Share News of Your Achievements

NSM is proud of the achievements of our outstanding alumni, students 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

Mehdi E. Far (Ph.D. '11, Geophysics) is a research geophysicist at Lumina Geophysical in Houston and works on the depth imaging and velocity modeling team. He is developing new methods for fracture detection and characterization.

William Flannery (B.S. ’60 and M.S. ’65, Physics; Ph.D. ’74, Management) was named as the inaugural holder of the Melvin Lachman Distinguished Professorship in Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Flannery is chair of UTSA’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Technology Management in the College of Business. He has been on the faculty since 1975 and is the co-founder of the Management of Technology Program.

Students

NSM 4.0 Graduates: Ronald Besandre (Senior, Biochemistry) and Jeremy Slaugenwhite (Senior, Geology) will be recognized as 4.0 graduates during NSM’s commencement ceremony on December 21. Ronald will be entering an M.D./Ph.D. program in the fall; Jeremy plans to enter a Ph.D. program following participation in a joint MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution program in January and a six-month internship at an independent oil company.

Carlos Garcia-Alvarado (Ph.D. student, Computer Science) received the "runner up" for best paper award at the Association for Computing Machinery Ph.D. Information and Knowledge Management Workshop. The workshop is for Ph.D. students to present dissertation-level research topics on interdisciplinary research spanning databases systems and information retrieval. His paper, titled "Querying External Source Code Files of Programs Connecting to a Relational Database," is central to his dissertation.

National Science Foundation Robert Noyce Scholars: Diana Del Bosque (Senior, Biology major/Chemistry minor), Geoffrey Hart (Senior, Math major/Physics minor), Riley Hatch (Senior, Chemistry and Biology major), Joshua Kehr (Post Bac, Physics major), and Jessica Ogbonmwan (Senior, Chemistry major) have been named Noyce Scholars. The $12,000 per year scholarships are open to junior and senior physics and chemistry majors or minors, as well as post-baccalaureate students seeking secondary teacher certification in physics or chemistry. The scholarships are part of an NSF grant to UH that will raise the number of chemistry and physics students participating in teachHOUSTON. Related Photo

UH’s Youngest December Graduate: At age 18, Jihad Harmouche (Senior, Biology) is UH’s youngest graduate. He will be continuing to do research in Gregg Roman’s biology lab at UH in the spring. He is interviewing at medical schools and also considering a master’s degree in public health.

Tristan Walker (Senior, Physics) has been accepted into the U.S. Particle Accelerator School conducted by Fermilab in conjunction with Duke University. The school runs for two weeks in January 2013 and includes 45 contact hours as well as daily problems and examinations. Participating students earn three semester hours of university credit. Tristan will receive a $2,000 grant from Fermilab to fund his attendance.

Faculty

Barbara Chapman (Professor, Computer Science, and Director, Texas Learning and Computation Center) received the 2012 Euro-Par Achievement Award, which recognizes researchers with outstanding merit in parallel computing.

Roland Glowinski (Cullen Distinguished Professor, Mathematics) was promoted to the French National Order of the Academic Palms under the request of the Institute of France. One of the oldest civil distinctions of France, the Academic Palms honors those who render important services to French national education and who contribute to the intellectual, scientific and artistic influence of France in the world.

The University Commission on Women selected Angela Moeller (Assistant Professor, Chemistry) for the 2012 Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award.

Steven Pennings (Professor, Biology and Biochemistry) received the 2012 President's Service Award from the Society of Wetland Scientists. Recipients of this international award have promoted the goals of the Society in efforts that extend above and beyond their duties as teachers and researchers.

Lawrence Pinsky (Professor and Chairman, Physics) was elected a Corresponding Member in the Life Sciences Section of the International Academy of Astronautics for 2012. Pinsky has been active in space-related research for many years.

Don Van Nieuwenhuise (Research Associate Professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) is this year’s recipient of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ Public Service Award. This national award recognizing contributions by AAPG members to public affairs, singles out Van Nieuwenhuise for his service to the public and to the profession of petroleum geology. During the news coverage of the Macondo Well blowout, he was the individual who came forward to impact the media dialog that filled the airwaves on April 20, 2010. In a sea of wild speculation and information overload, Van Nieuwenhuise stood forth as a pillar of calm and collected reason.