The annual Research Excellence Awards were presented on Dec. 9 in Willard Straight Hall as part of the Engineering Faculty Holiday Reception.
Since 2015, the awards have recognized the importance of leadership in innovative research in the categories of assistant, associate, and full professors. The 2020 recipients included two ECE faculty members: Assistant Professor Mert Sabuncu and David E. Burr Professor of Engineering Debdeep Jena (nominated as an MSE faculty member).
Mert directs a research program that is situated at the intersection of image processing and machine learning, with an application focus in healthcare and neuroscience. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2018) and the NIH Early Career Development Award (2011). With over 100 peer-reviewed publications that include papers in high profile journals such as PNAS, Nature Communications, and Journal of Neuroscience, Mert’s research has already had a significant impact, reaching a h-index of 40.
Debdeep leads a world-class group that is pushing the boundaries of electronic device performance. He is exploring the fundamental limits of semiconductor devices using deep understanding of the theory of electron transport, electron-phonon interactions, light matter interactions, correlated electron behavior, and topological aspects of condensed matter physics. He has authored more than 160 publications including articles in Science, Nature Journals, Physical Review Letters, Electron Device Letters and Applied Physics Letters, and has an h-index of 65 and i10 index of 203 (Google Scholar). He has five patents issued along with seven pending and was elected an APS Fellow in 2017.
Both Mert and Debdeep embody the high standards of research we strive for in ECE and we are grateful for their exceptional contributions to our culture of exploration and innovation.
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