We are happy to announce the winners of the Fall 2024 Lampe Joint Department Achievement Awards!
The following awardees have been carefully selected by a panel of esteemed faculty and staff in recognition of their exceptional contributions, dedication and hard work within the Joint Department.
Teaching and Mentoring Staff Award: Theresa Jones
The committee selected Theresa Jones from a list of exceptional staff for this year’s Teaching and Mentoring Staff Award. Theresa has put an incredible amount of work into improving the advising process in BME. From creating sets of flowcharts to help students understand the curriculum to creating an entire website dedicated to BME advising, she continuously exceeds any and all expectations of what an advisor should do. Theresa is incredibly dedicated to the students and is able to approach stressful situations with a strong sense of calamity despite the panic of those around her.
Teaching and Mentoring Faculty Award: Mike Wilkins
From a list of highly qualified nominees, the committee has presented the faculty award for Teaching and Mentoring to Mike Wilkins. Mike is clearly passionate about teaching and helping students succeed. He always ensures that students are engaged and provides projects (such as a PPG monitor) that allow students to practice and demonstrate the theoretical skills learned during lectures. His guidance was also invaluable while navigating graduate school options and admissions. He is always eager to answer technical questions, whether they’re related to class, projects in other courses, or personal projects. He is overall a great professor who deserves recognition for his dedication to students.
Postdoctoral Fellow Award: Shubhangi Shukla
The Postdoctoral Fellows Award for Outstanding Research Achievements goes to Shubhangi Shukla. Shubhangi is a highly motivated and skilled Analytical, Material, Polymer, and Electrochemist with a proven track record in designing and developing drug delivery and sensing devices. It’s been three-and-a-half years since she joined the Joint Department, and she has already published over 15 peer-reviewed journal papers (7 first-authored) in reputed high-impact journals, including Biosensor Bioelectronics, Small Science, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, ACS Applied Biomaterials, Applied Physics Reviews, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal and Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery.
PhD Student Awards: Emily Eichenlaub and Xinrui Ma.
Out of a pool of nominations for extraordinary PhD students, the awards for PhD student achievement in research go to Emily Eichenlaub and Xinrui Ma.
Emily Eichenlaub was recently awarded a three-year NIH NRSA F31 fellowship to understand neuromuscular integrity and instability in patients with Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) compared to age-similar control participants. She also received a highly competitive and fully-supported six-month industry internship in 2024 to gain real-world experience in the use of wearable sensors in human movement biomechanics to guide product development decisions. Lastly, Emily has been incredibly productive in her scholarship, with three manuscripts in review or published, one published conference proceeding, and seven national or international conference presentations thus far.
Xinrui Ma has published her research work in various reputed journals, including the Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) and the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine (EJNM), which represent cutting-edge advancements in nuclear medicine and emphasize the translational potential of these novel imaging agents. She has also co-authored two other high-impact publications, one in Nature Synthesis and another in ACS Central Science, further demonstrating my commitment to interdisciplinary and innovative research. She was honored with the Best Poster Presentation Award at the 2024 Radiology Department Research Symposium, marking her third consecutive year of recognition at this event. In 2022 and 2023, she received the Best Oral Presentation Awards. Furthermore, she was awarded the 2024 Young Investigator Award (Second Place) by the Chinese American Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging for my presentation of work published in JNM.
Staff Service Award: Eugene Yamamura
The committee selected Eugene Yamamura from a list of exceptional staff for this cycle’s Staff Service Award. Eugene is an incredible colleague who goes above and beyond in his support of our department’s complex Information Technology needs. From multi-campus seminars, presentations and workshops to our joint email infrastructure and printing needs, Eugene brings positivity to a difficult role and does a ton to keep our department functioning. We very much appreciate him!