Accolades: Faculty and Staff Awards and Honors

Below are awards and honors University of Maryland faculty and staff have earned since late February:

Affiliate Associate Research Scientist Gorjan Alagic, Adjunct Associate Professor Yi-Kai Liu and Adjunct Associate Professor Carl Miller, all from Institute for Advanced Computer Studies and the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, received a research impact award at the second annual Cyber Policy Awards. They were part of a team of 13 scientists from UMD and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recognized for their work leading to the publication of the first three NIST standards specific to post-quantum cryptography.

Rebecca Bellinger, executive director of the Center for Global Business, was appointed to the Maryland-Ireland Trade Commission by Gov. Wes Moore.

Colleen Byrne, clinical professor in the Department of Psychology and director of the Psychology Clinic at UMD, was elected chair of the American Psychological Association's Council of Chairs of Training Councils.

TerpsVote, led by Naomi Cohen, coordinator for social action and democratic engagement in the Stamp Student Union, was recognized with the 2025 Standout Student Voting Group Award from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for 2025.

Maria Cramer, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Entomology, received the John Henry Comstock Award from the Entomological Society of America, Eastern Branch, given to an outstanding graduate student.

Associate Professor Dan Cristofaro-Gardiner, Professor Tamás Darvas, Distinguished University Professor Dima Dolgopyat and Professor Adam Kanigowski, all in the Department of Mathematics, received the 2025 Frontiers of Science Award from the International Congress for Basic Science.

Associate Professor of management and Organization Waverly Ding Dean’s Chair in Organizational Behavior Debra Shapiro and Hyeun Lee Ph.D. ’20 won the Strategic Management Society’s Best Video Abstract Award 2024 for their video regarding key insights from their article in Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, “Are entrepreneurs penalized during job searches? It depends on who is hiring.”

Fischell Department of Bioengineering Associate Professor Edward Eisenstein was named a 2025 fellow of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Drew S. Fagan, clinical professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership, received a 2025 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service.

Michael Faulkender, Dean’s Professor of Finance, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in as deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury, the No. 2 position in the department.

Associate Professor Kuishuang Feng at the Department of Geographical Sciences was elected [resident of the International Input-Output Association. He was recently named editor-in-chief of the journal Sustainable Production and Consumption.

Several University of Maryland Extension agents received awards from Epsilon Sigma Phi, the national extension professional’s organization: Anna Glenn and her team of Joi Vogin, Mark Townsend and Susan Trice (Frederick County) won the Distinguished Team Award for their program Agriculture Olympics. Amy Lang (Queen Anne’s County) received the Diversity-Individual Award for her program 4-H for All. Catherine Sorenson (Carroll County) won the Early Career Service Award.

Kimberly Griffin M.A. ’01, dean of the College of Education and professor in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education, and KerryAnn O'Meara, professor emerita in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education, were named 2025 American Educational Research Association fellows.

Elizabeth Honig, professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology, was elected president of the Historians of Netherlandish Art, an organization dedicated to the study of Netherlandish, German and Franco-Flemish art and architecture.

School of Public Policy Professor Phil Joyce was recognized with the American Society for Public Administration’s 2024 Democracy and Social Justice Article of the Year award as a co-author of “A Polyphonic Debate on Social Equity Budgeting,” published in Public Administration.

Jinhee Kim, associate dean for the University of Maryland Extension, will receive a Distinguished Fellow Award from the American Council on Consumer Interests.

The American Psychological Association named Arie Kruglanski, a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Psychology, a 2025 recipient of its annual awards for distinguished scientific contributions.

Department of Linguistics Professor and Chair Jeffrey Lidz; Xin-Zhong Liang, professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science with a joint appointment in the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center; and Ann Wylie, a professor emerita in the Department of Geology, were named 2024 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Ming Lin, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science, was elected treasurer of the Computing Research Association and a member of the Executive Committee of its Board of Directors.

Jing Liu, assistant professor in education policy, received an Early Career Award from the Association for Education Finance and Policy.

Jim MacDonald, research professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, won the Award for Outstanding Public Service Through Economics from the Northeastern Agricultural Resource and Economics Association.

Gov. Wes Moore appointed Jacqueline Manger, managing director of the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets, to serve as a trustee of Montgomery College.

Alvin Mayes, principal lecturer of dance performance and scholarship in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, was awarded the 2025 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Creative Activity. The award recognizes his accomplishments as a scholar, educator, mentor and leader in the local dance community and beyond.

Tania D. Mitchell, associate provost for community engagement and professor in the College of Education’s Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education, was named one of the Top 40 Women in Higher Education by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. This honor celebrates leading women who are making a difference in academia.

Catherine Nakalembe, assistant professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences, was asked to join the 2025 class of the Bellagio Center Residency Program, which offers participants time and space to work in the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy and network with other changemakers, over the course of one month. She was also asked to be a part of the 2025 cohort of TED fellows, a fellowship that offers communication training, network-building opportunities and amplification for individuals who are pushing boundaries in their fields and tackling the world’s greatest challenges.

Interim Prince George’s County Extension Director Matt Parker was appointed by Gov. Wes Moore to the Maryland Agricultural and Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation Board of Directors in March.

Vice President for Student Affairs Patty A. Perillo received the Annuit Coeptis Senior Professional award from the American College Personnel Association.

Fatima Quander, lecturer in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, is the recipient of the Uta Hagen Award, selected by the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, the American College Theatre Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the HB Studio in New York City. 

Nutrition and food science Professor Nadine Sahyoun was named a distinguished fellow of the American Society for Nutrition for significant contributions and outstanding lifetime achievements in the field of nutrition.

Aerospace engineering Assistant Professor Umberto Saetti received the 2025 François-Xavier Bagnoud Award from the Vertical Flight Society for research and leadership that are shaping the future of rotorcraft simulation, control and pilot training.

Debra Shapiro received the Academy of Management’s Academy of Management Learning & Education (AMLE) journal’s Decade Paper Award 2024. She and co-authors were honored for their article, “Scholarly impact: A pluralist conceptualization,” which garnered more citations than any other AMLE publication in the past 10 years.

Professor Kathleen Stewart at the Department of Geographical Sciences received the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Spatial Analysis and Modeling Specialty Group Outstanding Service Award for 2025 She also gave the 2025 Waldo Tobler Distinguished Lecture in Geographic Information Science by the Geographic Information Science and Systems Specialty Group at this year's AAG Conference on March 25 in Detroit.

Millard and Lee Alexander Professor Pratyush Tiwary received the 2025 Early Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry from the American Chemical Society, an honor annually bestowed on one scientist anywhere in the world within the first 10 years of their independent career.

School of Public Policy Assistant Professor Alec Worsnop was awarded the Charles Moskos Prize for his article, “The Rebel and the Politician: Developing a Typology of Insurgent Civil–Military Relations,” published in Armed Forces & Society.

Cunxi Yu, computer science professor, co-authored “SmoothE: Differentiable E-Graph Extraction,” which received the Best Paper Award at the 2025 Association for Computing Machinery International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems. The paper was a collaboration with Cornell University.

Kaiqing Zhang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering with an affiliate appointment in the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award totaling approximately $540,000 over the next five years.

Know of a faculty or staff honor that should be included in this quarterly compilation? Please contact your unit’s communications lead and accolades@umd.edu.