Faculty Honored for their Excellence in Scholarship and Research
Jeremy Kees, PhD, Bo Li, PhD, University President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, Bridget Wadzuk, PhD and Qianhong Wu, PhD at the 2024 Faculty Scholars Awards.
奶糖直播 celebrated its distinguished faculty members and their achievements in scholarship and research at the annual Faculty Scholars Awards on Sept. 23. Through their research and scholarship, the four faculty honorees bring 奶糖直播鈥檚 Augustinian Catholic mission to life, combining the best of what is known with the courage to explore the undiscovered.
The 2024 recipients of the Outstanding Faculty Research (Jeremy Kees, PhD and Bridget Wadzuk, PhD), University Scholarly Achievement (Qianhong Wu, PhD) and Mid-Career Scholar (Bo Li, PhD) were recognized for their contributions to their fields, the 奶糖直播 community and their impact on the student experience.
鈥淭hese awards honor our faculty鈥檚 excellence in research, scholarship and creative endeavors鈥揳ll of which contribute to the success and advancement of our University,鈥 said Amanda M. Grannas, PhD, Vice Provost for Research and Chief Research Officer. 鈥淭hrough their dedication and groundbreaking research, our exceptional faculty are advancing scholarship at 奶糖直播. Their achievements further our mission and bring great acclaim to the University.鈥
In addition to the four honorees, C. Nataraj, PhD, Moritz Endowed Professor of Engineered Systems and Director, 奶糖直播 Center for Analytics of Dynamic Systems Research in the College of Engineering, was recognized for his recent patent, which developed a fault detection system that provides a software-based method for diagnosing the nature and magnitude of faults within dynamic mechanical and electrical systems.
2024 HONOREES
OUTSTANDING FACULTY RESEARCH AWARD RECIPIENTS
Jeremy Kees, PhD
The Richard J. and Barbara Naclerio Endowed Chair in Business
and Professor of Marketing
奶糖直播 School of Business
Jeremy Kees, PhD, earned his PhD from the University of Arkansas. He serves 奶糖直播 in various roles including The Richard J. and Barbara Naclerio Endowed Chair in Business, Founding Director of the Center for Marketing and Consumer Insights and Faculty Athletics Representative. Dr. Kees is also Co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, a leading peer-reviewed journal published by Sage and the American Marketing Association. His research has been published more than 70 times in scientific journals, conference proceedings and books. He has presented his research at numerous academic conferences around the world and has served as the ANZMAC Visiting International Scholar in New Zealand.
Dr. Kees has served on the FDA Risk Communication Advisory Committee, where he was an advisor to various government agencies about risk communication strategy and policy. He also serves as an ongoing Special Government Employee, a role in which he provides direction on various FDA initiatives. Dr. Kees has won various awards for both his research and teaching including the American Marketing Association Thomas C. Kinnear Research Award, the American Academy of Advertising Arnold Barban Award, the McDonough Award for Research Excellence and the O鈥橫ara Award for Outstanding Teaching. Dr. Kees has been featured in such national media outlets as NBC鈥檚 The Today Show, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MSNBC, among many others.
Dr. Kees conducts research at the intersection of marketing and public policy and focuses on topics related to consumer, societal and environmental well-being. Much of his work examines consumer information processing in the context of product disclaimers and warnings, having published empirical studies examining interventions to help consumers make more informed decisions about potentially harmful consumption behaviors. Dr. Kees has also published impactful research on data collection methodologies, with his 2017 award-winning paper on quality control standards for data sourced online having been cited more than 1,000 times.
Bridget Wadzuk, PhD
Director of Sustainable Engineering
Professor, Edward A. Daylor Chair in Civil Engineering
Director of Strategic Initiatives
College of Engineering
Bridget Wadzuk, PhD, received her Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from 奶糖直播 University and her Master of Science and PhD from The University of Texas at Austin. She is the Edward A. Daylor Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Director of the Sustainable Engineering Program. Dr. Wadzuk is also the Associate Director of the 奶糖直播 Center for Resilient Water Systems (VCRWS). She is a water resources engineer who focuses on topics in urban water resources and resilient stormwater management, including studying urban hydrologic processes and the design, implementation, monitoring, analysis and modeling of various green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) systems. She has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and has worked with municipal and industry partners. She is an associate editor of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Journal of Irrigation and Drainage and has served in leadership roles in the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute. Dr. Wadzuk and her team work in collaborative and interdisciplinary spaces to produce actional science that considers social and climate impacts to integrate knowledge across spatial and temporal scales of the urban environment.
Dr. Wadzuk鈥檚 research is on GSI, which are sustainable and resilient mitigation strategies to address urban flooding issues, particularly those issues that are exacerbated with climate change and environmental injustices. Her research mission has been to develop an understanding of the pathways and processes that water moves within GSI to better inform design, operation and maintenance and long-term expected behavior. Her work has focused on understanding the individual hydrologic components of GSI (i.e., infiltration, evapotranspiration, runoff) to inform overall performance, benefit and a realistic expectation to the role of GSI in the larger watershed landscape. This process-oriented work serves as a platform to advance new technologies and synergies with big data analytics, integration with urban planning and community engagement and the preservation of biodiversity. Dr. Wadzuk advocates for deepening the scientific knowledge on GSI to then broadly communicate research to make actionable and beneficial science that positively aids communities.
UNIVERSITY SCHOLARLY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENT
Qianhong Wu, PhD
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Director of Graduate Studies
Director of the Cellular Biomechanics and Sports Science Laboratory (CBMSS)
College of Engineering
Qianhong Wu, PhD, received his Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. He received his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Institute of Electrical Engineering, The Chinese Academy of Sciences. He then received his Master of Engineering in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering and his PhD, both from The City College and Graduate Center of The City University of New York. Dr. Wu is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the director of 奶糖直播 Cellular Biomechanics and Sports Science Laboratory (CBMSS), and the director of the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Programs. He applies fundamental principles of fluid dynamics to bio and bio-inspired applications. His research interests include porous media flow, fluid dynamic and transport aspects of biological systems, cardiovascular engineering, brain biomechanics, hemodynamics, biomimetics, soft/super lubrication and fluid-assisted nano manufacturing. Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Pennsylvania state government and industrial grants, Dr. Wu has published extensively on these topics and been widely reported in Physical Review Letters, Science, Nature, Science Daily, The Doctor鈥檚 Channel and NBC 10 Morning Report. Dr. Wu serves on the editorial board as the Associate Editor for three International Peer Review Journals: ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering, Journal of Porous Media and Special Topics & Reviews in Porous Media: An International Journal.
Dr. Wu鈥檚 research is marked by breadth, diversity, depth, quality, originality and creativity, as evidenced by his extensive publications, successful grants, and peer and public recognition. His work on super lubrication, inspired by the frictionless motion of red blood cells in microcirculation, was featured on the cover of the prestigious Journal of Fluid Mechanics. His team developed a novel theory describing the brachial artery鈥檚 Flow-Mediated Dilation (FMD) response, leading to new diagnostic tools for cardiovascular disease. Notably, Dr. Wu鈥檚 innovative approaches, from the patented 鈥淪mart Brain鈥 technology to the egg analogy for studying brain concussion, have addressed significant challenges related to the brain鈥檚 complexity and the skull鈥檚 opacity. This work has resulted in two US patents, a highly competitive NSF grant and numerous publications and global reports.
UNIVERSITY MID-CAREER SCHOLAR AWARD
Bo Li, PhD
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Hybrid Nano-Architecture and Advanced Manufacturing Lab (HNAM)
College of Engineering
Bo Li, PhD, earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from Sichuan University. Dr. Li obtained his PhD in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from Northeastern University. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and serves as the principal investigator of the Hybrid Nano-Architecture and Advanced Manufacturing Lab (HNAM). Dr. Li worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Rice University before joining 奶糖直播 in 2016. His research interest is eco-friendly manufacturing of nanomaterials and their hybrid materials for improved human wellness, new energy solution and environmental protection. Dr. Li has received grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Pennsylvania state government and private companies. He is committed to technology innovation and transformation. Dr. Li holds two US patents, three pending patents and three provisional patents with one patent licensed. He published more than 50 articles in prestigious journals including Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Photonics and Advanced Materials. Dr. Li is also committed to youth STEM education and initiated the 奶糖直播-Library STEM Program with multiple local libraries.
Dr. Li鈥檚 research focuses on developing eco-friendly manufacturing technologies to achieve highly controlled nanomaterials structures on the target substrates such as human surfaces, polymers and metals. The potential applications include functional coatings for smart textiles, detectors for environmental protection, sensors and actuators for wearable devices and new energy storage systems. These are desired for the future development of meta-verse, AI, automation and health care. The fundamental side of his research is to understand and engineer the micro-scale interactions of nanomaterial and surrounding environments. He鈥檚 also interested in understanding and mediating the environmental impact of the manufacturing processes.
RECENT PATENT AWARDED
C. Nataraj, PhD
Moritz Endowed Professor of Engineered Systems and Director
奶糖直播 Center for Analytics of Dynamic Systems Research
College of Engineering
Co-Inventor
Turki Haj Mohamad 鈥21 PhD
奶糖直播 University Professor of Mechanical Engineering C. Nataraj, PhD, was awarded a patent for the development of a fault detection system that provides a software-based method for diagnosing the nature and magnitude of faults within dynamic mechanical and electrical systems. The software uses measured data from already existing fault detection sensors and computes, with high accuracy, the possibility that there is a defect, such as a bearing defect or shaft crack defect, in the system; the algorithm also estimates the magnitude of the fault. It accomplishes this using mathematical analysis, nonlinear dynamics techniques, time series analysis, signal processing and machine learning.
The software has been tested in multiple mechanical systems and performed with near perfect accuracy. The software can be generalized to a wide variety of mechanical and electrical systems. Not only will this make systems such as engines and motors safer, but it will also cut maintenance costs significantly by providing more detailed information noninvasively than current systems allowing inspections to occur when needed rather than on an automated schedule. Dr. Nataraj offers a superior solution to fault detection and diagnosis at a much lower investment cost than current methods, such as regularly scheduled inspection. All that is required is a small computer to connect to already existing fault diagnostic sensors.