Faculty Honors

Xiuling Lu Promoted to Professor

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Xiuling Lu
Professor Xiuling Lu

(from UConn Today)

IMS Faculty member Xiuling Lu has been promoted to professor in the School of Pharmacy.  She joined the School of Pharmacy as an assistant professor in 2011. She has been active in the teaching and research programs as well as contributing to the service mission of the school and university. Lu’s research program is focused on nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems for improving therapeutic effectiveness utilizing biologically compatible approaches. Since her promotion to associate professor in 2017, Lu has established strong collaborations with cross-disciplinary external researchers and garnered external grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Federal Drug Administration (FDA), American Cancer Society, pharmaceutical industry and the Center for Pharmaceutical Processing Research (CPPR). Her service contribution to the school and beyond were recognized when she received the 2019 Robert L. McCarthy Faculty Service Award.

Lu has taught classes in both the professional (Pharm.D.) and graduate (Ph.D.) programs and has trained more than 30 BS, MS and Ph.D. students, as well as 12 postdoctoral scholars and visiting scientists doing research in her lab. Her overall goals are to teach and train the next generation of pharmacy professionals and pharmaceutical scientists, serve the university and broader community promoting science and education, and to utilize formulation science and platform technologies to enable effective pharmaceutical products for improving human health.

Seven IMS Faculty Members Promoted

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Faculty Promotions 2022
(l-r) Drs. Yupeng Chen, Elena Dormidontova, Ali Gokirmak, Ying Li, Xiuling Lu, Thanh Nguyen, Arash Zaghi

The Office of the Provost recently announced the award of promotion and/or tenure to 69 faculty across the Storrs and regional campuses. Seven IMS faculty members were among them.

Evaluations for promotion, tenure, and reappointment apply the highest standards of professional achievement in scholarship, teaching, and service for each faculty member evaluated. Applications for promotion and tenure are reviewed at the department level, school or college level, and finally at the Office of the Provost before recommendations are forwarded to the Board of Trustees.

Newly promoted IMS faculty members include:

From the School of Engineering

Promotion to Associate Professor and Tenure

  • Ying Li, Mechanical Engineering
  • Thanh Nguyen, Mechanical Engineering

Promotion to Professor

Tenure as Associate Professor

From the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Promotion to Professor

From the School of Pharmacy

Promotion to Professor

  • Xiuling Lu, Pharmaceutical Sciences

IMS congratulates each of these faculty members for their excellence and dedication.

Four IMS Faculty Members Receive OVPR Scholarship Facilitation Award

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Scholarship Facilitation Award Winners
(l-r) Drs. Farhad Imani, Jasna Jankovic, Tomoyasu Mani, and Luyi Sun

The Scholarship Facilitation Fund program provides up to $2,000 to UConn faculty across all disciplines. The OVPR offers the competitive awards to promote, support, and enhance research, scholarship, and creative endeavors across UConn Storrs and regional campuses.

Four IMS faculty members were among the 67 faculty named as recipient of the award for Spring 2022:

  • Farhad Imani, Mechanical Engineering
    Brain-inspired Hyperdimensional Computing for Empowering Cognitive Additive Manufacturing
  • Jasna Jankovic, Material Science and Engineering
    STEAM Tree Earth Day Celebration
  • Tomoyasu Mani, Chemistry
    Stereoselective Control of Electron Transfer Reactions
  • Luyi Sun, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
    Publication in PNAS, a Premium Journal for Maximum Impact

IMS Congratulates these faculty members on this accomplishment.

Four IMS Faculty Members Elected to CASE

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Hebert-Kumbar-Nieh-Teschke
(l-r) Drs. Rainer Hebert, Sangamesh Kumbar, Mu-Ping Nieh, and Carolyn Teschke

The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) announced the election of 35 new members for 2022 who the organization describe as leading experts in science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and technology.  12 of those newly elected members are UConn faculty and four are faculty members of the Institute of Materials Science (IMS).

Rainer Hebert, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Director of Pratt & Whitney Additive Manufacturing Center, Associate Director of the Institute of Materials Science

Sangamesh G. Kumbar, Associate Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery, Biomedical Engineering Health

Mu-Ping Nieh, Professor, Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UConn School of Engineering and Institute of Materials Science

Carolyn Teschke, Professor and Interim Department Head, Molecular and Cell Biology, and Chemistry

The new members will be introduced at the Academy’s 47th Annual Meeting to be held virtually on May 26, 2022.  Read the full UConn Today story