A summary of recent awards, innovations and other accomplishments from the UB MAE community.
Deborah D.L. Chung, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has been named a recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award from the California Institute of Technology.
Professor and Chair Francine Battaglia has been named an Associate Fellow by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Two alumni have been recently elevated to university leadership positions: Jack Dennerlein (BS’ 86) was appointed as the dean of Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Donald Leo (PhD 95, MS’92) has been appointed as Ohio University’s executive vice president and provost.
Eleonora Botta, assistant professor, was selected as the Young Professional of the Year by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Niagara Frontier Section.
Mechanical engineering student Dominic LaVigne and business student Daniel Chan placed second in the Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition with their company Exergi.
Mostafa Nouh, associate professor, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Andreas A. Polycarpou (PhD ’94) has been named the inaugural James Sorem Dean of the University of Tulsa’s College of Engineering and Computer Science.
Francine Battaglia, professor and chair, was elected president of the American Society of Thermal and Fluid Engineers.
Kemper Lewis, professor and dean of the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, was elected to the board of directors of TechBuffalo.
Sangwoo Shin, assistant professor, earned an NSF CAREER Award to further the understanding of cell movement. The findings could provide insight into how wounds heal, pathogens are transmitted and cancer spreads.
Haley Parker, an aerospace engineering major, was selected as the student speaker for the Class of 2023 School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Undergraduate Ceremony.
Alum Marcus Yam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, was awarded the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal on May 20 at the first of the two SEAS graduate commencement ceremonies.
Mechanical engineering student Dominic LaVigne took second place in the University at Buffalo’s Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition (Panasci TEC). LaVigne and his partner, School of Management student Daniel Chan, will receive $10,000 for their company Exergi.
Jennifer Stamm, assistant professor of teaching, was announced as the recipient of the 2022 Vanderhoef Faculty Award, which is given to a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering who takes the extra effort to coach, mentor, and provide support for students.
Assistant Professor of Teaching Brad Darrall received the Best Teaching Faculty of the Year Award for 2022 from the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Assistant Professor Eleonora Botta received the Early Career Teacher of the Year Award for 2022 from the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Michael J. Cadigan, BS ’79 mechanical engineering, was formally recognized at the 2023 Pledge to Professional ceremony for being named the 2022 Engineer of the Year from the UB Engineering and Applied Sciences Alumni Association.
Elektra Ismael, a PhD student in aerospace engineering, received the SMART scholarship from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Professor Tarun Singh received the 2022 Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education at UB from the university’s Council on International Studies and Programs.
Professor Shenqiang Ren received the 2022 UB Exceptional Scholar: Sustained Achievement Award, which honors outstanding professional achievement that has been focused on a particular body of work over a number of years.
Two MAE alumni—Dr. Sean Garrick and Dr. Joseph Kolly—have been selected to receive the department’s inaugural alumni awards.
Mechanical and aerospace students Xiang Xi, Achira Boonrath, Anoop Kiran and Max Magee have been recognized, among others, for exemplary student research.
Assistant Professor Danial Faghihi received a National Science Foundation CAREER award to design superinsulation materials systems for use in buildings via data-driven predictive computational tool.
Derek Bourabah, a PhD student in aerospace engineering, won the best student paper award at the Third International Academy of Astronautics Conference on Space Situational Awareness.
A team of undergraduate mechanical and aerospace students mentored by Associate Professor Javid Bayandor, took first place in 2022 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Regional Student Conference.
Professor Deborah D.L. Chung presented the inaugural Millie Dresselhaus Memorial Lecture at MIT.
Alumnus Marcus Yam, BS ’06 aerospace engineering, a Los Angeles Times roving foreign correspondent and photojournalist, has won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography.
Several MAE students were recognized at UB's Celebration of Academic Excellence, including: Anoop Kiran, Grant Hecht, Chi Nnoka, Achira Boonrath, Safiya Dodoo, and Cailean Woods.
Assistant Professor Craig Snoeyink received an Early Career Teacher of the Year Award for 2021 from the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Brad Darrall, assistant professor of teaching, received the 2021 Vanderhoef Faculty Award, which is given to a faculty member in MAE who takes the extra effort to coach, mentor, and provide support for students.
Danial Faghihi, assistant professor, received the prestigious NSF CAREER award. Title: “CAREER: Reliable Superinsulated Building Envelopes via Predictive Multiphysics Modeling” ($595,593).
Alumnus Dexter Johnson, NASA Technical Fellow for Loads and Dynamics, was named Engineer of the Year by the UB Engineering and Applied Sciences Alumni Association in recognition of his numerous contributions to the aerospace field and dedication to supporting others.
Professor Tarunraj Singh received the Yasundo Takahashi Education Award from the Dynamic Systems & Control Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
John Crassidis, Samuel P. Capen Chair Professor and SUNY Distinguished Professor, has received the 2021 American Astronautical Society (AAS) Dirk Brouwer Award, recognizing contributions to spacecraft attitude dynamics, sensor modeling, and optimal estimation.
Associate Professor James Chen has been named an Associate Fellow by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Co-authors Souma Chowdhury (associate professor - MAE), Ehsan Esfahani (associate professor - MAE), Kartik Dantu (associate professor - CSE), and Payam Ghassemi (PhD student - MAE) received the 2021 IEEE MRS Conference Best Paper Award for "Learning Robot Swarm Tactics over Complex Adversarial Environments, International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems."
Professor Tarun Singh has been named the recipient of the ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Division (DSCD) 2021 Yasundo Takahashi Education Award.
PhD student Yong Hu received the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad, the highest award given by the Chinese government to students studying outside of China. Hu is advised by Professor Shenqiang Ren.
PhD student Yong Hu, who is advised by Professor Shenqiang Ren, received Materials Research Society Graduate Student Silver award for academic excellence and distinction.
Assistant Professor Jun Liu received a Young Scientist Award from the journal Mircosystems and Nanoengineering.
A paper authored by Associate Professor Mostafa Nouh and PhD students M. Ali Attarzaheh and Jesse Callanan on nonreciprocal acoustic waves received the 2021 Best Paper Award in Mechanics and Materials Systems by the Adaptive Structures and Materials Systems (ASME) branch of ASME.
Alumnus Dexter Johnson, NASA Technical Fellow for Loads and Dynamics, received the UB President’s Medal in recognition of extraordinary service to the university.
Anoop Kiran, an aerospace engineering student, has been named a recipient of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious and competitive research scholarship offered for undergraduate STEM students.
Students Mirka Arevalo, Sreeya Guha, Ojonugwa Marv Ibrahim, Gabrielle Reed, Myanah Pierre-Louis and Sauravpunit Sidhu, all from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, earned the People's Choice award in the Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition.
Dexter Johnson (PhD ’95, MS ’89 mechanical, BS ’87 aerospace) was recognized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics as the winner of their 2021 Diversity and Inclusion Award.
Mostafa Nouh, associate professor, has been named the recipient of the 2020 Gary Anderson Early Achievement Award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Aerospace Division.
Aerospace engineering student Rachael Gold won first place in the undergraduate category at the WELocal Des Moines Collegiate Competition for her research on eliminating debris in space.
Robert Harrison (BS '83 mechanical engineering) received the Dean's Achievement Award, the highest honor presented by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Cameron Grace, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, received the Harold O. Wolf Award from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Yong Hu and Payam Ghassemi, both mechanical engineering students, received the SEAS Dean’s Graduate Achievement Award for their significant contributions to the advancement of their fields through the performance of outstanding research.
Charles Barnes, mechanical and aerospace engineering student, received the SEAS Dean’s Undergraduate Achievement Award, which recognizes students who have distinguished themselves through excellence in research and related technical presentations or publications.
UB Robotics took first place at the RIT VEX U tournament, winning the Tournament Champions, the Excellence Award and Robot Skills Champions. The Excellence Award qualified them for the 2020 VEX U World Championship.
Alisa Delaj, a mechanical engineering student, has been selected to receive the Boren Scholarship and will study at Korea University in a year-long program.
Undergraduate aerospace engineering student Charles Barnes won the best student paper award at the Second International Academy of Astronautics Conference on Space Situational Awareness.
Aaron Estes, assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has received the 2019 Vanderhoef Faculty Award.
Shenqiang Ren, professor, received a new award from the U.S. Department of Energy, “Scalable and Cost-Effective Roll-To-Roll Additive Manufacturing Of Highly Durable And Thermal Insulating Silica-Carbon Aerogel.”
Amin Karami, assistant professor, received a new award from the National Science Foundation, “Collaborative Research: Controlling Flow Separation via Traveling Wave Actuators.”
PhD student Philip Odonkor was selected to address his fellow SEAS graduate students at the Spring 2019 commencement ceremony.
Mechanical engineering alumnus Benjamin Pawlik was selected as this year’s Engineer of the Year by the UB Engineering and Applied Sciences Alumni Association.
MAE Alum Allison O'Connor received the Volunteer Recognition Award from SEAS Alumni Engagement office.
MAE Alum Bradley Cheetham's company Advanced Space has been selected to support future spaceflight missions for NASA with continued development of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS).
Graduate student, Nikhil Paliwal, receives The Mark Diamond Research Fund (MDRF) grant
Senior Daniel Henry receives the WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff Scholarship, a firm of the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC New York)
Seniors Levi Li, Henry Kwan and Samuel Tedesco are among the finalists for a NASA-sponsored contest to design a heat shield for future missions to Mars
Students Erika Salem, Jimmy Lam, Sandra Czarnecki, and Nathan Guttery are selected to participate in the Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program at NASA’s Microgravity University
Seniors Sourobh Ghosh and Matthew Leibowitz receive SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Student Excellence
UB Clean Snowmobile Team awarded "Best Emissions Winner"