2021 Honors & Awards
CORE FACULTY
Shivaun Archer
Appointed 2021 fellow of the James McCormick Family Teaching Excellence Institute (MTEI) by Cornell Engineering.
Lawrence Bonassar
Selected Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) 2021 Fellow.
Jonathan Butcher
Elected American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Fellow.
Newton de Faria
Awarded 2021 John Swanson '61 ME in honor of his mother, Dorothy G. Swanson teaching award from Cornell Engineering.
Iwijn De Vlaminck
Awarded 2020 research excellence award from Cornell Engineering.
Jan Lammerding
Honored as an inspirational Cornell faculty member by Merrill Presidential Scholar Alexa Podolsky.
Esak Lee
Awarded 2021 Microcirculatory Society (MCS) Award for Excellence in Lymphatic Research; Adam Rachel Broder Fund for Cancer Research from Cornell University; Multi-Investigator Seed Grant from Cornell University.
David Putnam
Named 2020 Fellow, National Academy of Inventors (NAI); inaugural Associate Dean for Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Cornell Engineering.
Marjolein van der Meulen
Named 2021 Class of Fellows of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES); elected president of the Orthopaedic Research Society, effective February 2022.
FACULTY PROMOTIONS
Iwijn De Vlaminck
promoted to associate professor with indefinite tenure.
Shaoyi Jiang
elected the inaugural Robert S. Langer ’70 Family and Friends Professor, elected professor with indefinite tenure.
Jan Lammerding
promoted to professor.
STUDENTS & POSTDOCS
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Jon Albo (Cira Lab) awarded CU Empower Outstanding Peer Mentor Award from Cornell’s Diversity Programs in Engineering.
Sonny Carlton (M.Eng.) awarded teaching assistant award for outstanding BME teaching 2020-21.
Alex Cheng (De Vlaminck Lab) co-lead author on the paper, “Cell-Free DNA Tissues-of-Origin by Methylation Profiling Reveals Significant Cell, Tissue and Organ-Specific Injury Related to COVID-19 Severity.”
Lainie Eisner (Andarawis-Puri Lab) awarded a two-year Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS)-Cornell T32 Combined Engineering and Orthopaedics Training Grant.
Jongkil Kim (Bonassar Lab) Best Podium Presentation Award from the Meniscus Section of the 2021 Orthopaedic Research Society meeting; this research titled, “Combining TGF-β1 and Mechanical Anchoring to Enhance Collagen Fiber Formation and Alignment in Tissue-Engineered Menisci” was featured on the cover of ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.
Maho Kaga (M.Eng.) awarded teaching assistant award for outstanding BME teaching 2020-21.
Emily Laurilliard (Cosgrove Lab) received an Ephrahim Garcia Graduate Excellence in Mentoring Award from Cornell’s Diversity Programs in Engineering.
Joseph Long (Lammerding Lab) selected, second National Science Policy Network SciPol Scholars cohort for Spring 2021.
Jason (Chang) Marvin (Andarawis-Puri Lab) received an Ephrahim Garcia Graduate Excellence in Mentoring Award from Cornell’s Diversity Programs in Engineering; awarded a 2021 Kappa Delta travel award at Cornell; awarded a 2021 Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) Tendon Section Podium Award; invited to present his highest-scoring ORS tendon section podium at the EORS 2021.
David McKellar (Cosgrove & De Vlaminck Labs) awarded 1st place in the trainee talks session at the 2021 Cornell Stem Cell Symposium.
Zeinab Mohamed (Daniel Lab) received a Zellman Warhaft Graduate Student Award from Cornell’s Diversity Programs in Engineering.
Marguerite Pacheco (Andarawis-Puri Lab) awarded an Exemplary Service Award - Early Career at the annual Graduate Diversity & Inclusion Awards & Recognition Celebration, held virtually this year.
Nancy Ruiz-Uribe (Schaffer-Nishimura Lab) awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association (AHA) for her projected titled for her project titled, "Molecular mechanisms leading to capillary stalling and hypoperfusion in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.”
Leigh Slyker (Bonassar Lab) awarded an NIH F31 fellowship for his project "Extensible Collagen Hydrogels for Cartilage Tissue Engineering".
Tibra Wheeler (Singh & van der Meulen Labs) inducted into the Cornell chapter of the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society; Excellence in Leadership Award at the annual Graduate Diversity & Inclusion Awards & Recognition Celebration, held virtually this year; received a Zellman Warhaft Graduate Student Award from Diversity Programs in Engineering; selected for a trainee registration award from the Orthopaedic Research Society for the 2021 Virtual Annual meeting.
Ana Witkowski (van der Meulen Lab) awarded a two-year Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS)-Cornell T32 Combined Engineering and Orthopaedics Training Grant.
Jonathan Albo, Alexander Cruz, Liz-Audrey Djomnang Kounatse, Alikhan Fidai, Brooke Filanoski, Caleb Jones, Marianne Lintz, Alicia Matavosian, and Shola Onissema-Karimu each pinned Dean's Scholars at the 2020 Cornell Graduate School event.
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Jackson Bauer named a 2021 Kessler Fellow by Cornell Engineering.
Edith Chen received a Diversity Scholar Award from Cornell’s Diversity Programs in Engineering.
Ana Elhom (Butcher Lab) awarded Undergraduate Excellence in Leadership Award from Cornell’s Diversity Programs in Engineering.
Raina Kikani (Cosgrove Lab) awarded 2nd place in the 2021 American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) St. Lawrence Sectional Conference poster competition.
Samantha Pitts received a Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) scholarship from Cornell’s Diversity Programs in Engineering.
Alexa Podolsky (Lammerding Lab) named a 2021 Merrill Scholar.
Caroline Waksmunksi received a Zellman Warhaft Undergraduate Student Award from Cornell’s Diversity Programs in Engineering.
Sophia Windemuth awarded teaching assistant award for outstanding BME teaching 2020-21.
Anna Ashford, Brooke Cohen, Caleb A McCurdy, Edith Chen, Isha Arora, Lauren Kret, Nandika Nair, and Samuel Schirmacher each awarded Engineering Learning Initiatives (ELI) funding for biomedical engineering-focused projects this year from Cornell Engineering.
POSTDOCS
Mingkun Wang (Butcher Lab) awarded $136,236 from the American Heart Association (AHA) for congenital heart defect research.
ALUMNI
Bayan Alturkestani (M.Eng. ‘20) recognized as a Top 100 Healthcare Leader at the 2020-21 International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare in Las Vegas.
Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Ayobami (Ph.D. ‘17, van der Meulen Lab) joined the faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in January 2021 as assistant teaching professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Robby Bowles (Ph.D. ‘11, Bonassar Lab), promoted to associate professor with tenure in the department of bioengineering at University of Utah.
Paula Fraczek (B.S., ‘19, Cosgrove Lab) selected to receive a 2021 NSF fellowship.
Julius Korley (Ph.D. ’10, Putnam Lab) selected co-director of NSF Innovation Corps (I-CorpsTM) Northeast Hub.
Andrea Ippolito (Bonassar Lab, B.S. ’06, M.Eng. '07) selected to serve on the Biden-Harris Department of Veterans Affairs Agency Review Team.
Mike Mitchell (Ph.D. '14, King Lab) Journal of Nanobiotechnology Rising Star Award.
Erica Pratt (Ph.D. '15, Kirby Lab) will join Boston University as an assistant professor in the BME department in 2022.
Jenny Puetzer (Ph.D. '14, Bonassar Lab) NSF CAREER Award for her proposal “Driving cells to produce strong, mature collagen fibers for post-injury healing.”
Young Hye Song (Ph.D. ‘16, Fischbach Lab), assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, has received a $429,000 grant from the National Institute of Health for research in tissue engineering.
MEET THE 2021 NSF FELLOWS
The Meinig School proudly congratulates Ph.D. student Erik Chow (Paszek Lab), Aria R. Henderson (Lee lab), Shola Onissema-Karimu (Fischbach Lab), Erica Wagner (Jiang Lab), and Rick Zirkel (Schaffer-Nishimura lab) who each recently won a 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP). The NSF GRFP offers three years of stipend support during a 5-year fellowship tenure to applicants selected through a national competition.
Undergraduate student Sophia Windemuth also received an NSF fellowship.