2026 Graduate Ceremony Program

Professor Mishra has demonstrated exceptional scholarly productivity, with 365 peer-reviewed journal publications, hundreds of conference papers, and 17 patents granted or pending. His contributions have been recognized by the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) Presidential Citation (2014), a global society of more than 13,000 members, and election as a Fellow of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS, 2016).

Beyond his research achievements, Professor Mishra has shown extraordinary leadership and service to the professional community. He has served as president of TMS and AIME and as a member of editorial boards for seven leading journals. Professor Mishra has served as a principal investigator for NSF-funded Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling, and the DEVCOM-ARL-funded Materials Recovery Technology for Defense Supply Resiliency program. These collaborative research centers bring together industry, academic, and government partners and provide students with opportunities to engage in projects focused on recycling, sustainability, and advanced materials processing. 

Professor Mishra’s ability to build and sustain interdisciplinary research efforts is reflected in the substantial external funding he has secured. The programs he leads support a broad network of collaborators, including approximately 10 faculty members as well as 15 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. 

Despite his extensive commitments in research and administration, he teaches multiple courses and has advised Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) teams at the Project Center in Bangkok and currently at the Project Center in Hong Kong. His impact as a mentor is particularly notable: He has supervised or co-supervised 51 PhD students (with two currently in progress), 42 MS theses (with one in progress), and 15 postdoctoral associates (with five currently in progress). 

Professor Mishra’s record reflects exceptional excellence across research, teaching, advising, and service. His impactful scholarship, dedication to student mentorship, and sustained leadership within both the academic and professional communities distinguish him as a truly outstanding academician. In recognition of his outstanding teaching, research and creative scholarship, academic advising, and service to the community, we honor Professor Brajendra Mishra with this prestigious award. 

He has made seminal contributions to understanding jet engine emissions from sustainable aviation fuels, informing aviation operations, military practices, and fuel adoption strategies. In petroleum refining, he developed pathways for processing heavy oils with reduced hydrogen use, lowering carbon intensity. His work in biofuels advanced catalytic conversion and feedstock selection, including insights into biomass reactivity and the use of bamboo as a sustainable resource for efficient energy production.

In circular economy technologies, he has led transformative efforts in waste-to-energy conversion, combining reaction engineering with machine learning to predict process and economic outcomes. His National Science Foundation Idea Machine entry, A World Without Waste, which ranked among the top submissions, helped inspire a subsequent NSF initiative in this area. His work has also resulted in multiple patents, industrial partnerships, and spin-off companies, further extending its real-world impact. Professor Timko is also a co-founder of River Otter, which is commercializing technologies developed in his lab, and serves as a scientific advisor to CemCycle.

Professor Timko has also made important contributions to expanding access and excellence in chemical engineering through his teaching and mentorship. He has taught chemical engineering thermodynamics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has also been an early adopter of data science approaches in chemical engineering education, helping modernize the curriculum, and is now serving as the head of the chemical engineering department. As an advisor, he has supervised or co-supervised eight PhD dissertations, 14 master’s theses, and over 75 MQPs, demonstrating a sustained commitment to student development. In parallel, as a founding member of the Diversity Task Force within the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) from 2020–2023, he developed programming to broaden participation in the field. As co-principal investigator of the NSF NRT-HDR program Data-Driven Sustainable Engineering for a Circular Economy, he has further advanced graduate training by integrating machine learning into chemical engineering education while fostering strong transdisciplinary collaborations across campus. He has also played a central role in building an interdisciplinary research community as a founding member and chair of the Energy Research Group, uniting faculty across departments and coordinating research and educational activities.

In recognition of his contributions to research, education, and professional service, along with his leadership in building inclusive and interdisciplinary communities, we honor Professor Michael Timko with the Board of Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Scholarship.