Engineering Dean's Faculty Awards
Outstanding Engineering Junior Faculty Award
Zhendong Su, Computer Science
Zhendong Su, associate professor of computer science, is recognized for the significant, novel and practical contributions he has made to his research areas: programming languages, software engineering and computer security. He has done important research in detection, analysis and prevention of malicious code by developing automated tools that reduce the cost of debugging to improve programming productivity, firewall modeling techniques to improve network security and performance, and software analysis techniques and tools for scientific software to detect common errors involving numerical computation.
Professor Su's work is grounded in practical software engineering problems and very likely to have a broad impact on society. He received a prestigious NSF CAREER Award in 2006, is a co-principal investigator on two other NSF awards, a co-PI on a DARPA grant, and sole PI on a Department of Energy award.
In addition to the high level of productive research he has achieved so early in his career, Professor Su has a strong publishing record and is respected as a tough and effective, sought-out teacher.
Posted: 11/13/07
Outstanding Engineering Mid-Career Research Award
Kwan-Liu Ma, Computer Science
Kwan-Liu Ma's research in large data and interactive visualization has made important contributions to scientific computing, in both basic and applied research in scientific visualization and information visualization. The novel visualization techniques he and his students have developed help scientists in a number of disciplines to better understand the vast amounts of data produced by their large-scale simulations. The impact of this work is substantial because it has led to coherent visualization at unprecedented clarity, precision and interactivity, enabling scientists to validate their work, to discover, and to advance science.
Professor Ma is considered a major leader in the visualization community, with pioneering publications in a number of important areas. In September 2006, he received a 5-year $8 million award from the Department of Energy to lead the SciDAC Institute for Ultrascale Visualization.
Posted: 11/13/07
Outstanding Engineering Senior Career Research Award
Alexandra Navrotsky, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
Alexandra Navrotsky is the Distinguished Interdisciplinary Professor of Ceramic, Earth and Environmental Materials Chemistry and the Edward Roessler Chair in Mathematical and Physical Sciences. She also holds a joint appointment in four departments in three colleges: the College of Engineering in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, the College of Letters and Science in the departments of Chemistry and Geology, and in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in Land, Air and Water Resources. She has published 467 journal papers, 9 books and 66 review papers or book chapters.
Professor Navrotsky has been recognized through numerous awards, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth Sciences.
Her work has had a significant impact in materials science and engineering, ceramics, thermodynamics, crystal chemistry, solid state chemistry, and the fundamentals of structural chemistry and chemical bonding in solids.
Posted: 11/13/07
Outstanding Engineering Faculty Teaching Award
Tonya Kuhl, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
This is not the first time Tonya Kuhl has been honored for her innovative approach to instruction; she received the Academic Senate Distinguished Award, the highest award for teaching bestowed by faculty at UC Davis. She was named a Chancellor's Fellow in 2006, recognition for professors early in their careers who have already distinguished themselves in teaching, research and public service. In 2004-2005, she was voted Professor of the Year by the undergraduate students in her department, and she is the Jeff and Dianne Child/Steve Whitaker Distinguished Teacher Scholar.
Professor Kuhl has been instrumental in developing summer coursework and laboratories that shorten the time it takes for students to complete their degree coursework. Her enthusiastic mentoring has invigorated the student chapter of AIChE and has earned her the profound admiration of her students. She was recently recognized nationally as the 2007 AIChE Outstanding Student Chapter Advisor.
Posted: 11/13/07