or having a positive impact on society through their work.
- Scott T. Acton, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Somayeh Asadi, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Laura Barnes, Systems and Information Engineering
- Madhur Behl, Computer Science, Systems and Information Engineering
- Bryan W. Berger, Chemical Engineering
- Steven M. Bowers, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Steven R. Caliari, Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
- Coleen Carrigan, Engineering and Society
- Chen Chen, Computer Science
- Jack W. Davidson, Computer Science
- Ferdinando Fioretto, Computer Science
- Jonathan L. Goodall, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Arsalan Heydarian, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Patrick E. Hopkins, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- Jon F. Ihlefeld, Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Mathews Jacob, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Kyusang Lee, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering
- Jundong Li, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science
- Chang Lou, Computer Science
- Kristen M. Naegle, Biomedical Engineering
- Richard J. Price, Biomedical Engineering
- Nikolaos D. Sidiropoulos, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Ashish Venkat, Computer Science
- Haydn G. Wadley, Materials Science and Engineering