FACULTY NEWS
FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS Seven engineering faculty members were awarded promotion and tenure in 2019-2020. Faculty promoted to full professor James Stiles, electrical engineering and computer science Faculty promoted to associate professor with tenure Juan Bravo Suárez, chemical and petroleum engineering Masoud Darabi, civil, environmental and architectural engineering
Huazhen Fang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received faculty fellowship from the Army Research Lab. Ken Fischer, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the bioengineering program, was appointed a KU Senior Administrative Fellow in 2019. David Griffin, chemical and petroleum engineering undergraduate laboratory director, was selected as the 2020 recipient of the Bob & Kathie Taylor Excellence in Teaching Award.
Huazhen Fang, mechanical engineering Alexandra Kondyli, civil, environmental and architectural engineering Brian Lines, civil, environmental and architectural engineering Guanghui Wang, civil, environmental and architectural engineering
Perry Alexander, distinguished professor of electrical engineering and computer science, won the Irvin E. Younberg Award in Applied Sciences, a Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Award.
Jie Han, professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, and Bob Parsons, professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, received the Sweet 16 Research Award from the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials for a project on design and load rate of buried culverts and pipes. Han also won the Robert M. Koerner Award from the Geosynthetic Materials Association and was nominated to the GeoInstitute Board of Governors. Admin Husic, assistant professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, was selected as an NSF National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Early Career Scholar.
Christopher Allen, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Blake Bryant, professor of practice in electrical engineering and computer science, finished in the top five in a Department of Defense hackathon in June 2020.
Shawn Keshmiri, professor of aerospace engineering, was one of nine KU faculty members awarded funding from KU’s Center for Undergraduate Research to enhance research opportunities for more students through new classroom initiatives promoting best practices, sharing learning models and refining the focus of their classes.
Alan Allgeier, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, received a two-year, $110,000 grant from the American Chemical Society and a one-year, $43,000 grant from the Kansas Corn Commission.
Alexandra Kondyli, associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, received the Greek Diaspora Fellowship to work with the National Technical University of Athens.
Dave Darwin, distinguished professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, was named an “Icon of Education” by Ingram’s Magazine in March 2020.
Carlton Leuschen, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, was named director of KU’s Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) in February 2020.
Chris Depcik, professor of mechanical engineering, was named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Jian Li, associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, was named a Rising Star in Civil and Structural Engineering by the Zweig Group.
14 | FALL 2020
