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
Nancy Kralik (Vice Chair, NSM Dean’s External Advisory Board and M.S. ’82, Engineering), a licensed civil and environmental engineer with Fluor Corporation, has been named a Fellow by the American Society of Civil Engineers Board of Direction. Kralik has more than 30 years of experience in the development and implementation of health, safety, environmental and sustainability practices globally.
Gulden Othman (B.S. ’14, Physics), was awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. The highly competitive fellowship program supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Othman, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in physics at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is conducting an experiment that is searching for charge-parity (CP) violation. CP violation hopes to shed light on the long-standing mystery in physics of how the universe came to be made up of predominantly matter, despite the big bang producing equal quantities of matter and antimatter.
Karen Robinson Posey (Ph.D. ’00, Biochemistry) was inducted into Hall of Fame for the Drew Central School District in Monticello, Arkansas. Posey is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the McGovern Medical School, which is part of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Her research works to define molecular mechanisms contributing to cartilage-related conditions in order to develop therapeutics that improve cartilage and joint health, improving the quality of life of individuals with dwarfing conditions and osteoarthritis.
Bradley K. Pounds (B.S. ’75, Biology) has been named Vice President, Sales U.S., for Blue Earth Diagnostics Inc., a molecular imaging diagnostics company. The company, dedicated to developing and commercializing innovative PET imaging products that address unmet needs in cancer, established its U.S. headquarters in Burlington, Mass. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.K.-based Blue Earth Diagnostics, Ltd. Pounds has more than 30 years of experience in diagnostic imaging.
Students
Reza Abbasgholizadeh (Ph.D. Student, Biology and Biochemistry) was recognized for outstanding teaching as a recipient of UH’s Teaching Excellence Award – Graduate Teaching Assistant.
Azie Sophia Aziz and Jiannan Wang (May 2016 Ph.D. Graduates, Geophysics) were selected by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Honors and Awards Committee in recognition of work presented at the 85th Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Aziz was selected as the recipient of Award of Merit – Best Student Paper. Wang was selected as the recipient of the Best Poster Presentation of Technical Papers.
Alexandre Augusto Cardoso da Silva and Joan Marie Blanco (Ph.D. Students, Geophysics) won the Regional Challenge Bowl, a team competition at the Geophysical Society of Houston Spring Symposium.
Yash Desai (Biology major) received several honors at the UH Campus Leaders Ceremony, hosted by the Center for Student Involvement. Desai received the Community Impact Award, for his work with a food recovery organization that he founded with another student, and the Distinguished Junior Student Leader Award.
The 2016 Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) Team (Shenelle Gomez [captain], Jordan Dickinson, Lingfei Mao, Jing Hua and David Mora) placed second at the annual American Association of Petroleum Geologists IBA Competition for the Gulf Section. The graduate students took home a trophy and $2,000 check for the UH AAPG student group, the Wildcatters. For the competition, 12 teams analyzed datasets (geology, geophysics, land, production infrastructure, and other relevant materials) prior to the competition and delivered their results in a presentation to a panel of industry experts.
Pin Lin, Crystal Saadeh, and Tyson Smith (Ph.D. Students, Geology) were awarded 2016 Grants-In-Aid funding from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation.
Andy Tran (Biology minor), a UH Rodeo Scholar, spoke at the Asian Chamber of Commerce Reception in March. Tran’s Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo scholarship helped him complete his degree without having to worry about how to pay for school and living expenses. A May 2016 graduate, he will attend UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Tran hopes to specialize in trauma and emergency medicine.
Faculty
NSM’s Junior Faculty Award for Excellence in Research: Guoning Chen (Assistant Professor, Computer Science) is the 2016 recipient of this award recognizing assistant professors who have demonstrated great potential in research and in scholarship by virtue of the exceptional quality of their contributions.
George E. Fox (John and Rebecca Moores Professor, Biology and Biochemistry) received the University of Houston’s highest faculty honor — the Esther Farfel Award. The award, which carries a $10,000 cash prize, recognizes excellence in teaching, research and service. Read More
Fox also participated in “The Origins of the RNA World” presentation at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The oral history interview featured Fox and three other pioneers of science who helped develop key models for the origins of life – on Earth and beyond.
NSM’s John C. Butler Excellence in Teaching Award: The 2016 winners are Anthony Frankino (Associate Professor, Biology and Biochemistry) and Rebecca George (Instructional Assistant Professor, Mathematics). Established in memory of former NSM Dean John Butler, the award recognizes faculty members who best engage and challenge their students and who share their enthusiasm for the subject matter they teach.
Dan Graur (John and Rebecca Moores Professor, Biology and Biochemistry) recently authored the book, Molecular & Genome Evolution. Published by Sinauer Assoicates, the book describes the driving forces behind the evolutionary process at the molecular and genome levels, the effects of the various molecular mechanisms on the structure of genes, proteins, and genomes, the methodology and the analytical tools involved in dealing with molecular data from an evolutionary perspective, and the logic of evolutionary hypothesis testing.
Philip Snider (Associate Professor, Biology and Biochemistry) is retiring after 57 years of teaching and research. He was the first tenure-track geneticist hired by UH. This spring, Snider taught his last semester of BIOL 3341 - Human Genetics, a course that he designed and implemented in 1972. During his time at UH he received three teaching excellence awards: one from UH, one from the Allied Health Professions Society and another from the Golden Key International Honour Society.
UH Faculty Excellence Awards: NSM faculty members brought home honors for excellence in the areas of teaching, mentoring, research and scholarship. The awards, given each year at the UH Faculty Excellence Awards Dinner, are among the highest honors bestowed by the University. NSM award recipients include:
Awards for Excellence in Research and Scholarship – Associate Professor
Each year, UH presents two awards at the Associate Professor rank to individuals who have established a growing record of outstanding research, scholarship or creative activities and who are emerging leaders in their field. Both recipients in 2016 were from NSM.
- Bernhard Bodmann, Mathematics
- Margaret Cheung, Physics
Faculty Award for Mentoring Undergraduate Research
Awarded to faculty who are making a significant impact in their field by supporting and mentoring undergraduate students in research and scholarship endeavors.
- Bernhard Bodmann, Mathematics
Teaching Excellence Award – Instructor/Clinical
Two NSM instructional faculty members received this award given in recognition of outstanding teaching by faculty instructors, clinical faculty, research faculty, artist affiliates, and lecturers.
- Perri Segura, Mathematics – teachHOUSTON
- Chang Yun, Computer Science
Teaching Excellence Award – Community Engagement
This award is given in recognition of a full-time faculty member who involves students in service learning activities or community engagement projects.
- Mark Tomforde, Mathematics, recognized for his creation and leadership of the Cougar Houston Area Math Program (CHAMP)
Arthur Weglein (Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair, Physics) will receive the Society of Exploration Geophysicists’ highest honor, the 2016 Maurice Ewing Gold Medal, in recognition of his work on the inverse scattering series and his writing and teaching. Read More
