Thirty-four NSM Faculty Celebrated for 50-in-5 Achievements

More than 100 UH Faculty Members Recognized for National Recognition and Publications Achievements

At the first in-person 50-in-5 celebration event, 116 University of Houston faculty members were honored. Thirty-four honorees were from the College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics.

50-in-5

President Renu Khator, Provost Paula Myrick Short and Vice President for Research Amr Elnashai recognized faculty achievements for Year 2 and Year 3 of UH’s 50-in-5 Program. The event was held November 29 at Wortham House.

The University of Houston launched the 50-in-5 program to increase research and scholarly activity by 50% over the course of five years, aligning UH with other top research universities in the Association of American Universities (AAU) and supporting the University’s rise to become a Top 50 public university.

Faculty were celebrated for achievements in two 50-in-5 categories: Impact 50 and National Recognition.

Impact 50: Publication Achievements - 31 NSM Faculty Honored

Impact 50 recognizes UH faculty with the highest impact factors on peer-reviewed journal publications. For Years 2 and 3 of the 50-in-5 program, 31 NSM faculty members were included in the Impact 50 group. Seven of the 31 NSM faculty members were recognized for publication achievements in both years.

  • Eric Bittner, Chemistry
  • Shuo Chen, Physics
  • Ching-Wu Chu, Physics
  • Wei-Kan Chu, Physics
  • Olafs Daugulis, Chemistry
  • Omprakash Gnawali, Computer Science
  • Dan Graur, Biology & Biochemistry
  • Preethi Gunaratne, Biology & Biochemistry
  • P. Shiv Halasyamani, Chemistry
  • Eva Harth, Chemistry
  • Kresimir Josic, Mathematics
  • T. Randall Lee, Chemistry
  • Frank McKeon, Biology & Biochemistry
  • Zhifeng Ren, Physics
  • William Sager, EAS
  • John Suppe, EAS
  • Thomas Teets, Chemistry
  • Jonny Wu, EAS
  • Judy Wu, Chemistry
  • Steven Baldelli, Chemistry
  • Rene Bellwied, Physics
  • Jakoah Brgoch, Chemistry
  • Di Chen, Physics
  • Shuo Chen, Physics
  • Daniel Cherdack, Physics
  • Olafs Daugulis, Chemistry
  • P. Shiv Halasyamani, Chemistry
  • Eva Harth, Chemistry
  • Allan Jacobson, Chemistry
  • Frank McKeon, Biology & Biochemistry
  • Lawrence Pinsky, Physics
  • Zhifeng Ren, Physics
  • Anders Strom, CNRCS
  • Anthony Timmins, Physics
  • Rakesh Verma, Computer Science
  • Xiqu Wang, Chemistry
  • Judy Wu, Chemistry
  • Wa Xian, Biology & Biochemistry

National Recognition: Seven NSM Faculty Honored

Seven NSM faculty were honored for national awards received in Years 2 and 3 of the 50-in-5 program.

  • Jakoah Brgoch, Chemistry - NSF Career Award / Sloan Research Fellow
  • Seamus Curran, Physics - National Academy of Inventors
  • Edward Kao Do, Mathematics - Single-Author Book
  • Richard Meisel, Biology & Biochemistry - NSF Career Award
  • Thomas Teets, Chemistry - NSF Career Award
  • Jonny Wu, EAS - NSF Career Award
  • Judy Wu, Chemistry - Sloan Research Fellow

“These achievements bring incredible recognition to our colleges and the University of Houston,” said Short. “We are very proud to see our faculty earn such prestigious and distinguished awards. I have been at two AAU top research universities and know firsthand what quality in research and scholarship at that level of institution should be. We have that here at UH and faculty honored at the event have demonstrated such quality.”

“The list of accomplishments recognized in this 50-in-5 event could have been from any Top 10 U.S. university,” said Elnashai. “It is so impressive to see the scholarly accomplishments by faculty from a university on the rise, even an ambitious one like UH. It proves what I have always known; that our top faculty are world-class, as distinguished and competitive as any faculty worldwide.”

Faculty members who earned patents and major grant awards during Year 2 and 3 of the program will be celebrated at the Wortham House in February.

- Lindsay Lewis, UH Division of Research