Faculty honors

Larry Di Girolamo, climate, meteorology, and atmospheric sciences, has been named a 2027 American Meteorological Society Fellow.

Jose Atiles, director of the Center for Global Studies, and Becky Fuller, head of the Department of Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, have been named 2026-27 President’s Executive Leadership Program (PELP) Fellows.

Xiao Su, chemical and biomolecular engineering, was awarded the Huddleston Professorial Scholar designation, which supports research and teaching for a faculty member with an outstanding record. 

Catharine Fairbairn, psychology; Sepideh Sadaghiani Friberg, psychology; Caterina Gratton, psychology; Alex Harmon-Threatt, entomology; Jorge Lemus, economics; and Sihai Dave Zhao, statistics, have been named LAS Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholars. This award is presented to excellent faculty under consideration to be promoted from associate to full professor.

Angad Pankaj Mehta, chemistry, was named an I. C. Gunsalus Scholar, a title that recognizes young faculty members in physical and life sciences for their scholarship and supports their research and teaching.

Angel Garcia, English; Felix Leditzky, mathematics; Esther Ndumi Ngumbi, entomology and African American studies; Shulei Wang, statistics; Su Yunwen, East Asian languages and cultures; and Sofia Zaragorcin, geography and geographic information science, were recognized as Helen Corley Petit Scholars. Awarded to early career faculty members, recipients receive support for their scholarship and teaching.

Xiaotang Lu, chemistry, was selected as Beckman Young Investigators by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Awardees are promising young faculty members working in chemical and life sciences, and they receive funding for innovative research.

Kalani Craig, history; Maryam Kashani, gender and women’s studies; Aja Martinez, Latina/o studies; Aurore Mroz, French and Italian; Stephanie Thurston, religion; Corey Van Landingham, English; Damian Vergara Bracamontes, Latina/o studies; and Angelica Waner, Spanish and Portuguese, received Jozef and Huguette Cohen Innovation Awards. The awards provide seed funding for research projects in the arts, humanities, and humanistic social sciences.

Mary Frances Phillips, African American studies, received the 2026 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Memoir/Biography for her book "Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins."

Reuben A. Buford May, sociology and department head, was elected vice president and president-elect of the Association of Black Sociologists. 

Tim Liao, sociology, received the American Sociological Association, Mathematical Sociology Section, 2026 Award for Progress in Mathematical Sociology.

Jose Atiles, sociology, was named co-recipient of this year’s Critical Criminologist of the Year Award presented on behalf of the membership of the American Society of Criminology, Division on Critical Criminology & Social Justice.

Kenneth Suslick, chemistry, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honorary societies in the United States. 

Smitha Pillai, chemistry, received funding through the Provost’s Innovation Mini Grant for the proposal “Connecting Organic Chemistry to Real World Contexts Through Molecule Centered Learning.”

Avital Livny, political science, received funding through the Provost’s Initiative on Teaching Advancement for the proposal “Crafting an Accessible and Equitable Undergraduate Research Experience.”

Christopher Kempf, English, has been awarded a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, for exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship and creation of art. 

Peter Fritzsche, history, received the Campus Honors Program’s King Broadrick Allen Award in recognition of outstanding teaching to Chancellor’s Scholars and distinguished service to the educational mission of the Campus Honors Program.

Martin Gruebele, chemistry, received the American Chemical Society’s Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, which rewards outstanding theoretical or experimental research in the field of physical chemistry.

M. Christina White, chemistry, received the Herbert C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods from the American Chemical Society. This award recognizes creative research involving the discovery and development of methods for chemical synthesis.

Amanda Daniela Cortez of anthropology and Alisa Hardy of communication received the Humanities Research Institute’s Summer Faculty Fellowships, designed to help faculty maximize the summer in service of their ongoing professional development.

Diwakar Shukla, chemical and biomolecular engineering, has received a Pivot Research Award from Simons Foundation International to develop a transformative, artificial intelligence-enabled approach to crop engineering.

Joon Kong, chemical and biomolecular engineering, has been named a senior member by the National Academy of Inventors. This program recognizes active faculty, scientists, and administrators who have successfully produced, patented, and commercialized technologies intended to impact the welfare of society and economic progress.

David Wright Faladé, English, was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters, an honor society founded in 1936 to celebrate Texan literature and recognize exceptional literary achievement.

Alexa Kuenstler, chemical and biomolecular engineering, has received an NSF CAREER award to further her work in responsive polymeric systems.

Shiv Priyam Raghuraman, climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, has been awarded the 2026 Scientific and Technological Activities Commission Outstanding Early Career Award for advances in understanding of Earth’s radiative forcings, feedbacks, and spectral signatures by the American Meteorological Society.

Lyle Konigsberg, anthropology, has won the 2026 Gabriel W. Lasker Service Award. Over the course of his decades of service to the AABA, he has served in many roles including vice president, secretary/treasurer, and as the editor-in-chief of the Yearbook. 

George Gasyna, a professor in the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures and the Department of Comparative & World Literature, has been named the new editor of the Slavic and East European Journal. The journal is the oldest American Slavic academic journal. 

Violeta Rodriguez Palacios, psychology, had been honored with the Emerging Latino Leader Award at the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation Gala. The event honors Latino leadership and community contribution and empowering Latino students and communities across Illinois. 

Stefan Vogler, sociology, received the Division on Queer Criminology Emerging Scholar Award, given by the division of the American Society of Criminology to recognize a pattern of outstanding early career research or scholarly contributions in the area of queer criminology.

Matea Mustafaj, communication, has been named a JDMJA Professorial Scholar. This appointment reflects excellent scholarly potential and a research agenda consistent with the donors' preference to support “academic studies focused on communicating the histories, experiences, and narratives of under-represented and marginalized populations or examining communication stereotypes and their impact."

JungHwan Yang, communication, has been named the first David C. Kleiman Faculty Scholar in the Department of Communication. This endowed faculty scholar award honors high achievement and outstanding promise of continued excellence.

Jenny Davis, anthropology, has been appointed by Illinois Gov. Pritzker to serve on the Illinois State Museum Board.

David Cooper, Slavic languages and literatures, has been elected president of the Association of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, a nonprofit, non-political, scholarly organization, leading internationally in the advancement of knowledge about Central Asia, the Caucasus, Russia, and Eastern Europe in regional and global context.

Deborah Leckband, chemical and biomolecular engineering, has been named a 2026 Fellow of the Biophysical Society by the Society’s Fellows Committee. This honor is presented to distinguished Society members who have demonstrated excellence in science and contributed to the expansion of the field of biophysics.

Bo Zhang, psychology and labor and employment relations, has received the Academy of Management Research Methods Division’s Lawrence R. James Early Career Award. This is considered one of the most prestigious awards for individuals in their early career stage doing methodological research in management.

Zhuo Wang, climate, meteorology, and atmospheric sciences, has been elected a fellow of the American Meteorological Society. Fellows are selected for outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences or their applications during a substantial period of years. 

Erik Nelson, molecular and integrative physiology, has received the 2025 Laureate Award from the Endocrine Society. The honor, given to 14 leading endocrinologists, is the most prestigious in the field. 

Matthew Winters,  political science, has been named the Leslie A. Watt Professorial Scholar.

Mariselle Meléndez , Spanish and Portuguese professor, has named the 2025  Frances O’Connell Endowed Faculty Scholar.

Kimberly Mack, English, has been named the 2025 Aaron and Laurel Clark Scholar. 

Soo Ah Kwon, Asian American studies, has been recognized as the 2025 Lynn M. Martin Professorial Scholar.

Jamie Jones, English; Rini Bhattacharya Mehta, comparative literature and religion; Mirelsie Velázquez,  Latina/Latino studies; and Roderick Wilson, history and East Asian languages and culture, have been named the 2025 Conrad Humanities Scholars.

Daniel Cooney, mathematics; Jeremiah Heller, mathematics; Wei Wei, actuarial sciences and risk management; Amanda Young, mathematics; and Ruoqing Zhu, statistics, have been named the 2025 Brad and Karen Smith Scholars.

Adrian Burgos, Jr., history, has been named the 2025 Norman P. Jones Professorial Scholar.

Marianne Alleyne, entomology; K. Decker French, astronomy;  Christopher Kempf, English; Alexa Kuenstler, chemical and biomolecular engineering; Rebecca Oh, English; and Gan Zhang, climate, meteorology, and atmospheric sciences, have been recognized as the Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Scholars.

Alexa Kuenstler, chemical and biomolecular engineering, has received a 2025 School of Chemical Sciences Teaching Award. The award recognizes her exceptional educational efforts, from course development to in-class instruction. 

Kate Clancy, anthropology, has been awarded the 2025 APEX award of excellence for her article, “Biology is Not Binary” (2024).

Hong Yang, chemical and biomolecular engineering, has been named a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The fellowship is the highest professional award conferred by the society and recognizes his outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences.

Erik McDuffie, history and African American studies, has been awarded the Jon Gjerde Prize by the Midwestern History Association for his new book “The Second Battle for Africa."

Damien S. Gurionnent, Simon A. Rogers, and Diwakar Shukla, chemical and biomolecular engineering, have been named James W. Westwater professorial scholars. This award recognizes their unique excellence and research in their field.