NSM Pride: Awards and Honors
Share News of Your Achievements
NSM is proud of the achievements of our outstanding alumni, students, staff and faculty. Submit news of your awards, new jobs and honors to breakthrough@nsm.uh.edu or contact Kathy Major at ksmajor@uh.edu or 713-743-4023.
Alumni
Jennifer Walthall, M.D. (’96, Biology) has been named a 2017 Woman of Influence by the Indianapolis Business Journal. She is secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration and an associate professor of clinical emergency medicine and pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine. She received her medical degree from the IU School of Medicine and a master’s degree in public health from the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.
Students
Mariah Michie, Walter Reed and Matthew Sexton (Graduate Students, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) received Warren L. and Florence W. Calvert Memorial Scholarships from the Houston Geological Society. The scholarship fund, created in 1974 by the Calvert family, is directed “to assist worthy and needy geological students to pursue graduate studies in some branch of Economic Geology leading to a master’s or doctoral degree.”
Casandra Morris (Ph.D. Student, Physics) spent a month this summer at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. She worked on a prototype detector for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, an international physics collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists from 30 different countries, brought together with the goal of answering questions about the nature of matter and the evolution of the universe.
Three NSM Ph.D. students were recognized during the UH Graduate Research and Scholarship Projects Day. In the poster presentation competition, Shivangi Srivastava (Biochemistry) received second place and Kharel Khim (Physics) received third place. Sujina Mali (Biology) received third place In the scholarly publications competition.
Faculty
Olafs Daugulis (Robert A. Welch Chair, Chemistry) has been invited to deliver a Nankai Organic Lecture at the State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. Each year, distinguished international chemists are invited to give these lectures.
T. Randall Lee (Cullen Distinguished University Chair, Chemisty, and Associate Dean for Research, NSM) will oversee a new academic journal focused on discoveries involving the use of nanotechnology in applied materials. ACS Applied Nano Materials began accepting submissions in October; the first issue will be published in January 2018.
Vassiliy Lubchenko (Associate Professor, Chemistry) was awarded the 2017 American Chemical Society-Greater Houston Section Joe W. Hightower Award. The award, which recognizes contributions to education, research, sectional service or community service, was presented during the ACS-GHS Fall Awards Banquet.
Robert Stewart (Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair in Exploration Geophysics, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) was selected as president-elect of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) by its active members worldwide. After he serves a year on the SEG Board as president-elect, he will assume the office of president at the 2018 SEG Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California.
Thomas Teets (Assistant Professor, Chemistry) is the recipient of the 2017 American Chemical Society-Greater Houston Section Younger Chemist Award. This award, which recognizes contributions to education, research or service, is for ACS-GHS members under the age of 35.
Julia Wellner (Assistant Professor, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) has been selected a co-chief scientist of the International Ocean Discovery Program drilling expedition 379. The expedition, scheduled for January-March 2019, will study the Antarctic ice volume history.
