Provost’s Awards for Faculty Excellence
The University of Texas at Dallas is fully committed to providing a robust and dynamic research environment for its undergraduate students. In appreciation of the exceptionally dedicated efforts of the UT Dallas faculty, the Office of Undergraduate Education and the Office of the Provost are pleased to annually recognize an outstanding UT Dallas faculty member who excels in his/her undergraduate research mentoring efforts. The Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring seeks to formally acknowledge a faculty mentor who demonstrates superior leadership, support and guidance toward the development of UT Dallas undergraduate students and their research endeavors.
2024 Recipients
Dr. Benedict Kolber (BBS)
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Benedict Kolber is an associate professor of neuroscience, director of the Pain and Stress Laboratory and co-director of the ENSURE and MARC undergraduate research programs. Undergraduates in the laboratory pursue critical discovery and clinical research questions related to understanding and treating chronic pain.
Dr. Shalini Prasad (ECS)
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Shalini Prasad is Cecil H. and Ida A. Green Professor of Systems Biology and department head of bioengineering. She also is the director of the Biomedical Microdevices and Nanotechnology Laboratory at UT Dallas, which develops novel sensor technologies ranging from wearable technologies and portable diagnostics to defense and environmental monitors. Her research has been supported by several federal and state agencies as well as foundations and corporate entities. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening. She is the recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to higher education and entrepreneurship.
Dr. Michael Kesden (NSM)
Provost’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring
Tenure-Track
Dr. Michael Kesden is an associate professor of physics. His theoretical research focuses on gravitational-wave emission by binary black holes and stellar tidal disruption by supermassive black holes. He also is deeply interested in how technology can promote physics education and outreach and has developed the software STEPP (Scaffolded Training Environment for Physics Problem-solving) and VIGOR (Virtual Interaction with Gravitational waves to Observe Relativity).
Dr. Syed Kaazim Naqvi (IS)
Provost’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring
Non-Tenure
Dr. Syed Kaazim Naqvi is associate professor of instruction in American studies and head of the Master’s of Interdisciplinary Studies program. He is happy to have had the opportunity to be a mentor to two new faculty members this academic year and has enjoyed getting to attend faculty mentoring program events. Naqvi is honored to have been nominated for the award by his mentee, Dr. Lance Lusk, who has thanked him for giving advice with regards to courses and professional development during his first year at UTD.
2023
Dr. Joseph Friedman (ECS)
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Joseph Friedman is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the interdisciplinary NeuroSpine Compute research laboratory. His research objective is to invent, design, and analyze novel logical and neuromorphic computing paradigms that exploit nanoscale phenomena. In 2022 he earned the Faculty Early Career Development Program award from the National Science Foundation to support his AI research.
Dr. Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Ishak-Boushaki, whose research focuses on astrophysics and cosmology, came to UT Dallas in 2006. Dr. Boushaki’s impressive track record includes helping graduate students accumulate approximately 60 peer-reviewed publications with more than 4,200 journal citations. His students have received a remarkable 32 total scholarships, fellowships, and awards, and his exceptional caring and guidance extends beyond their time at UT Dallas.
Dr. Rashaunda Henderson
Provost’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring
Dr. Henderson, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the inaugural winner of this award. She is a very engaged mentor, attending several faculty mentoring program activities and participating in both career development and social events. Her mentee, Dr. Ifana Mahbub, said Dr. Henderson generously allowed mentees to use and borrow equipment from her lab and called her “a wonderful colleague, mentor and friend.”
2022
Dr. Jason Slinker (NSM)
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Slinker, who is an associate professor of physics, specializing in the study of organic optoelectronics and biological electronics, is the undergraduate program head and a mentor to the Society of Physics Students. He is the 2014 winner of the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, and the winner of a 2018 Institutional Improvement Award from the Center for Teaching and Learning for developing and instituting Optics Laboratories at UT Dallas.
Dr. Milind Dawande (JSOM)
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Dawande, Mike Redeker Distinguished Professor in Operations Management, says the Jindal School of Management has provided a fertile ground for quality research, which has helped him grow as a researcher and research mentor since his arrival in 2000. His interests include discrete optimization of problems in manufacturing and service operations, and supply chain management. Dawande and his students have applied their expertise to help solve optimization problems at several companies.
2021
Dr. Danieli Rodrigues
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Rodrigues, is associate professor of bioengineering, and is well-known for her work on orthopedic and dental implants in the UT Dallas Biomaterials for Osseointegration and Novel Engineering facility, more commonly known as the BONE Lab. Her nominators noted that she not only encouraged them to pursue research but also helped them develop both their writing and speaking skills.
Dr. Mihaela Stefan
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Stefan, a professor of bioengineering, who also received the Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring in 2015, credits her own influential mentors for inspiring her to teach. Dr. Stefan’s research interests encompass the synthesis and characterization of organic materials for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. She received NS&M Outstanding Teacher Award in 2009 and the President’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2014. She received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from NSF in 2010.
2020
Dr. Fatemeh Hassanipour
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Hassanipour is professor of mechanical engineering and leader of the Advanced Research on Thermofluid Systems Laboratory. One of her nominators said of Dr. Hassanipour, “She works hard to help students understand the entire research process from beginning to end. This helps the undergraduate students better understand what graduate-level research looks like. She inspires, motivates, and nurtures her undergraduate students by creating a supportive environment for research and scholarship and by providing the necessary resources.”
Dr. John Hansen
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Hansen, professor of electrical engineering and distinguished chair in telecommunications, founded The Center for Robust Speech Systems (CRSS) in 2005. He is director of the center, which is focused on interdisciplinary research in speech processing and human computer interaction, and oversees the CRSS – Speech & Speaker Modeling Group. His research interests span the areas of digital speech processing, analysis and modeling of speech and speaker traits, speech pathology and voice assessment, speech enhancement and feature estimation in noise, robust speech recognition with current emphasis on robust recognition and training methods for spoken document retrieval and recognition in accent, noise, stress, and Lombard effect, and speech feature enhancement in hands-free environments for human-computer interaction.
2019
Dr. Ronald Smaldone (NSM)
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Smaldone is an associate professor of chemistry who has worked with undergraduates in the research lab since coming to UT Dallas in 2012. “UT Dallas has a lot of ambitious and dedicated undergraduate students who want to get involved with research and are willing to devote a lot of their time to it,” he said. “Watching a student evolve from a passive observer in the lab into a confident and productive researcher is one of the most rewarding parts of my job.”
Dr. Richard Scotch
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Scotch, professor of sociology and political economy, began teaching at UT Dallas in 1983. His research focuses on a variety of social policy topics related to disability, health, and education. He said he was attracted to UT Dallas by the lively interdisciplinary faculty and the diverse student body. Dr. Scotch has been active in the local health and human service community in Dallas for over three decades, working with a variety of local government and nonprofit agencies He enjoys connecting with students in the classroom or to work through some problem together in individual instruction.
2018
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Robert Gregg (ECS)
Dr. Gregg, who was named a Fellow, Eugene McDermott Professor in 2018, has received funding for his research from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Burroughs Welcome Fund. He joined the Departments of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) in June 2013 as an assistant professor. Dr. Gregg investigates the control mechanisms of human locomotion for the development of high-performance wearable control systems (e.g., robotic prostheses and orthoses) to enable mobility in persons with disabilities.
Dr. Suresh Radhakrishnan
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Radhakrishnan, is the Constantine Konstans Distinguished Professor in Accounting and Director of Research for the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance. According to his nominators, he has been involved in the dissertations of as many as half of the PhD students who have graduated from the doctoral program in accounting since its inception. He not only teaches students how to do research, but he also demonstrates the way by which one can earn respect from the academic profession.” His research focuses on performance management and spans a variety of areas such as organization capital, corporate social responsibility, valuation of intangible assets, executive compensation, audit liability and supply chain quality issues.
2017
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Poras T. Balsara
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Balsara, professor of electrical engineering, arrived at UT Dallas in 1989. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and has received several awards from UT Dallas, including the Jonsson School award for Best Teacher in Electrical Engineering. He also has been recognized by the Jonsson School for outstanding service and exemplary contributions to PhD education and research. From 2002 to 2013, Balsara served as the associate department head for graduate studies. “My students constantly inspire me to become a better teacher and mentor, he said. “They may not be aware that I learn as much from them as they learn from me. They enable me to explore somewhat ill-defined or at times ‘weird’ ideas and bring them to fruition. I dedicate this award to all of them.”
2016
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Ryan McMahan (ECS)
Dr. McMahan is an assistant professor in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication. Since joining UT Dallas in 2012, McMahan has mentored 25 graduate, 15 undergraduate and six summer high school students conducting research in his Future Immersive Virtual Environments (FIVE) Lab. He also promotes research for underrepresented groups, including the establishment of a research summer camp for underrepresented high school students.
2015
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Mihaela Stefan (NSM)
Dr. Stefan, a professor of bioengineering credits her own influential mentors for inspiring her to teach. Dr. Stefan’s research interests encompass the synthesis and characterization of organic materials for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. She received NS&M Outstanding Teacher Award in 2009 and the President’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2014. She received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from NSF in 2010.
2014
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Paul Pantano (NSM)
Dr. Pantano, associate professor of chemistry at UT Dallas, conducts research characterizing and assessing the potential toxicity of nanomaterials used in medicine and the semiconductor industry. He hosts five labs with undergraduate students and places young researchers in other UT Dallas labs through three programs. He is the site director for the Robert A. Welch Foundation Summer Scholar Program in the Department of Chemistry, as well as scientific advisor for the Anson L. Clark Foundation Summer Scholar Program and the UT Dallas/Plano ISD Summer Intern Program in the Office of Undergraduate Education.
2013
Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Sven Kroener (BBS)
Dr. Kroener, assistant professor of neuroscience, is the first-ever recipient of the Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring. In the three years since he came to UT Dallas from the Medical University of South Carolina, Kroener has worked with 60 undergraduate students in his Cellular and Synaptic Physiology Lab. Together, they study the brain mechanisms behind addiction and schizophrenia. Kroener tries to teach the students more than just laboratory methods by including them in the planning, analysis and reporting phases of the experiment. Students are encouraged to present at conferences and to co-author journal articles with Kroener on the research conducted.