2017-2018 Faculty Awards and Honors

At the end of each academic year, we compile a list of awards and honors CBE students and faculty received throughout the year. A few are reported in separate web site news articles but most are not. What follows is a compilation of the 2017-2018 faculty awards.

Since the collective faculty gave numerous distinguished and/or named lectures – an indication of over-all faculty excellence – those and similar honors aren’t include on this list. When awards are reported in previous articles, links to the articles have been added

Congratulations to the recipients for your outstanding accomplishments!

Professor Ruben G. Carbonell received the 2018 O. Max Gardner Award. The Award is the UNC system’s highest faculty honor.

Professor Joe DeSimone is a recipient of the 22nd Heinz Award. The Heinz Awards recognizes “remarkable contributions in five areas of great importance: Arts and Humanities; Environment; Human Condition; Public Policy; and Technology, the Economy and Employment. Professor DeSimone’s award is in the area of Technology, the Economy and Employment.

Professor Michael Dickey was appointed as Alcoa Professor by Dean Martin-Vega.

Professor Keith E. Gubbins, the H. Clark Distinguished University Professor, was named an Honorary Professor by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Process Engineering, in Beijing, China.

Professor Jason Haugh (B.S. ’94) received the College of Engineering 2018 Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award. The Alcoa Award is awarded to a senior faculty member for research achievements over a period of at least five years at NC State, and is among the most prestigious awards bestowed by the College to recognize research achievements.

Alcoa Professor Bob Kelly (Ph.D. ‘81) received the 2018 DuPont Biosciences Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (w/ Michael WW Adams, University of Georgia) from the American Society for Microbiology. The Award “recognizes distinguished achievement in research and development in applied (non-clinical) and environmental microbiology.”

Professor Albert Keung received an Avenir Award for Genetics or Epigenetics of Substance Use Disorders from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is an agency within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Award was established to support individuals “who have the potential to make extraordinary contributions to medical research.”

Professor Fanxing Li was selected as an Early Riser, one of twenty “high-achieving researchers and educators under-40 who’ve demonstrated talent for teaching or research, or both, with real-world impact,” by the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE).

Professor Gregory Parsons was appointed as Celanese Acetate Professor by Dean Martin-Vega. Greg is also an inaugural member of the NC State University Research Leadership Academy (RLA) and he received the Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award.

Professor Rich Spontak won the First Place Award in the Faculty and Staff Microscopy category for “The Fingerprint of Molecules,” and the Second Place Award in the Faculty and Staff Graphics and Illustration category for “Plates on Lava,” in the second NC State Research Image Contest. Conceptually, the Contest was envisioned as a way to demonstrate that images – from photographs to illustrations – can be extremely effective tools for explaining complex research to a wide variety of audiences. And that they can also be beautiful.

Professor Spontak also received the 2018 NC State Outstanding Global Engagement Award, was named an Erudite Professor at the Mahatma Gandhi University in India, and received the Pennsylvania State University Schuylkill Campus Outstanding Alumnus Award.

Finally, Rich was elected a Fellow of The NANOSMAT Society (TNS) in the U.K. The Society is designed “to provide an effective and stimulating platform for international people to foster, develop and promote communication, education, networking, dissemination of knowledge, research and innovations in all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology.”

Professor Orlin Velev, the INVISTA Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was selected as the 33rd recipient of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Extension. The Award is the most prestigious award the College of Engineering bestows upon a faculty member.

Orlin also received the 2017 Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and he received a 2018 Langmuir Lecturer Award from the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The Langmuir Award seeks to recognize researchers who have “demonstrated excellence in science and have made major innovative contributions to colloid science and surface science.”

Professor Phil Westmoreland (B.S. ’73) is a member of the inaugural class of Fellows (a lifetime honorific title) of The Combustion Institute. The Institute is an international, non-profit, educational and scientific society that “promotes and disseminates research activities in all areas of combustion science and technology for the advancement of many diverse communities around the world.”

Phil is also the 2017 recipient of the AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology. The Award, sponsored by Praxair, Inc., recognizes “an individual’s sustained excellence in contributing to the advancement of technology in the production, distribution, and application of industrial gases.”