102 Early Career Scientists Receive Government Honors

Jan. 24, 2017
Before leaving office, former President Obama names 102 scientists and researchers as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Before leaving office, former President Obama names 102 scientists and researchers as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), reportedly the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

The Presidential Early Career Awards highlight the key role that the Administration places in encouraging and accelerating American innovation to grow the economy and tackle the country’s greatest challenges. This year’s recipients are employed or funded by numerous departments and agencies: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of the Interior, Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution and the intelligence community. These departments and agencies join together annually to nominate the most meritorious scientists and engineers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise.

The awards, established by President Clinton in 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education or community outreach.

The newest recipients are:

Department of Agriculture

Michelle Cilia, USDA Agricultural Research Service

Pankaj Lal, Montclair State University

Michael Ulyshen, USDA Forest Service

Department of Commerce

Nicholas Butch, NIST Center for Neutron Research

Mandy Karnauskas, NOAA Fisheries

Anne Perring, University of Colorado, Boulder

Corey Potvin, University of Oklahoma

John Teufel, NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory

Justin Zook, NIST Material Measurement Laboratory

Department of Defense

Michael Bell, Colorado State University

Nurcin Celik, University of Miami

Kaushik Chowdhury, Northeastern University

Shawn Douglas, University of California, San Francisco

Christopher Dyer, DeepMind and Carnegie Mellon University

Aaron Esser-Kahn, University of California, Irvine

Sinan Keten, Northwestern University

Jonathan Fan, Stanford University

Danna Freedman, Northwestern University

Thomas Harris, Northwestern University

David Hsieh, California Institute of Technology

Osama Nayfeh, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center-Pacific

Olukayode Okusaga, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

Joseph Parker, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

Adam Pilchak, Air Force Research Laboratory

Harris Wang, Columbia University

Department of Education

Daphna Bassok, University of Virginia

Shayne Piasta, The Ohio State University

Department of Energy

Jonathan Belof, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Carl Dahl, Northwestern University

Eric Duoss, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Anna Grassellino, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Jacqueline Hakala, National Energy Technology Laboratory

Stephanie Hansen, Sandia National Laboratories

Kory Hedman, Arizona State University

Alan Kruizenga, Sandia National Laboratories

Wei Li, Rice University

Guglielmo Scovazzi, Duke University

Michael Tonks, Penn State University

Jenny Yang, University of California, Irvine

John Yeager, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Department of Health and Human Services

Gregory Alushin, Rockefeller University

Manish Arora, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dawn Cornelison, University of Missouri

Kashmira Date, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Craig Duvall, Vanderbilt University

Nicholas Gilpin, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

Anna Greka, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Pamela Guerrerio, National Institutes of Health

Gery Guy, Jr., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Christine Hendon, Columbia University

Catherine Karr, University of Washington

Maria Lehtinen, Boston Children's Hospital

Adriana Lleras-Muney, University of California, Los Angeles

Mary Kay Lobo, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Michael McAlpine, University of Minnesota

Eric Morrow, Brown University

Daniel O'Connor, Johns Hopkins University

Aimee Shen, Tufts University

Cui Tao, University of Texas

Jacquelyn Taylor, Yale School of Nursing

Benjamin Voight, University of Pennsylvania

Matthew Wheeler, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Blake Wiedenheft, Montana State University

Department of Interior

Nathaniel Hitt, U.S. Geological Survey

Sarah Minson, U.S. Geological Survey

Diann Prosser, U.S. Geological Survey

Department of Veterans Affairs

Adam Rose, RAND Corporation and Boston Medical Center

Nasia Safdar, Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital

Joshua Yarrow, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Environmental Protection Agency

Havala Pye, Environmental Protection Agency

Sala Senkayi, Environmental Protection Agency

Intelligence Community

Matthew Dicken, U.S. Army

Josiah Dykstra, National Security Agency

James Kang, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Jason Matheny, Office of the Director of National Intelligence

David Moehring, IonQ, Inc.

R. Jacob Vogelstein, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Jeremy Bassis, University of Michigan

Othmane Benafan, NASA Glenn Research Center

Dalia Kirschbaum, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Marco Pavone, Stanford University

Miguel Roman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

National Science Foundation

Alicia Alonzo, Michigan State University

Randy Ewoldt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Emily Fox, University of Washington

Jacob Fox, Stanford University

Eric Hudson, University of California, Los Angeles

Shawn Jordan, Arizona State University

Ahmad Khalil, Boston University

Oleg Komogortsev, Texas State University, San Marcos

John Kovac, Harvard University

Bérénice Mettler, University of Minnesota and icuemotion, LLC

Jelani Nelson, Harvard University

Elizabeth Nolan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Michael Rotkowitz, University of Maryland, College Park

Andrea Sweigart, University of Georgia

Chuanbing Tang, University of South Carolina

Aradhna Tripati, University of California, Los Angeles

Franck Vernerey, University of Colorado, Boulder

Juan Pablo Vielma Centeno, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Makeba Wilbourn, Duke University

Smithsonian Institution

Nicholas Pyenson, Smithsonian Institution

For more information, visit: www.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov

Sponsored Recommendations

Connect with an Expert!

Our measurement instrumentation experts are available for real-time conversations.

Maximize Green Hydrogen Production with Advanced Instrumentation

Discover the secrets to achieving maximum production output, ensuring safety, and optimizing profitability through advanced PEM electrolysis.

5 Ways to Improve Green Hydrogen Production Using Measurement Technologies

Watch our video to learn how measurement solutions can help solve green hydrogen production challenges today!

How to Solve Green Hydrogen Challenges with Measurement Technologies

Learn How Emerson's Measurement Technologies Tackle Renewable Hydrogen Challenges with Michael Machuca.