School-Granted Faculty & Postdoc Awards
Outstanding Faculty Research Award
Awarded to faculty who most contributed to highly impactful publications or publicly available software, based on research conducted at Rice and published/developed during the last five years. $5,000.
Nomination: Two-page nomination letter and CV. Limited to one nomination per department.
Recipients:
- 2025: Qilin Li, CEE
- 2024: Haotian Wang, CHBE
- 2023: Jun Lou, MSNE
- 2022: Aditya Mohite, ChBE
- 2021: Naomi Halas, ECE
- 2020: Lydia Kavraki, CS
- 2019: Boris Yakobson, MSNE
- 2018: Pulickel Ajayan, MSNE
Young Faculty Research Award
Given to faculty of rank no higher than assistant professor or assistant research professor. Recognizes outstanding research achievements, as evidenced by publications, program development results, software and other research contributions. $3,000.
Nomination: Two-page nomination letter, copy of papers and other research products, and CV. Limited to one nomination per department.
Recipients:
- 2025: Daniel Preston, MECH
- 2024: Hanyu Zhu, MSNE
- 2023: Ang Chen, CS
- 2022: Xue (Sherry) Gao, ChBE; Akane Sano, ECE
- 2021: Anshumali Shrivastava, CS
- 2020: Haotian Wang, ChBE
- 2019: David Zhang, BIOE
- 2018: Adrianna Gillman, CMOR
Teaching + Research Excellence Award, Tenured
Given annually to one tenured faculty member who demonstrates excellence in both teaching and research. $3,000.
Nomination: Two-page nomination letter, one-page summary of research successes in prior two years; one-page summary of teaching excellence in prior two years and CV. Limited to one nomination per department.
Recipients:
- 2025: Leonardo Dueñas-Osorio
- 2024: Todd Treangen, CS
- 2023: Ben Hu, CS
- 2022: Jun Lou, MSNE
- 2021: Edward Knightly, ECE
- 2020: Rafael Verduzco, ChBE
- 2019: Robert Griffin, CEE
- 2018: Ming Tang, MSNE
Teaching + Research Excellence Award, Tenure-track
Given annually to one tenure-track faculty member who demonstrates excellence in both teaching and research. $3,000.
Nomination: Two-page nomination letter, one-page summary of research successes in prior two years; one-page summary of teaching excellence in prior two years and CV. Limited to one nomination per department.
Recipients:
- 2025: Kevin McHugh, BIOE
- 2024: Geoff Wehmeyer, MECH
- 2023: Thomas Senftle, CHBE; Taiyun Chi, ECE
- 2022: Anastasios Kyrillidis, CS
- 2021: Matthew Brake, MECH; Santiago Segarra, ECE
- 2020: Meng Li, STAT
- 2019: Philip Ernst, STAT
Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Adviser Award
Awarded in recognition of the achievements of a faculty member's doctoral students who completed all degree requirements during the last four years. $3,000
Nomination: Two-page nomination letter and CV. Limited to one nomination per department.
Recipients:
- 2025: Todd Treangen, CS
- 2024: Jeffrey Tabor, BIOE
- 2023: Katherine Ensor, STAT
- 2022: Behnaam Aazhang, ECE
- 2021: Walter Chapman, CHBE
- 2020: Marina Vannucci, STAT
- 2019: Junghae Suh, BIOE
- 2018: Luay Nakhleh, CS
Curriculum Innovation Award
Recognizes faculty who are improving the quality of education at Rice University through pedagogical and curricular innovation. Open to full-time tenure track or teaching faculty. $2,500.
Nomination: Two-page nomination letter, CV and teaching scores. Limited to one nomination per department.
Recipients:
- 2025: Arko Barman, D2K
- 2024: Ross Thyer, CHBE
- 2023: Andrew Schaefer, CMOR
- 2022: Matthew Wettergreen, BIOE
- 2021: Rudy Guerra, STAT
- 2020: Genevera Allen, ECE
- 2019: Scott Rixner, CS; Ray Simar, ECE
Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Award
Recognizes a postdoctoral researcher currently at Rice who has significantly contributed to a research program through highly impactful publications, proposal writing, or other endeavors at Rice University. $2,500.
Nomination: Two-page nomination letter and CV. Limited to one nomination per department.
Recipients:
- 2025: Atin Praminik, MSNE
- 2024: Sohini Bhattacharyya, MSNE
- 2023: Vishwa Saragadam, ECE
- 2022: Michael Nute, CS
- 2021: Pratiksha Dongare, ECE
- 2020: Linan Zhou, ECE
- 2019: Jing Zhang, MSNE
- 2018: Sharmila Shirodkar, MSNE
Roy E. Campbell Faculty Development Award
Provides junior, tenure-track engineering-faculty members with $10,000/year for three consecutive years to assist the faculty member in his or her research efforts and development efforts.
Nomination: Letter of support, two-page research and development plan statement from the nominee, and CV. Limited to one nomination per department.
Recipients:
- 2025: Raudel Avila, MECH
- 2024: Bezawit Getachew, CEVE
- 2023: Yimo Han, MSNE
- 2020: Haotian Wang, CHBE
Virginia & Griff Lawhon Digital Education Endowment Grant
Open to any faculty member (including instructors, lecturers, and those with similar appointments) and will provide up to $4,000 of support for the exploration of new and innovative applications of information technology for teaching and learning.
Nomination: Individual faculty member (or teams) directly apply. Applications should include a 2-page statement describing the efforts and a proposed budget.
Award for Excellence in Teaching*
This award is intended to recognize continuing excellence in teaching and exemplary commitment to the education of undergraduate or graduate students within the School of Engineering and Computing. The award recipient will be announced during the university’s annual awards ceremony and will receive $2,500.
Any student or faculty member in the school can nominate a faculty member for this distinction. Candidates will be selected taking into account several teaching metrics including peer input, student evaluations and comments, and participation in educational opportunities that impact the students’ academic experience (i.e. developing new programs or curriculum, teaching new experimental courses, applying research-based teaching methods to improve student learning, etc.).
Eligible candidates for this award are full-time faculty in the School of Engineering and Computing that have:
- Taught at a minimum of one course in the last two academic years (i.e. current and previous AY)
- Not received this award in the past five years
*Nomination: A one-page nomination letter will be required — upload via this Google form (using Rice email). Nominees may be asked to provide supplemental information as part of the selection process.
Recipients:
- 2025: Sabia Abidi, BIOE
- 2024: Laura Schaefer, MECH
- 2023: Elizabeth McGuffey, STAT
- 2022: Don H. Johnson, ECE
- 2021: Bilal Ghosn, BIOE
- 2020: Rob Griffin, CEE
- 2019: Marya Cokar, CHBE
School-Granted Staff Awards
Hardy M. Bourland Award for Distinguished Service
Recognizes two staff members in the School of Engineering and Computing whose performance is consistently outstanding or whose contributions have significantly improved the school or Rice as a whole. Two awards for $1,500 each.
Nomination: Nomination letter. Review details about the Hardy M. Bourland Award.
Recipients:
- 2025: Amy Tang, Dean's Office; Jessica Lee, MSNE
- 2024: Chan Pham, BIOE; Aurora Zarate, Dean's Office
- 2023: Danielle Rossi, Dean's Office; Nichole Wood, NEURO
- 2022: Jocelyn Dayao, STAT; Sukaina Ahmed, OEDK
- 2021: Alicia C. Herrera, MECH; Andrea C. Torres, CEE
- 2020: Beth Rivera, CS; Elizabeth Tippee, MSNE
- 2019: Barbara Windish, ChBE; Annepha Hurlock-Blacke, CS
- 2018: Mari Allen, MECH; Jessica McVey, MSNE
Rising Star Award
This award is for individuals beginning their career at Rice within the past three years. It recognizes a staff member who has created or utilized an opportunity to grow and develop in their role and as a result, has made important contributions to their unit. $1,000.
Nomination: Nomination letter.
Recipients:
- 2025: Aishani Saha, BIOE
- 2024: Shalaina Mullen, BIOE
- 2023: Elizabeth Hutchinson, CEVE
- 2022: Shanna Jin, D2K
- 2021: Rosario Sa Martinez, EPMP
- 2020: Anjli Kumar, Dean's Office
- 2019: Emmanuel Tunley, ECE