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
Natalia Rodriguez (Mathematical Biology ’17) received the 2019 Paul C. Boyle Award for Excellence in Research from University of Texas Health Science Center School of Biomedical Informatics. The award recognized her first-place poster titled “Acceptability and Feasibility of Using Video Visits for Weight Management Care.” Rodriguez is currently a UTHealth graduate student studying epidemiology and public health informatics. Rodriguez also works with mentor Monisha Arya, faculty at Baylor College of Medicine, on an academic writing primer series. Their first primer released, “Tips for Designing a Winning Poster,” reflects on Rodriguez’s winning poster design.
George R. Wilson III (Chemistry ’75) was honored with the top annual award – the Award of Merit – from ASTM International’s committee on petroleum products, liquid fuels and lubricants. Wilson is a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The prestigious award, which includes the accompanying title of fellow, is ASTM’s highest recognition for individual contributions to developing standards. The committee honored Wilson for his outstanding leadership and contributions toward improvements within the aviation fuels and lubricants marketplace for consumers, and in the overall development of the committee.
Students
The Association for Women in Mathematics Student Chapter at UH received a 2019 Scientific Excellence Award for their work in organizing and hosting the 3rd Annual Texas Women in Mathematics Symposium. The conference, held at UH, brought together 70 women mathematicians for two days of networking, talks and professional development. Attendees came from all parts of Texas, as well as Louisiana. Conference Co-chairs were Math graduate students Duong Nguyen and Kayla Bicol. Other student organizers included Prajakta Bedekar, Sarah Chehade, Daewa Kim, Jennifer May and Kate Nguyen.
Jacob “True” Furrh (Environmental Sciences Major) has been awarded the prestigious Udall Scholarship for 2019-2020, making him the second Udall recipient in the history of UH. The scholarship provides up to $7,000 for the scholar’s junior or senior year. Only 55 students from 50 colleges and universities were selected as 2019 Udall Scholars. Furrh is the only recipient in the 2019 class from a Texas institution. Related Article
Four NSM Biology majors – Muhammad Jamal, Benita Lalani, Vishnu Narayana and Tuba Shiwani – participated in 5-week internships in Washington, D.C., at the Smithsonian Institution, May 13–June 14. Upon returning to UH, the students are creating final projects to display at Undergraduate Research Day.
Jack Kenning (Ph.D. Student, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) won first place in the student poster competition at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Annual Convention and Exhibition. Kenning received $2,000 from the AAPG Foundation along with $750 given to the AAPG student organization in the EAS department.
Amanda Pascali (Geology major) received an AAPG L. Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant. She will use the grant to fund travel and tuition to the International Bachelor Permafrost and Stratigraphy field work course at the University Centre in Svalbard, Norway (800 miles from the North Pole). The grant also allowed her to participate in a project this summer with Dr. Julia Wellner consisting of analyzing and conducting x-ray fluorescence scanning on sediment cores from Antarctica to assess eustatic and environmental changes over time.
The Society for Exploration Geologists “Wavelets” Student Chapter was ranked as a Summit-Level Student Chapter for 2019. This ranking recognizes the chapter as one of the top 10 SEG Student Chapters in a group of over 250 chapters worldwide.
Marcus Zinecker (Ph.D. Student, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) was a recipient of the Houston Geological Society Rising Star Service Award. The award honors individuals who are relatively new to the HGS and have made significant and promising contributions to the enhancement and success of the society. He has been active in membership recruitment.
Faculty/Staff
Five NSM Staff Elected to UH Staff Council
Five members of the NSM staff were elected to the UH Staff Council to represent the Academic Affairs division of the University. NSM staff elected include Seth Evans (Department of Chemistry), Brianna Johnson (NSM College Business Office), Emily Merrell (NSM College Business Office), Elsie Myers (Department of Chemistry), and Quentisha Puryear (Department of Computer Science). The Staff Council is an advisory body to President Renu Khator and the University administration.
Margaret Cheung (Moores Professor, Physics, Computer Science and Chemistry) received at $1.1 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Science of the National Institutes of Health. She explores the signals between calcium, which impacts almost all aspects of cellular life, and the calcium-modulated protein called calmodulin or CaM. Her work will examine the reaction in the brain at the precise moment when certain memories are seared into our minds. She predicts that understanding the molecular structure of that moment inside a single neuron will open a new world in increasing memory and the use of the brain. Related Article
Paul Chu (Professor, Physics, T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science, and Founding Director/Chief Scientist, Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH) received the 2019 OCA Pioneer Award at the OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates National Gala Awards reception and banquet. The award recognizes Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have paved the way for members of the community in their chosen field. Chu was honored as “an incredible Asian American Ambassador in the field of physics and science.”
Bill Dupre (Professor Emeritus, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) received the 2018-2019 Distinguished Service Award from the Houston Geological Society. The award honors members who have given long-term valuable service to the Society.
Paige Evans (Clinical Professor, teachHOUSTON, Mathematics), Donna Stokes (Professor, Physics, and Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Affairs) and Rakesh Verma (Professor, Computer Science), along with co-authors from other UH colleges and other universities, received the Narrative Research Award from the American Educational Research Association’s SIG on Narrative Research. The award, given at AERA’s annual meeting in Toronto, was for their paper “The embodied nature of narrative knowledge: A cross-study analysis of embodied knowledge in teaching, learning, and life,” which published in the Teaching and Teacher Education Journal.
Dan Graur (Moores Professor, Biology & Biochemistry) received the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2018-2019. He received his Ph.D. in Population Genetics in 1985, and his advisor was Masatoshi Nei, Ph.D. The award was presented at the GSBS Commencement Ceremony in May.
Ognjen Miljanic (Professor, Chemistry) was awarded a three year, $456K grant from the National Science Foundation that will fund the development and analysis of materials that can store, release and sense different chemicals. These materials, called porous molecular crystals, are scaffold-like structures which contain hollow pores. Different types of porous molecular crystals have applications ranging from energy storage and material recycling to chemical sensing.
Nouhad Rizk (Instructional Associate Professor, Computer Science) received a grant from UH’s Alternative Textbook Incentive Program (ATIP). Recognizing that the cost of textbooks is a significant burden to the success of students, UH Libraries, in collaboration with the Office of the Provost, created the ATIP. The program encourages faculty to adopt open educational resources in their courses by incorporating teaching and learning resources found in the public domain or by using resources licensed in such a way that anyone can freely use and re-purpose them. Rizk’s project proposal was to create an open textbook, Building Skills for Data Science.
John Suppe (Distinguished Professor, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) has been named an American Geophysical Union Fellow. The Fellows program recognizes AGU members who have made exceptional contributions to Earth and space sciences as valued by their peers and vetted by a committee of Fellows. AGU has 62,000 members from 144 countries and is one of the largest societies in Earth sciences.
Giulia Toti (Instructional Assistant Professor, Computer Science) and Amin Alipour (Assistant Professor, Computer Science) received a UH Teaching Innovation Program Grant. Their proposal, “Creation of a Web IDE to Improve Teaching and Evaluation in Programming Courses,” was awarded $35,000. TIP grants, an initiative of the Provost and Office of Academic Affairs, are an award opportunity for departments to develop and implement a plan for new and innovative approaches to teaching in online and hybrid environments.
Arthur Weglein (Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair, Physics) has been invited to serve as keynote speaker at a Society of Exploration Geophysicists-Kuwait Oil Company workshop. Entitled “Seismic Multiples – The Challenges and The Way Forward,” the workshop will be held December 3-5 in Kuwait. This invitation marks Weglein’s third keynote address for an international petroleum industry research and business conference in the past 18 months.