Accolades, Facts & Figures

MAE Faculty Recognized with NASA Group Achievement Award for LISA Mission

Faculty members John Conklin and Peter Wass in the University of Florida’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have been recognized with a NASA Group Achievement Award for their contributions to the **Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission Study Team.

Castles, curricula and awards: Villanueva opens 2026 with national recognition

Idalis Villanueva, Ph.D. won the inaugural Richard Felder Award for Transformative Work in Engineering Education Award.

A career highlight: ESSIE’s Ferraro receives award named for his hero

In what he describes as a major highlight of his career, Christopher Ferraro, Ph.D., has been awarded the 2026 Jean-Claude Roumain Innovation in Concrete Award by the American Concrete Institute (ACI).

UF ABE Students Bestowed International Award

Four UF ABE students were bestowed the Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR) Award, garnering international recognition. Each year, CIGR recognizes leadership, innovation and collaboration in student design projects worldwide.

UF Materials Science Professor Earns National Early Career Award from TMS

The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) recently honored Materials Science & Engineering Assistant Professor Ravit Silverstein, Ph.D., with a prestigious early career award. Silverstein joined the University of Florida last year.

Quest for helmet safety earns Ph.D. student top awards

Gustavo Paulon’s quest to design smarter, safer helmets for first responders has earned two best paper awards from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society’s Occupational Ergonomics Technical Group (OETG). Paulon is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISE) whose research explores optimizing helmet design and ergonomics to reduce the risk of traumatic brain and neck injuries in high-risk occupations.

Two ECE faculty earn prestigious Young Investigator Awards

Two University of Florida engineering professors have been recognized among the nation’s top early-career researchers for their contributions to national defense and security. Farimah Farahmandi, Ph.D., Walden C. Rhines Endowed Professor for Hardware Security, and Md Jahidul Islam, Ph.D., Yangbin Wang Rising Star Endowed Assistant Professor, in UF’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), received the 2026 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

ECE chair wins prestigious Taylor L. Booth Education Award

Mark Tehranipoor, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), recently won the IEEE Computer Society Taylor L. Booth Education Award for his outstanding leadership in computer science and engineering education.