2022 Trustees’ Celebration of Faculty Achievement

FACULTY PROMOTIONS

Tenure Track

Promoted to Full Professor

Shawn Burdette, Chemistry and Biochemistry

James Cocola, Humanities and Arts

N. Aaron Deskins, Chemical Engineering

Michelle Ephraim, Humanities and Arts

Michael Timko, Chemical Engineering

Karen Troy, Biomedical Engineering

Luis Vidali, Biology and Biotechnology

Promoted to Associate Professor

Ronald Grimm, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Amity Manning, Biology and Biotechnology

Erin Ottmar, Social Sciences and Policy Studies

Erin Solovey, Computer Science

Jacob Whitehill, Computer Science

Tenured

Ronald Grimm, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Amity Manning, Biology and Biotechnology

Erin Ottmar, Social Sciences and Policy Studies

Erin Solovey, Computer Science

Qingshuo Song, Mathematical Sciences

Jacob Whitehill, Computer Science

Yu Zhong, Mechanical Engineering

Teaching/Research Track

Promoted to Teaching Professor

Esther Boucher-Yip, Humanities and Arts

Drew Brodeur, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Joseph Cullon, Humanities and Arts

Thomas Gannon, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Uma Kumar, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Rodica Neamtu, Computer Science

Promoted to Associate Professor

Robert Daniello, Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Althea Danielski, Humanities and Arts

Wen-Hua Du, Humanities and Arts

John Galante, Humanities and Arts

Hektor Kashuri, Physics

Joshua Rohde, Humanities and Arts

Wilson Wong, Computer Science

Promoted to Senior Instructor

Joshua Cuneo, Computer Science

Promoted to Teaching Path to Tenure

Laila Abu-Lail, Chemical Engineering

Joseph Aguilar, Humanities and Arts

Joseph Cullon, Humanities and Arts

John Michael Davis, DIGS

Lindsay Davis, Humanities and Arts

Wen-Hua Du, Humanities and Arts

Katherine Foo, DIGS

Rudra Kafle, Physics

Koksal Mus, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Buddika Peiris, Math

Pradeep Radhakrishnan, Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Louis Roberts, Biology and Biotechnology

Joshua Rohde, Humanities and Arts

Derren Rosbach, DIGS

Ahmet Can Sabuncu, Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Izabela Stroe, Physics

WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AWARDS

Esther Boucher-Yip, Humanities and Arts, 2022 President’s IQP Award, Help the Soup Kitchen ‘Go Green’, Students: Lali Berelashvili, Samantha Braun, Cal Lebak, Colette Webster. Advisors: Esther Boucher-Yip and Gary Pollice
Sabuncu Can, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Romeo L. Moruzzi Young Faculty Award
Mohammed El Hamzaoui, Humanities and Arts, 2022 President’s IQP Award, Digital Preservation of Artisanal Culture in the Fez Medina Students: Abigael Kihu, Heather McGlauflin, Julia Toplyn, Krya Tripp, Advisors: Joseph Doiron and Mohammed El Hamzaoui
Michael Elmes, WPI Business School, Chair's Exemplary Faculty Prize
George Heineman, Computer Science, Trustees' Award for Outstanding Teaching
Robert Hyers, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, George I. Alden Professor and Head
Dmitry Korkin, Computer Science, Trustees' Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Scholarship
Shana Lessing, Humanities and Arts, 2022 President’s IQP Award, Power, Responsibility, and Justice in Research with Indigenous Communities, Students: Melissa Hauman, Samantha Havel, Logan Rinaldi, Advisors: Shana Lessing and Yunus Dogan Telliel
Patricia Mussachio, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Leonard P. Kinnicutt Assistant Professor (through June 30, 2025)
Svetlana Nikitina, Humanities and Arts, 2022 President’s IQP Award, Indoor Navigation for Blind Individuals Using Computer Vision & Machine Learning, Students: Hao Chen, Alexander Demirs, Kelsey Leach, Samuel Mather, John Winship, Advisors: Ivan Mardilovich and Svetlana Nikitina
Zoe Reidinger, Biomedical Engineering, Denise Nicoletti Trustees' Award for Service to the Community
Catherine Whittington, Biomedical Engineering, Romeo L. Moruzzi Young Faculty Award
Alexander Wyglinski, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Trustees' Award for Outstanding Academic Advising

National Recognition

Christina Bailey-Hytholt, Chemical Engineering, Named Forbes' 30 Under 30 List

Danielle Cote, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, NASA Early Career Faculty Award

Bashima Islam, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Named Forbes' 30 Under 30 List

Yan Wang, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Elected to the NAI 2022 Class of Senior Members

Professional Society Fellows and Awards

Professorships

Danielle Cote, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Russell M. Searle Instructorship in Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Aswin Gnanaskandan, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, MME James Nichols Heald Award
Debora Jackson, WPI Business School, Harry G. Stoddard Endowed Professorship in Management
Fiona Levey, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, PBL Faculty Fellowship for 2023
E. Vance Wilson, WPI Business School, Association for Information Systems (AIS) Distinguished Member Cum Laude
Sarah Wodin-Schwartz, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Morgan Distinguished Instructorship
Yu Zhong, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, MME James Nichols Heald Award

Other

Kristen Billiar, Biomedical Engineering, Co-Chair Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting
Kristen Billiar, Biomedical Engineering, SB3C Foundation President
Danielle Cote, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, TMS Early Career Faculty Fellow
John Galante, Humanities and Arts, Appointed to the Executive Committee of the New England Council of Latin American Studies
Diana Lados, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, President of Alpha Sigma Mu
Diana Lados, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, 2022 Chair of the ASM International - Nominating Committee
Kyumin Lee, Computer Science, Air Force Research Lab Summer Faculty Fellow
David Medich, Physics, Elected Fellow, Health Physics Society
Chun-Kit Ngan, Data Science. Fellow, Microsoft Visiting Data Science Education Program (Summer 2022, 1 month)
George Pins, Biomedical Engineering. American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering Fellow
George Pins, Biomedical Engineering, Named to the Leadership Advisory Council, ARMI - Biofab USA
George Pins, Biomedical Engineering, Named to the Editorial Board, Exploration of BioMat-X
George Pins, Biomedical Engineering, Co-chaired, Biomaterials Track, BMES National Meeting
George Pins, Biomedical Engineering, Elected to American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows
Reeta Rao, Biology and Biotechnology, Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Laura Roberts, DIGS, Engaged Scholars Initiative
Marsha Rolle, Biomedical Engineering, Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute Leadership Advisory Council
Karen Troy, Biomedical Engineering, Orthopaedic Research Society Adele L. Boskey Award
Karen Troy, Biomedical Engineering, Sigma Xi Outstanding Senior Faculty Award
Yan Wang, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Better World Project Award from AUTM, the Association of University Technology Managers.

Selected Distinctions

Tian Guo, Computer Science, 2022 Outstanding Achievement by Young Alum Award, Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst
Rudra Kafle, Physics, Scientific Committee and Division Chair of Physics Education Research in Association of Nepali Physicists in America for annual international conferences
Renata Konrad, WPI Business School Associate Professor of Operations and Industrial Engineering Renata Konrad was the Keynote Speaker in the CORS/INFORMS International Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in June 2022 for her work related to Ukraine
Kate McIntyre, Humanities and Arts, Kate McIntyre’s story collection, Mad Prairie, was selected for the long list (top ten) for the PEN America/Robert W. Bingham Prize
Balgobin Nandram, Mathematical Sciences, Received two awards for excellence from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The first award is a team award for the CASH RENTS TEAM. The second award, solely to Bal Nandram, was a Cooperator of the Year Award for his outstanding contributions in service to the Research and Development Division
Joseph Sarkis, WPI Business School, Professor of Operations Joseph Sarkis was ranked #5 in the World, #4 in the United States, in the first edition of top scientists ranking for all Business and Management by Research.com
Richard Sisson, Mechanical and Materials Engineering. James I. Mueller Memorial Lecture at the American Ceramic Society
Stephan Sturm, Mathematical Sciences, Received a conference grant from Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and Co-Organized the 2022 Gene Golub SIAM Summer School on Financial Analytics
Burt Tilley, Mathematical Sciences, Organized the 38th Annual Mathematical Problems in Industry (MPI) Workshop held at WPI in June 22
Catherine Whittington, Biomedical Engineering, Genentech Research Award

Editorials and Publications

Daniel DiMassa, Humanities and Arts, "Dante in Deutschland" An Itinerary of Romantic Myth, Bucknell University Press
Holger Droessler, Humanities and Arts, Coconut Colonialism: Workers and the Globalization of Samoa, Harvard Historical Studies
Brent Faber, Biomedical Engineering, The End of Genre: Curations & Experiments in Intentional Discourses. London, Palgrave MacMillan. Ebook with SpringerNature. 2022
John Galante, Humanities and Arts, On the Other Shore: The Atlantic Words of Italians during the Great War, University of Nebraska Press
Roger Gottlieb, Humanities and Arts, The Sacrifice Zone, has been awarded a Nautilus Book Award for fiction.
Songbai Ji, Biomedical Engineering, Best Paper Annals of Biomedical Engineering, "Ranking and Rating Bicycle Helmet Safety Performance in Oblique Impacts Using Eight Different Brain Models"
Kyumin Lee, Computer Science, Honorable Mention, Test of Time Award, International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (SIGIR)
Jennifer McWeeny, Humanities and Arts, Feminist Philosophy of Mind, ed. Keya Maitra and Jennifer McWeeny, Oxford University Press, 2022
Geoff Pfeifer, Humanities and Arts, Co-edited book: The Politics of Desire: Deleuze, Foucault, and Psychoanalysis (eds Columbo, McGushin, Pfeifer). Rowman and Littlefield International
Adam Powell, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Conference Best Paper Award: https://applied-energy.org/mitab2022/program
Jennifer Rudolph, Humanities and Arts, The China Questions 2: Critical Insights into US-China Relations, by Maria Adele Carrai (Editor), Jennifer Rudolph (Editor), Michael Szonyi. Harvard University Press.
Sarah Wodin-Schwartz, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, ASEE Best Division Paper, New Engineering Educators Division
Jamal Yagoobi, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Associate editor of Processes journal (effective July 2022)
Jamal Yagoobi, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Associate editor of Drying Technology journal (effective July 2022)

Patent Inventors and Patents

Dirk Albrecht, Biomedical Engineering, U.S. Patent number 11,248,995 Hydrogel Encapsulation of Living Organisms for Long-Term Microscopy
Dirk Albrecht, Biomedical Engineering, U.S. Patent number 11,249,100 Modular Robotic Systems for Delivering Fluid to Microfluidic Devices
Chris Brown, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, U.S. Patent number 11,445,784 Adjustable Response Elastic Kinetic Energy Converter And Storage Field System For A Footwear Appliance
Danielle Cote, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, "Cold sprayed radiation shielding"
Robert Hyers, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Patent application published: "Novel architectures for high-throughput additive manufacturing"
Yitzhak Mendelson, Biomedical Engineering, U.S. Patent number 11,266,373 Devices and Methods for Measuring Vascular Deficiency
Erin Ottmar, Social Science and Policy Studies, U.S. Patent 11,436,714 Method and Apparatus for Estimating Emotional Quality Using Machine Learning
Marsha Rolle, Biomedical Engineering, U.S. Patent 11,485,964 B2 Coated Cell Culture Apparatus and Methods of Use
Marsha Rolle, Biomedical Engineering, U.S. Patent 11,273,236 Engineered Tissue Constructs
Marsha Rolle, Biomedical Engineering, U.S. Patent 11,471,565 B2 Engineered Tissue Constructs
Michael Timko, Chemical Engineering, U.S. Patent 11,286,432 Hydrothermal Liquefaction for Biomass
Geoffrey Tompsett, Chemical Engineering, U.S. Patent 11,286,432 Hydrothermal Liquefaction for Biomass
Yan Wang, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, U.S. Patent 11,502,345 Method and Apparatus for Recycling Lithium-Ion Batteries
Jamal Yagoobi, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Atomizing Spray Dryer technology, US Patent application number 17/853,152, was licensed to Bright Feeds in June 2022
Kai Zhang, Biomedical Engineering, Licensed by AiM Robotics

Outreach Achievements

Jamal Yagoobi, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Chaired the 22nd International Drying Symposium in June 2022 at WPI (last one in the US was held at MIT in 1986)

Grant Recipients

Emmanuel Agu, Computer Science, National Institutes of Health (NIH): Smartphone-based wound infection screener and care recommender by combining thermal images and photographs using deep learning methods ($660,171)
Tulu Bengisu, WPI Business School, Management Information System Professors Diane Strong and Bengisu Tulu were awarded a $2.5M NIH grant to develop a mobile wound-infection screener using deep learning methods.
Tulu Bengisu, WPI Business School, Management Information System Professors Bengisu Tulu and Soussan Djamasbi were awarded a $461K NIH grant to improve patient care in cases of severe acute brain injury.
Tulu Bengisu, WPI Business School, Management Information System Professors Bengisu Tulu and Soussan Djamasbi were awarded a $774K NIH grant to develop an intervention for perinatal depression.
Francesca Bernardi, Mathematical Sciences, National Science Foundation (NSF): Collaborative Research: Prechlorination, aging, and backwashing effects on spatiotemporal ultrafiltration fouling: Optimizing productivity by combining experiments and theory ($109,767)
Francesca Bernardi, Mathematical Sciences, Awarded two grants for Girls Talk Math at WPI. Girls Talk Math (GTM) is a free two-week mathematics & media day camp with activities that embody WPI's motto of theory and practice and took place at WPI in Summer 22
John-Michael Davis, DIGS, NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership
Robert Dempski, Chemistry and Biochemistry, National Institutes of Health (NIH): The role of ZIP12 in zinc homeostasis and associated neurodegenerative pathologies ($416,354)
Soussan Djamasbi, WPI Business School, Management Information System Professors Bengisu Tulu and Soussan Djamasbi were awarded a $461K NIH grant to improve patient care in cases of severe acute brain injury.
Soussan Djamasbi, WPI Business School, Management Information System Professors Bengisu Tulu and Soussan Djamasbi were awarded a $774K NIH grant to develop an intervention for perinatal depression.
Carrick Eggleston, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, NSF Land Use in Regional Sustainability Transitions
Lauren Elgert, DIGS, New American Foundation, Public Interest Technology Network
Natalie Farny, Biology and Biotechnology, National Institutes of Health (NIH): Identification of Genetic Suppressors of Stress Granules ($147,257)
Katherine Foo, DIGS, NSF To be Truly Regenerative, we must be reparative
Fatemeh Ganji, Electrical and Computer Engineering, ERI: Foundations of Machine Learning for Side Channel Analysis” $195k
Fatemeh Ganji, Electrical and Computer Engineering, EPRI award “Physical and Statistical Analysis of Hardware-based Reference Signatures” ($172k)
Ulkihan Guler, Electrical and Computer Engineering, CAREER: LUCO: A Noninvasive Miniaturized Blood Gas Sensor for Respiration Monitoring” $500k
Ulkihan Guler, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Novel Computational Models for Smart Wearable Blood Gas Monitor for Infants” (NSF/CISE/OAC/CDS&E) for $499,341
Lane Harrison, Computer Science, National Science Foundation (NSF): Collaborative Research: CCRI: New: reVISit: Scalable Empirical Evaluation of Interactive Visualization ($747,283)
Scott Jiusto, DIGS, NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership
Dmitry Korkin, Computer Science, National Institutes of Health (NIH): Predicting the functional impact of alternative splicing on protein interations using an integrated approach ($1,291,970)
Courtney Kurlanska, DIGS, DEIJ Project Grant "Responsible Representation: Assession Cultural Competency for Equity and Inclusion in Student Posters"
Christopher J Larsen, Mathematical Sciences, National Science Foundation (NSF): Variational fracture with loads ($271,932)
Xiaozhong Liu, Computer Science, National Science Foundation (NSF): Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Audacity of Exploration: Toward Automated Discovery of Security Flaws in Networked Systems through Intelligent Documentation Analysis ($349,276)
Xiaozhong Liu, Computer Science, National Science Foundation (NSF): SCISIPBIO: Constructing Heterogeneous Scholarly Graphs to Examine Social Capital During Mentored K Awardees Transition to Research Independence: Explicating a Matthew Mechanism ($249,456)
Amity Manning, Biology and Biotechnology, NSF CAREER Award: Characterization of epigenetic factors and their regulatory roles in modulating mitotic fidelity ($1,112,526)
Steven McCauley, DIGS, NSF Land Use in Regional Sustainability Transitions
David C Medich, Physics, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC): WPI Nuclear Leadership Fellowship Program ($399,942)
Balgobin Nandram, Mathematical Sciences, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS, USDA): Bayesian Models for Cash Rents and Planted Acres of U.S. Counties ($224,882)
Inna Nechipurenko, Biology and Biotechnology, Hood Foundation, Understanding How Ciliary Signaling Regulates Neuronal Development and Function ($200,000)
Erin Ottmar, Social Science and Policy Studies, NSF CAREER Award: Grasping Understandings of Students Mathematical and Perceptual Strategies Using Real-Time Teacher Orchestration Tools
Guanying Peng, Mathematical Sciences, National Science Foundation (NSF): From differential inclusions to variational problems: theory and applications ($197,999)
Derren Rosbach, DIGS, Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Develop Designs & Propose Licensing Strategies for Next Generation University Research Microreactors
Patrick Schaumont, Electrical and Computer Engineering, CISCO Systems Grant
Patrick Schaumont, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Collaborative: FMitF: Track I: A Principled Approach to Modeling and Analysis of Hardware Fault Attacks on Embedded Software” ($375k to WPI)
Patrick Schaumont, Electrical and Computer Engineering, EPRI award “Physical and Statistical Analysis of Hardware-based Reference Signatures” ($172k)
Mimi Sheller, DIGS, NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership
Albert Simeoni, Fire Protection Engineering, $514,981 From CAL FIRE to develop computational tools for protecting homes from wildfires
Sarah Stanlick, DIGS, NSF To be Truly Regenerative, we must be reparative
Sarah Stanlick, DIGS, NSF Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier
Sarah Stanlick, DIGS, The Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative, Co-Director
Lisa Stoddard, DIGS, NSF Land Use in Regional Sustainability Transitions
Sarah Strauss, DIGS, NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership
Diane Strong, WPI Business School, Management Information System Professors Diane Strong and Bengisu Tulu were awarded a $2.5M NIH grant to develop a mobile wound-infection screener using deep learning methods
Shahin Tajik, Electrical and Computer Engineering, NSF/SaTC for funding “Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Small: ERADICATOR: Techniques for Laser Assisted Side-Channel Attack Monitor & Response” (total amount: $497,144, WPI share: $263,484)
Shahin Tajik, Electrical and Computer Engineering, CISCO Systems Grant
Shahin Tajik, Electrical and Computer Engineering, EPRI award “Physical and Statistical Analysis of Hardware-based Reference Signatures” ($172k)
Yunus Telliel, DIGS, New American Foundation, Public Interest Technology Network
Andrew Trapp, WPI Business School, Associate Professor of Operations and Industrial Engineering Andrew Trapp received a $1.1M National Science Foundation Grant to mobilize nonprofit resources using a tool for purpose-driven work.
Karen Troy, Biomedical Engineering, NIH Grant
Seth Tuler, DIGS, NSF-INFEWS
Seth Tuler, DIGS, NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership
Seth Tuler, DIGS, NSF Land Use in Regional Sustainability Transitions
James Urban, Fire Protection Engineering, $514,981 From CAL FIRE to develop computational tools for protecting homes from wildfires
James Urban, Fire Protection Engineering, $200,000 from National Science Foundation to study the impact of non-steady wind on wildfires
James Urban, Fire Protection Engineering, $320,683 Sub-award as part of a multi-institution $1,575,000 Grant From FEMA to develop a novel toxic gas sensor for the fire service. Project lead: UCLA, collaborator: UTSA
Luis Vidali, Biology and Biotechnology, National Science Foundation (NSF): Collaborative Research: Regulation of exocytic membrane trafficking required for cytokinesis and polarized cell expansion ($449,996)
Samuel Walcott, Mathematical Sciences, National Science Foundation (NSF): IntBIO: Linking genome to phenome to understand function of an ancient muscle myosin ($2,134,685)
Robert Walls, Computer Science, National Science Foundation (NSF): Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Compiler-Assisted Embedded Security ($612,648)
Guanying Wang, Mathematical Sciences, National Science Foundation (NSF): Optimal Contracts and Optimal Stopping ($260,000)
Min Wu, Mathematical Sciences, NSF CAREER Award: Probing multiscale growth dynamics in filamentous cell walls
Seyed Zekavat, Physics, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA): Mesoscale AI-based root-zone soil moisture monitoring for efficient farm irrigation ($1,172,896)
Haichong Zhang , Biomedical Engineering, NIH Grant
Patricia Musacchio Zhang, Chemistry and Biochemistry, National Institutes of Health (NIH): Mild Strategies in the Direct Generation of Carbocation Intermediates from C(sp3)–H Bonds ($1,836,375)