WATERMAN AWARD
MUYINATU “BISI” BELL, John C. Malone Associate Professor in electrical and computer engineering, received the National Science Foundation’s 2024 Alan T. Waterman Award, considered the nation’s highest honor for early-career scientists and engineers, for her work “harnessing light and sound to improve biomedical imaging systems.”
As director of the Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Systems Engineering (PULSE) Lab, Bell is advancing health care interventions and diagnosis through techniques that are transforming ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging. Among her innovations are an algorithm that can enable accurate ultrasound images, regardless of a patient’s skin tone or BMI (see Delivering on the Promise of Personalized Medicine), and an AI-driven diagnostic tool that can identify COVID-19 in lung ultrasounds. Bell has joint appointments in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science.
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF INVENTORS FELLOW
HAI-QUAN MAO, professor of materials science and engineering and director of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. A pioneer in the field of regenerative medicine and therapy delivery, Mao creates nanofiber scaffolds to regenerate tissues such as the liver, soft tissues, and blood vessels.
EARLY CAREER AWARD
SOLEDAD VILLAR, assistant professor of applied mathematics and statistics, received a National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, which recognizes early-stage scholars with high levels of promise and excellence, for her project “Symmetries and Classical Physics in Machine Learning for Science and Engineering.”
ROSALIND FRANKLIN YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD
YUTING LUO, assistant professor in materials science and engineering and a member of the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute, received the Argonne National Laboratory’s 2024 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for her materials and electrochemistry research.
NEW LEADERSHIP FOR DOCTOR OF ENGINEERING PROGRAM
ASHUTOSH DUTTA, the chief 5G strategist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and an IEEE Fellow, was named director of the Whiting School’s Doctor of Engineering program.
Established in 2018, the Doctor of Engineering program, which is designed for working professionals, includes research collaboration between a student’s employer and the Whiting School.
Dutta is focusing on growing the program by increasing the number of APL staff members and Johns Hopkins faculty serving as program advisers, establishing new partnerships with industry and government to increase corporate engagement and research collaboration, and growing annual enrollment by enhancing the resources available to prospective applicants.
Dutta previously served as chair of the Engineering for Professionals electrical and computer engineering program and is a member of JHU’s Institute for Assured Autonomy.
ONLINE GRADUATE PROGRAM AMONG NATION’S BEST
Johns Hopkins Engineering’s online graduate degree programs continue to be recognized by U.S. News & World Report as among the nation’s best.
In the publication’s 2024 rankings, announced in February, multiple EP programs ranked No. 1, including its online computer information technology offerings, which tied for the top spot. Rankings in this category considered data from five EP fields: computer science, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, information systems engineering, and data science.
Also tied for the No. 1 spot are EP’s engineering management and electrical and computer engineering programs.
EP’s online programs overall now tie for No. 6 among the Best Online Master’s in Engineering Programs. This year’s specialty rankings include EP’s industrial/systems engineering program at No. 8; mechanical engineering at No. 7; and civil engineering, which tied for No. 7.