Faculty Recognition & Honors
Albert Cheng (Computer Science) has been appointed as an Association for Computing Machinery Distinguished Speaker; the term runs for three years. The speaker program is a highly visible way for ACM members to engage with emerging professionals, students, and in some cases, the public, on a range of topics in computing.
In November, Cheng was selected as a member of the Fulbright Specialist Roster for a tenure of three years. As a Fulbright Specialist, he can be matched with projects designed by host institutions in over 150 countries. In early December, his first Fulbright Specialist assignment took him to several universities in Panama where he organized seminars on how to perform research with positive societal impact and on how to enhance the research environment and capabilities. He will return to Panama at the end of the Spring 2020 semester for additional assignments.
Seamus Curran (Physics) has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of his work in nanotechnology. In announcing his selection, the Academy said he had been chosen for “a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development and welfare of society.”
Liming Li (Physics) was been selected as a Scialog Fellow to participate in the 2020 Scialog: Signatures of Life in the Universe initiative, jointly sponsored by Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the Heising-Simons Foundation. The conference will involve about 50 early career Scialog Fellows and 10 distinguished scientific leaders, with the goal of generating cutting edge projects to gain fundamental understanding of habitability of planets, detection of life beyond Earth, and life in extreme environments on Earth or in Earth’s distant past.
Mark Tomforde (Mathematics) was one of three recipients recognized with the Mathematical Association of America’s Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award. The award, given at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, honors college or university teachers who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful and whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions.
Key Publications
Randy Lee (Chemistry) and Hadi Ghasemi of UH mechanical engineering were corresponding authors on a paper published in Joule. They reported a new device that can both efficiently capture solar energy and store it until it is needed, offering promise for applications ranging from power generation to distillation and desalination. The work combines molecular energy storage and latent heat storage to produce an integrated harvesting and storage device for potential 24/7 operation. The researchers report a harvesting efficiency of 73% at small-scale operation and as high as 90% at large-scale operation.
Liming Li (Physics), Xun Jiang (Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) and first author Ellen Creecy (EAS Ph.D. student) collaborated with scientists from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology to publish findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters related to the weather and climate of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. The researchers, using data collected from the Cassini mission between 2004 and 2017, reported a significant seasonal variation in Titan’s energy budget — that is the amount of solar energy absorbed by the celestial body and the thermal energy it emits. The findings could lead to new insights about climate on Earth.
Ioannis Pavlidis (Computer Science), along with colleagues from Texas A&M University and University of California, Irvine, conducted an experiment using thermal imaging and wearable sensors to better understand the stress and performance patterns of so-called knowledge workers — scientists, engineers, designers and academics. The findings are published in the journal Scientific Data. Pavlidis describes the study as a comprehensive microcosm of all things happening in a 21st century office. This study is the first of a series of studies on knowledge work funded by a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation.