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
Emily Leproust (Ph.D. ’01, Organic Chemistry) was selected as one of Foreign Policy magazine’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2015. She was selected for fast-tracking the building blocks of life. Leproust is the co-founder and CEO of Twist Bioscience, a company focused on synthetic DNA. “At Twist Bioscience, we continue to accelerate applications that benefit from DNA writing, from health and medical breakthroughs to environmental sustainability, to improve the lives of people around the world. We look forward to continued innovation through all areas of research that benefit from the decreasing cost and increasing scale of DNA synthesis,” Leproust said.
Houra Merrikh (B.S. ’02, Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences) received the 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science. The award, given to immigrants who have demonstrated outstanding achievement during the early stages of their careers, includes a plaque and unrestricted prize of $50,000. An assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, her work on the mechanics of DNA replication and gene expression in cells has uncovered hidden conflicts between the cellular machines that use threads of DNA as a template to carry out these life-sustaining functions. By unraveling the mechanism of the conflicts, which appear to be a common feature among genes, her work has thrown open a window on the molecular minutiae of gene evolution. She is now exploring precise ways to predict how such conflicts influence human disease.
Students
The American Chemical Society Student Chapter at UH received an Outstanding Chapter Award for its activities conducted during the 2014-2015 academic year. Only 55 of the more than 400 chapters submitting reports received the “Outstanding” designation.
Three Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences students were recognized for outstanding research posters at the joint EAS-Houston Geological Society Annual Sheriff Lecture on November 16. The winning students were Callum Byers (First Place, Undergraduate Category), Zachary Martindale (First Place, Advanced M.S./Beginning Ph.D. Category), and Yiduo “Andy” Liu (First Place, Advanced M.S./Ph.D. Category). A panel of 20 judges, including EAS faculty and oil industry experts, evaluated the 43 student entries.
Elita de Abreu (Ph.D. Student, Geophysics) was chosen as an Energy Ambassador, a new program of UH Energy. The students selected are majors or minors in an energy-related field and show a strong capability for leadership and communication. The Ambassadors are responsible for planning, promoting and organizing events around campus, giving them the opportunity of meet energy industry leaders and improve their professional skills.
Andrei Gasic (Ph.D. Student, Physics) was awarded the Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority Fellowship. This award supported Gasic’s participation in the 2016 Protein Folding Dynamics Gordon Research Conference in Galveston, Texas, January 10-15. During the conference, Gasic presented a research poster titled “Pressure Induces Folding Intermediate State of Phosphoglycerate Kinase in Coarse-Grained Molecular Simulation.”
Kirstie Haynie (Ph.D. Student, Geophysics) was awarded Best Student Poster at the 2015 GeoPRISMS Theoretical and Experimental Institute on Subduction Cycles and Deformation held in Redondo Beach, California. At UH, Haynie is working in the Geodynamics Research Group and Visualization Lab.
Lei Liu (Ph.D. Student, Atmospheric Sciences) gave a keynote presentation before the Gulf Coast Chapter of the Air and Waste Management Association on November 10.
Jiannan Wang and Azie Sophia Aziz (Ph.D. Students, Geophysics) were honored by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists as among the top 31 best papers out of 1,081 papers presented at the SEG 85th Annual Meeting in New Orleans in October. The authors of top 31 papers have the opportunity to present their work at SEG international sections worldwide and associated societies.
Fabio Zegarra (Ph.D. Student, Physics) won an Education Committee Travel Award from the Biophysical Society. The award provides travel support to attend the Biophysical Society’s 60th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, February 27-March 2. Recipients of this competitive award, all of whom are students and postdoctoral fellows, are selected based on scientific merit. Zegarra will present a poster of his research entitled “The Combined Effect of Macromolecular Crowding and Chemical Interference on the Dynamics of Apoazurin Folding.”
Faculty
John F. Casey (Professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) was honored as a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. He was recognized for “outstanding contributions to our understanding of accretionary plate boundaries and the composition and structure of the ocean crust and shallow mantle and for building one of the great Geoscience Departments, and educating a generation of geoscientists.” His nominator was Henry J.B. Dick.
Loi Do (Assistant Professor, Chemistry) received the American Chemical Society-Greater Houston Section Younger Chemist Award, which recognizes members 35 years or younger for their contributions to education, research or community service. He studies transition metal catalysts. His research focuses on two potential applications for these metal catalysts: devising more efficient methods of synthesizing polymers and mimicking enzymes inside living organisms.
John Hardy (Associate Dean, Student Success) retired on February 5 after 46 years at the University of Houston. He joined UH in September 1969 as an assistant professor of mathematics and was promoted to associate professor in 1972. He served as an NSM associate dean since June 1989 and was instrumental in the creation of several NSM retention initiatives. The College will be forever grateful for his dedication and joyful spirit.
Michihisa Umetani (Assistant Professor, Biology and Biochemistry, Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling) won a Bronze Prize in the BeHEARD (Helping Empower and Accelerate Research Discoveries) 2015 Science Challenge held by the Rare Genomics Institute. The global competition offers rare disease researchers, who traditionally have difficulty attracting funding, grants of the latest life science innovations and technologies. Umetani, who studies hereditary spastic paraplegia type 5A, will receive technical services valued at $5,000 from the Neuron-Genetics Institute.
