Faculty from range of fields earn Engineering's top research honor

Pioneering advances in quantum computing, sustainable biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and biomedical innovation have earned six faculty members Research Excellence Awards, the highest research honor given annually by Cornell Engineering.

The awards were presented at a Cornell Engineering faculty reception held on Dec. 10.

Recipients are nominated by their departments and selected by a committee for more than just their individual research outcomes. Awardees are also recognized for their impacts on society, reputation in the field, leadership, mentorship and citizenship within the college and university.

"This year's award recipients are leaders who enhance our college's research ecosystem through their innovation and collaboration," said Lois Pollack, associate dean for research and graduate studies. "These awards recognize and celebrate their meaningful contributions to Cornell Engineering, as well as the larger science and engineering communities."

The 2024 recipients are:

Judy Cha, Lester B. Knight Director of the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility and professor of materials science and engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Cha's research program focuses on the synthesis and transport properties of topological and 2D nanomaterials with quantum properties, impacting fields ranging from new materials for quantum computing to energy applications such as batteries and electrocatalysis. In August 2023, she was named the ninth director of the Cornell Nanoscale Facility, Cornell's flagship facility for nanofabrication, which she is leading to greater regional and national visibility at a critical time. She also serves as a member-at-large for the Executive Committee of the Division of Materials Physics in the American Physical Society and on multiple editorial advisory boards.

Shaoyi Jiang, the Robert Langer '70 Family and Friends Professor, Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering

Jiang is a world-wide recognized leader in biomaterials and drug delivery and pioneer in the use of zwitterionic materials for biomedical and engineering applications. He has had a tremendous impact on Cornell's research landscape, driving collaborative and highly innovative research with applications in cancer vaccines, neurodegenerative diseases and regenerative medicine. In the four years since he arrived at Cornell, he has filed 10 patents and six disclosures. To date, he has been awarded 59 patents, has 52 pending patent application, and has founded four startup companies. Among other honors, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2023, and he received the 2024 James McCormick Family Advising Award from Cornell Engineering.

Zhiting Tian, associate professor, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Tian's research focuses on nanoscale thermal transport and energy conversion processes to enable the design and discovery of new materials and devices, working on both computational modeling and experimental characterization of thermal transport properties. She has established an internationally recognized research program, making notable contributions to a variety of topics including inelastic X-ray scattering measurements, thermal rectification and thermal switching in organic materials, and thermoelectric devices. Her research contributes to building energy-efficient microelectronics to bolster national preeminence in strategically critical areas, including quantum computing and 6G communication. She also serves as the co-chair of Cornell Women in Science and Engineering.

Sarah Hormozi, associate professor, Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Hormozi focuses on the dynamics of complex fluids, especially suspensions, areas in which Cornell has a long tradition of international leadership. Her experimental and modeling work has been impactful across a broad array of scientific and applied contexts. Notably, her work on suspensions has garnered significant attention for the insights and predictive power it provides in both geophysical and large industrial contexts - from landslides and avalanches to concrete design and processing. Since joining Cornell, she has turned her attention toward exciting new directions in the areas of biological transport, geoengineering, materials design and batteries. In addition to her research success, she was recognized with a Cornell Engineering Teaching Award in 2023.

Atieh Moridi, assistant professor, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Moridi established the Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, which focuses on synthesizing novel high performance materials for use in additive manufacturing and develops novel characterization methods to understand these materials. Her work has already helped to accelerate the rate of material discovery by combining advanced machine learning tools and intrinsic characteristics and flexibility of additive manufacturing for the most demanding engineering applications, such as fusion reactors, wing leading edge systems and solar probes. This success led to her being named the Aref and Manon Lahhman Faculty Fellow. She has recently begun broadening her research program to the biomedical sciences.

Buz Barstow, assistant professor, Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering

Barstow works in the area of synthetic biology, focusing on energy and novel uses of rare bacteria for solving some of the world's biggest problems in sustainability. His team has established itself as a world leader in the field of rare earth element biomining. They are also pioneering research into biological purification of rare earth elements, a problem even more challenging than extraction. They recently completed the first ever whole genome screen of rare earth biosorption, which led to one of Barstow's graduate students receiving Cornell's most prestigious graduate fellowship. Barstow's team has also made major contributions to electromicrobial production technology.

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