Six of the university’s top researchers have been presented with the 2015 Research Excellence Awards.

Dr. Lyubov Kurkalova, who holds dual appointments in the Department of Economics (School of Business and Economics) and the Department of Energy and Environmental Systems (College of Engineering), has been named Senior Researcher of the Year. Kurkalova’s research reflects the dual nature of her appointments, focusing on bio-energy production and policy and their connection to land use and environmental problems such as water pollution, loss of soil carbon and climate change.

As an economist conducting applied research on contemporary, policy-related problems, Kurkalova has published widely in outlets ranging from academic economics and interdisciplinary journals to others oriented toward practitioners and professionals in interested in agriculture, conservation and bioenergy issues. She is the principal investigator or co-PI on 15 research grants with a total value of $8.6 million.

Dr. Shyam Aravamudhan, Department of Nanoengineering (Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering) and Dr. Manoj K. Jha, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (College of Engineering), have received Outstanding Young Investigator awards.

Aravamudhan’s interests lie at the intersection of micro/nanotechnology and life sciences, with an overarching goal to question and better understand how biological systems function. The hypothesis is that by using unique phenomena at the micro and nano-length scales and by shrinking devices to a scale comparable to typical biological system, fundamental biological questions can be addressed. His research interests include nanobioelectronics, microsystems and nanotechnology tools for disease diagnostics and regenerative medicine, and structure-property relationship in nanostructures.

Jha, a civil engineer, conducts research in a variety of fields in environmental and water resources engineering, including hydrology, surface and subsurface water quality, watershed modeling, water resources engineering, global climate change, land cover and land-use change impact analysis, GIS-supported spatial analyses and model applications, erosion and sedimentation, groundwater modeling and development. He has conducted research in the Gulf of Mexico and a variety of locations in Africa, including Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania.

Dr. Ali Karimoddini, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (College of Engineering), has been named Rookie of the Year. Karimoddini’s research focuses on control engineering and its application to robotic systems, modeling of biological systems and reliability and safety of cyber-physical systems such as smart power grids and traffic control systems. A particular interest is cooperative control of teams of autonomous systems. He played a key role in developing the recently funded $5 million proposal to create a Center of Excellence in Autonomy.

Dr. Ellie H. Fini, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (College of Engineering) and Dr. Jianmei Yu, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences (School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences), have received Intellectual Property Awards.

Fini invented an adhesive derived from swine manure and established a spin-off company that is the university’s exclusive licensee of the technology. Her team competed in several national and international business plan competitions, winning the ACC Clean Energy Challenge, the U.S. Department of Energy MegaWatt competition, the International Mass Challenge Competition and Charlotte Venture. Fini is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and has received $1.7 million in sponsored funding to support her research.

Yu developed a technology for producing the world’s first commercially available hypoallergenic peanuts. The technology is patented and was licensed in 2014. Another research interest is value-added utilization of agricultural byproducts, including bioactive compounds, including grape pomace, peanut skins and oat/corn bran. Yu has authored or co-authored 15 grant proposals, 12 of which have been funded at a total of $3.9 million.

This year’s Faculty Excellence Awards for excellence in teaching went to nine individuals. Drs. Karen Hornsby and Jerono Rotich were lauded for their national and system-wide recognition, respectively.

Hornsby, associate professor in the Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences, is the CASE-Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year for North Carolina.

As a teacher, Hornsby’s aim is not to provide uniform instruction to each student in her classes, but to meet students where they are, challenge them to achieve goals they might not have thought possible, and to support them individually in that process. She provides goal-directed practice and targeted feedback to encourage strong and enduring growth of those nascent ideas.

As one student explained, “Hornsby strives to open the eyes of her students to what is possible, not just what is present, and she is willing to shepherd her students to a place that they never thought could be reached.”

Rotich, associate professor in the Department of Human Performance and Leisure Science, is a recipient of the 2015 UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Outstanding College/School Teaching Award recipient for the School of Education.

With a passion to teach, mentor and assist students to reach their full potential, Rotich is engaging, approachable, supportive and inspiring. She co-teaches a hybrid distance learning/face-to-face course every semester with colleagues from China, India and Africa that truly transforms the lives of her students—by connecting N.C. A&T students with students from around the world in real time via teleconference, the course broadens students’ knowledge of other cultures and makes them aware of their place in a much larger world.

One of her students described Rotich as “a shining light, the encourager and an icon of hope.”

In addition to Rotich, the following faculty members received Outstanding College/School Teaching Awards: Dr. Kathy Cousins-Cooper, College of Arts and Sciences; Robert Powell, College of Engineering; Dr. Benjamin Gray, School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences; Dr. Obasi H. Akan, School of Business and Economics; and Dr. Li-Shiang Tsay, School of Technology.

The Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award recipients were Dr. Checo J. Rorie, College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Elizabeth Newcomb Hopfer, School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.