Dear Graduate Students,

Based on the recommendation of the Research Advisory Committee*, I am pleased to announce the winners of the 2017-18 Ralph H. Kummler Award for Distinguished Achievement in Graduate Student Research: Mr. Wujun Si (ISE), Mr. Majid Moradi-Aliabadi (ChE), and Ms. Juliana S. A. Carneiro (ChE).  The awards will be presented at the upcoming Honors Convocation.

Honorable mentions go to Ms. Lu Wang (CS), Mr. Nirul N. Masurkar (ME), and Mr. Mehdi Hajizadegan (ECE) for their excellent research achievements. 

Wujun Si (ISE) is a Ph.D. candidate and has performed outstanding research, under the tutelage of Professors Qingyu Yang and Xin Wu, on the "Statistical Reliability Analysis by considering Materials Physical Properties".  He has a 4.0 GPA and published 6 first author journal papers in prestigious IE journals, and 2 more journal papers under revision.  Wujun received the Best Student Paper Award in the Quality Control and Reliability Engineering (QCRE) track of ISERC (Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference) in 2016, and was selected as one of the four finalists of the Best Refereed Paper Competition in the Quality, Statistics and Reliability (QSR) division of INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) in 2017.   As Professor Yang indicated Wujun is "the first one to efficiently extract microstructure and micro-damage information of advanced high strength steels and incorporate them into product reliability analysis and optimal maintenance, which fundamentally improves the accuracy of failure and reliability prediction and significantly reduces the maintenance cost.”  Wujun will start as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial, Systems, and Manufacturing Engineering at Wichita State University in Fall 2018.  

Majid Moradi-Aliabadi (ChE) is a Ph.D. candidate and has performed outstanding research, under the tutelage of Prof. Yinlun Huang, on the "Sustainability Analytics and Decision Making for Sustainable Manufacturing". He has a 3.9 GPA and published 3 journal papers and 6 conference proceedings as first author in top journals in sustainability.  Majid received the Best Paper Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in 2017.  As Professor Huang indicated “Majid’s research has focused on the fundamental study on sustainable manufacturing using advanced theories and methods in systems science and control science; the research project has been funded by NSF,” and he has developed novel methodologies on "a frontier area in sustainability science, as so far there have nearly no publications in applying formal control science and engineering methods to sustainability study."   Professor Jeffrey Seay, PJC Board of Trustees College of Engineering Professor, University of Kentucky, stated that Majid's research "…is thorough and insightful."

Juliana S. A. Carneiro (ChE) is a Ph.D. candidate and has performed outstanding research, under the tutelage of Prof. Eranda Nikolla, on the "Fundamental Insights on the Electrolysis of CO₂ and H₂O Using Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells."   She has published 3 journal papers and 1 book chapter as first or shared first author in high impact journals.    Juliana received Best Poster Presentation Award at Michigan Catalysis Society (MCS) Annual Symposium in 2015, AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Travel Award in 2016, among others.   As Professor Nikolla indicated Juliana "...has been exceptional in research and very instrumental in setting up my research laboratory at Wayne State University," and "...amassed an impressive body of research that has resulted in four full papers in high impact journals (ACS Catalysis, JACS), one book chapter with additional publications in preparation".   Dr. Stephanie Brock, Professor of Chemistry, WSU, and Editor of Chemistry of Materials, commented “Juliana distinguishes herself from her peers through her exceptional intelligence, poise, and research productivity,” and her work on electrocatalysts "...was published in ACS Catalysis with Juliana as co-first author and was selected as an Editor’s Choice article (a distinction limited to only 365 articles per year across the entire ACS publications portfolio, comprising 40,000 papers every year)."

There were 12 highly-qualified candidates for the 2017-18 Ralph H. Kummler Award for Distinguished Achievement in Graduate Student Research. The applications were thoroughly reviewed by the College’s Research Advisory Committee before a recommendation was made.   

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the graduate students and faculty for their outstanding contributions to enhance the research enterprise of the College.

Best regards,

*Research Advisory Committee Members: Associate Dean Simon Ng (Chair), Prof. Leela Arava (ME), Prof. Ching-Ming Chen (ET), Prof. Ming Dong (CS), Prof. Mohammadreza Nasiriavanaki (BME), Prof. Eranda Nikolla (ChE), Prof. Le Yi Wang (ECE), Prof. Kai Yang (ISE), and Prof. Yongli Zhang (CEE)