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, 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.

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.

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.

Dave Darwin, distinguished professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, was named an “Icon of Education” by Ingram’s Magazine in March 2020.

Chris Depcik, professor of mechanical engineering, was named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 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.

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.

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.

Alexandra Kondyli, associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, received the Greek Diaspora Fellowship to work with the National Technical University of Athens.

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.

Jian Li, associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, was named a Rising Star in Civil and Structural Engineering by the Zweig Group.

Karen Nordheden, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, received a prestigious Chancellors Club Teaching Professorship in 2019, which recognizes outstanding KU educators for their dedication to excellence.

Bob Parsons, professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, received a prestigious Chancellors Club Teaching Professorship in 2019, which recognizes outstanding KU educators for their dedication to excellence.

Steve Randtke, professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, was inducted as a Fellow by the Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors. He was also elected vice president of the American Water Works Association.

Mark Shiflett, Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, was awarded a $577,391 RAPID Manufacturing Institute grant from the Department of Energy.

Suzanne Shontz, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, is principal investigator on a $251,147 grant from the Army Research Office for a project titled “Graphics Processing Unit Infrastructure for Massively Parallel Computing Research.”

KU’s 2019 David Shulenburger Award for Innovation & Advocacy in Scholarly Communication was awarded posthumously to James Sterbenz, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. Sterbenz passed away in February 2019.

Belinda Sturm, a professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, was one of three KU faculty members selected as an associate vice chancellor for KU’s Office of Research. She also was co-author on a paper that received the Water Environment Research 2019 Best Paper Award. Elaina Sutley, assistant professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, was recognized with an Early-Career Research Fellowship from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in 2019. She also received a $367,889 award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in renewed funding for the Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning.

Candan Tamerler, associate dean for engineering research and professor of mechanical engineering, will serve a four-year term as a member of the Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering Study Section, Center for Scientific Review.

Andrew Williams, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion, was selected to the Association for Computing Machinery’s Education Advisory Committee.

Susan Williams, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, received the Del Shankel Teaching Excellence Award from KU Athletics.

Photo by Cody Howard

NASCAR driver Tyler Reddick, seated, prepares to take the Jayhawk Motorsports Formula car for a spin on KU’s West Campus during a visit in October 2019.