New & noteworthy
Members from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering — including Ph.D. students Arwa Alanqary, Sulaiman Almatrudi, Alben Rome Bagabaldo, Joy Carpio, Zhe Fu, Abdul Rahman Kreidieh and Han Wang; postdoctoral researcher Hossein Nick Zinat Matin; and professors Alexandre Bayen and Maria Laura Delle Monache — were recently honored with the 2024 IEEE ITSS Institutional Lead Award, recognizing the exemplary leadership and contributions of the CIRCLES Consortium.
Ana Arias, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, has been elevated to the rank of IEEE Fellow for “contributions to printed and flexible large-area electronics.”
Ronald Azuma (B.S.’88 EECS) received the 2025 IEEE VGTC VR Technical Achievement Award in recognition of his seminal contributions to the field of augmented reality, his widely adopted definition of augmented reality systems and his development of technology for mixed reality headsets and computational displays.
Junzhe Cao (B.S.’24 CE) received the Outstanding Civil Engineering Student Award at the 2024 ASCE San Francisco Section Project Awards.
Assistant professor Natacha Crooks and affiliate Song Mei of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences have been awarded Sloan Research Fellowships.
Pablo Piñeiro Cruz (M.S.’21 IEOR) oversees operations at Zipline, where drones are reshaping healthcare access across Africa by delivering vaccines, blood supplies and essential medicines to health facilities in Ghana, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Nigeria.
Civil and environmental engineering assistant professor Maria Laura Delle Monache was named the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) Faculty of the Year, in recognition of her research, teaching and service excellence within the ITS community.
Reginald DesRoches (B.S.’90 ME; M.S.’93, Ph.D.’98 CEE), president of Rice University, has been elected to the 2025 class of distinguished members of the American Society of Civil Engineers, one of the organization’s highest honors. Fewer than 700 civil engineers have received the honor since it was established in 1853.
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has inducted eight new members into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni: Hilmi Turan Durgunoglu (M.S.’69, Ph.D.’72 CE), Filip Filippou (Ph.D.’83 CE), Carl Holmes (B.S.’13 CE), Jim Levine (M.S.’79 CE), Lindsey Maclise (B.S.’05, M.S.’06 CE), Rafael Sabelli (M.S.’93 CE), John W. Wallace (M.S.’84, Ph.D.’89 CE) and Marlene Watson (M.S.’90 CE). In addition, professors emeriti Tor Brekke and Joe W. Johnson were inducted posthumously.
Ioannis Emiris (M.S.’91, Ph.D.’94 EECS), professor of informatics at University of Athens, is concluding a four-year term as president of the board of directors and CEO of Athena Research Center, Greece.
Dan Garcia (M.S.’95, Ph.D.’00 CS), electrical engineering and computer sciences teaching professor, was recognized with UC Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the campus’s highest honor for teaching excellence. Department chair Claire Tomlin noted that his teaching innovations have set standards across the department, as well as “influenced the teaching of computer science, both nationally and internationally.”
Anouck Girard (Ph.D.’02 ME) is the next chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Daytona Beach College of Engineering.
Andrea Goldsmith (B.S.’86, M.S.’91, Ph.D.’94 EECS) has been named the new president of Stony Brook University. In addition, she has been named an international fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, as well as the recipient of the IEEE Mildred Dresselhaus Medal.
Marta Gonzalez, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, was awarded the 2024 Lagrange-CRT Foundation Prize, the highest international award for complex systems and data science, for developing new methods to make cities more livable, less polluted and more resilient to extreme weather events.
Grace Gu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Sergey Levine, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences; and Grace O’Connell, professor of mechanical engineering, have been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government to scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers. Tomi Akindele (Ph.D.’18 NE), Mohit Bansal (Ph.D.’13 EECS), Holly Carlton (B.S.’05 EngSci; M.S.’08, Ph.D.’11 MSE), Chelsea Finn (Ph.D.’18 EECS) and Dorsa Sadigh (Ph.D.’17 EECS) were also named among this year’s PECASE recipients.
Civil and environmental engineering professors Mark Hansen and Raja Sengupta — along with doctoral students Emin Burak Onat, Shangqing (Albert) Cao and Xuan Jiang; undergrad Raiyan Rizwan; and Supernal engineer Anjan Chakrabarty — won the Best Paper Award in the trajectories and networks track at ICRAT.
Sunni Ivey, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is a recipient of the UC Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence and Equity. She was recognized for her transformative research on air quality and environmental justice, inclusive teaching, curriculum design and mentorship of underrepresented STEM scholars.
Jamey Jacob (Ph.D.’95 ME) was appointed executive director of the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education and named regents professor at Oklahoma State University.
Michael I. Jordan, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and of statistics, has been named a Frontiers of Knowledge Laureate in recognition of his work around the mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence.
Daniel Kammen, professor of nuclear engineering, of energy and of public policy, and Robert Ritchie, professor of materials science and engineering and of mechanical engineering, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Boubacar Kanté, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, has been elected as an Optica Fellow, one of the highest honors in the field of optics and photonics. He was recognized “for creating and demonstrating new concepts in modern electromagnetics, particularly a path toward very-high-power, broad-area single-mode semiconductor lasers.”
Mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors.
Yasser Khan (Ph.D.’18 EECS), assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Southern California, has been named a 2024 Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering. His research is focused on creating a closed-loop miniaturized sensor network of brain implants and ingestible sensors to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and gastrointestinal disorders.
Albert Lew (B.S.’05 CEE) completed the Abbott World Marathon Major Six Star Journey in April, becoming the first Monterey Park, CA, resident to complete the Berlin, Chicago, Tokyo, London, New York and Boston marathons. He joins an estimated 0.00025% of the world population who have accomplished this feat.
Mark Liu (M.S.’81, Ph.D.’83 EECS), former executive chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), was awarded the Pan Wen-Yuan Prize, which recognizes people who have made significant contributions to Taiwan’s technology industry.
Electrical engineering and computer sciences Ph.D. student Tahmid Mahbub has been named a recipient of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which provides merit-based funding for immigrants and children of immigrants to pursue graduate education in the United States.
Neeka Mashouf (B.S.’18 MSE/Business) was named as one of the top 10 innovators for the Young Inventors Prize 2025, an award created by the European Patent Office. She and her sister, Leila Mashouf, co-founded Rubi, a startup pioneering the next era of manufacturing with technology that transforms waste carbon into essential materials. Together, they invented a manufacturing system that works in harmony with the planet and requires 10 times less energy than thermochemical methods.
Johanna Mathieu (M.S.’08, Ph.D.’12 ME) has been named the recipient of the 2024 C3E Fundamental and Applied Research Award, which recognizes women leading efforts in the clean energy field in the U.S. and across the globe.
Kristi McKenney (M.S.’89 CE) was appointed as the first female executive director of the Port of Oakland. Previously, she served as the port’s chief operating officer.
Phillip Messersmith, professor of bioengineering and of materials science and engineering, was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his work in wet biological adhesion and biologically inspired materials. He was also honored as one of the Rock Stars of Regenerative Engineering at the annual conference for the American Chemical Society.
Eyitayo Opabola, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Kenneth Elwood (Ph.D.’02 CEE) have been awarded the Earthquake and Engineering Research Institute’s 2024 Outstanding Paper Award for their study, “Seismic design of concrete structures for damage control.”
Electrical engineering and computer sciences professor Jan Rabaey has won the 2025 IEEE James H. Mulligan Jr. Education Medal “for worldwide impact in integrated circuits and systems through inspirational teaching, textbook development and visionary leadership.” In addition, he was also selected as the winner of the John Choma Education Award from the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society “for his contributions to education and leadership in integrated circuits and systems.”
Jasenka Rakas, continuing lecturer of civil and environmental engineering, has been elected to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Class of 2025 Associate Fellows.
Electrical engineering and computer sciences professor Stuart Russell has been awarded the AAAI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity “for his work on the conceptual and theoretical foundations of provably beneficial AI and his leadership in creating the field of AI safety.”
Professor Sayeef Salahuddin and adjunct professor Vladimir Stojanovic of electrical engineering and computer sciences have been named to the National Semiconductor Technology Center’s inaugural Technical Advisory Board (TAB). Alums Ahmad Bahai (Ph.D.’93 EECS) and Joe Greco (M.S.’90 EECS) were also named to the TAB board, which will guide Natcast in identifying critical industry challenges and emerging research opportunities.
Civil and environmental engineering professor Nick Sitar has been recognized with the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Alum Junzhe Cao (B.S.’24 CE) and undergrad Elisa Woodham were also honored with ASCE awards for their exceptional contributions to civil engineering.
Dawn Song (Ph.D.’02 CS), professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The 2025 UC Berkeley Achievement Awards have honored computer science professor Ion Stoica with the Fiat Lux Faculty Award. Additionally, EECS alums Valerie Taylor (M.S.’86, Ph.D.’91 EECS) and Meng-Hsiung Kiang (M.S’92, Ph.D.’97 EECS) were selected for the Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award and John Schulman (Ph.D.’16 CS) for the Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement by Young Alumni.
Associate professor of bioengineering Aaron Streets has been named to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering for “developing innovative technology to elucidate genome regulation with single-cell and molecule resolution and for impactful leadership to diversify bioengineering.”
Dennis Sylvester (M.S.’97, Ph.D.’99 EECS), a leading researcher in ultra-low power IC design, has been named chair of the electrical and computer engineering division at the University of Michigan.
Postdoctoral researcher Ewin Tang has been awarded the Mirazkhani New Frontiers Prize for “developing classical analogs of quantum algorithms for machine learning and linear algebra, and for advances in quantum machine learning on quantum data.” A Miller Fellow, she is affiliated with the Simons Institute’s Research Pod on Quantum Computing.
Masayoshi Tomizuka, professor of mechanical engineering, has been elected as an international fellow of the Engineering Academy of Japan.
David Urban (M.S.’85, Ph.D.’87), branch chief at the NASA Glenn Research Center, received the Founder’s Award at the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research conference.
Nuclear engineering professor Kai Vetter has been honored with Berkeley Lab’s Director’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of his “career-spanning achievements in radiation detection and imaging, his impact on science and society, and his commitment to developing the next generation of scientific leaders.”
The Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research has selected Tony Xu (B.S.’07 IEOR), co-founder and CEO of DoorDash, for the department’s inaugural Berkeley IEOR Alumni Achievement Award.
Bioengineering professor Michael Yartsev has been given the 2025 Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his “pivotal contributions to advance our understanding the neural basis of natural behaviors.”
The Berkeley Center for New Media’s Hannah Zeavin, assistant professor of history, was awarded a 2024 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant for her forthcoming book “All Freud’s Children: A Story of Inheritance.”
Zeyu Zheng, associate professor of industrial engineering and operations research, has been honored with the inaugural Peter D. Welch Early Career Award by the INFORMS Simulation Society, which recognizes early-career researchers for their exceptional contributions to the field of simulation.
Franco Zunino, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, has won the Le Chatelier Distinguished Paper Award from “Cement and Concrete Research.”
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