Research Awards

CELEBRATION OF RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University faculty and students engage in transformative interdisciplinary research and scholarship through collaborative partnerships among academic units, with other universities, and with corporate and government researchers. Aggie researchers are creating new knowledge, spurring economic activity, and improving the quality of life for our community and the world.

Each spring, N.C. A&T celebrates the outstanding accomplishments and efforts of these innovators, mentors and dynamic leaders with a dinner awards program, the Celebration of Faculty Excellence, honoring Research, Advising, Teaching and Community Engagement.

Active research faculty or non-teaching research scientists nominate themselves directly to the Division of Research. All applications must be submitted as a single PDF file via Competition Space by Jan. 14, 2026.

AWARD CATEGORIES

North Carolina A&T's most outstanding researchers are recognized each spring semester with the Research Excellence Awards. There are five categories:

  • Senior Researcher of the Year: Recognizing outstanding research and/or creative activity by tenured faculty member or non-teaching research scientist currently active in research and/or creative productivity, who have been at the university at least five years.
  • Outstanding Young Investigator of the Year: Honoring non-tenured, tenure-track faculty members or non-teaching research scientist between their 3rd and 7th year of service at N.C. A&T, unless they came to the university as an associate professor, in which case they must be between their 2nd and 7th year, and who are currently involved in research and/or creative productivity, and show promise of making a significant contribution to their field.
  • Rookie of the Year: Recognizing the work of a tenure-track faculty member or non-teaching research scientist (faculty hired as associate professors without tenure are not eligible) in their second year of service (hired at N.C. A&T no earlier than Fall 2024).
  • Intellectual Property Award: Recognizing researchers’ work to disseminate, commercialize or publish intellectual property created in the course of their research or creative activity during the previous calendar year.
  • Interdisciplinary Team Award: Honoring research projects that stretch across the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines. A single N.C. A&T faculty member must be designated as the Team Lead and this person is responsible for uploading documents into Competition Space.

Rookie of the Year Award: Tianjun Xie, Ph.D., Assistant professor, Chemical, Biological, and Bioengineering. COE.

Outstanding Young Investigator: Kristen Dellinger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Nanoengineering, JSNN. 

Senior Researcher Award: Kaushik Roy, Ph. D., Chair and Professor, Department of Computer Science, COE. and Leonard Williams, Ph.D. Professor and Director, Family and Consumer Sciences. CAES.

Intellectual Property Award: Dongyang Deng, Ph. D., Associate Professor, Department of Built Environment, COST. 

Interdisciplinary Team Award: Dhananjay Kumar (COE), Caroline Booth (CED), Bishnu Bastakoti (COST), Kristen Rhinehardt (COE), Shyam Aravamudhan (JSNN).

Patent Awards: #1: Shanthi Iyer (JSNN), Jia Li (JSNN).

#2: Sun Yi (COE), Sameer Hamoushi (COE), M A Muktadir (COE).

Rookie of the Year Award: Yuhan Jiang, Ph.D., Associate professor, Department of Built Envirionment. COST.

Outstanding Young Investigator: Kristen Rhinehardt, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Computational data Science and Engineering, COE. 

Senior Researcher Award: Ali Karimoddini, Ph. D., Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, COE. 

Intellectual Property Award: Lifeng Zhang, Ph. D., Associate Professor, Department of Nanoengineering, JSNN. 

Interdisciplinary Team Award: Team 1: Reza Zadegan (JSNN), Salil Desai (COE), Shyam Aravamudhan (JSNN) Kaushik Roy (COE), Samuel MD Oliveira (JSNN).

Team 2: John Kelly (COE), Ali Karimoddini (COE), Leila Hashemi Beni (COST), Abdollah Hormaifar (COE), Steven Jiang (COE).

Rookie of the Year Award: John Ng’ombe, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Agribusiness, Applied Economics and Agriscience Education, CAES.

Outstanding Young Investigator: Renzun Zhao, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Civil Architecture and Environmental Engineering, COE.

Senior Researcher Award: Joseph Graves Jr., Ph.D., professor, Department of Biology, CoST.

Intellectual Property Award: Shanthi Iyer, Ph.D., professor, Department of Nanoengineering, JSNN.

Interdisciplinary Team Award: Dhananjay Kumar, Ph.D., professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, COE.

Rookie of the Year Award: Dr. Michael Andre Hamilton, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, COE

Outstanding Young Investigator: Dr. Hyoshin Park, Department of Computational Data Science and Engineering, COE

Senior Researcher Award: Dr. Lifeng Zhang, Department of Nanoenginering, JSNN

Intellectual Property Award: Dr. Hyoshin Park, Department of Computational Data Science and Engineering, COE

Interdisciplinary Team Award: Dr. Ali Karimoddini, Dr. Leila Hashemi-Beni, and Dr. Abolghasem Shahbazi

Senior Researcher of the Year: Dr. Salam Ibrahim, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Outstanding Young Investigator: Dr. Bishnu Bastakoti, College of Science and Technology

Rookie of the Year: Dr. Reza Zadegan, Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

Intellectual Property Award: Dr. Hyoshin Park, College of Engineering 

Interdisciplinary Team Award: Sustainable Materials Research Team; Lifeng Zhang, Ajit Kelkar, Abolghasem Shahbazi, and Lijun Wang

Interdisciplinary Team Award: Food-Energy-Water Team; Manoj Jha, Chyi Lyi "Kathleen" Liang, Lyubov Kurkalova, Leila Hashemi Beni, Greg Monty and Timothy Mulrooney (of N.C. Central University)

Senior Researcher of the Year: Dr. Salil Desai, College of Engineering

Outstanding Young Investigator: Dr. Dongyang “Sunny” Deng, College of Science and Technology.

Rookie of the Year: Dr. Arnab Bhowmik, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Intellectual Property Award: Dr. Lifeng Zhang, Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

Interdisciplinary Team Award: Autonomous Robotic Non-Destructive Investigation (ARNDI) team, College of Engineering

Senior Researcher of the Year: Dr. Manoj Jha, College of Engineering

Outstanding Young Investigator: Dr. Andrea Ofori-Boadu, College of Science and Technology

Rookie of the Year: Dr. Uchenna Anele, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Intellectual Property Award: Dr. Guochen Yang, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Interdisciplinary Team Award: The TECHLAV Center, College of Engineering

Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kim Smith, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Senior Researcher of the Year: Dr. Shengmin Sang. College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Outstanding Young Investigator: Dr. Lifeng Zhang, Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

Rookie of the Year: Dr. Hyung Nam Kim, College of Engineering

Intellectual Property Award: Sr. Sung-Jin Cho, Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

Interdisciplinary Team Award: BEACON, Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jenora Waterman, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Senior Researcher of the Year: Dr. Solomon Bililign, College of Science and Technology

Outstanding Young Investigator: Dr. Mahour Mellat-Parast, College of Science and Technology

Rookie of the Year: Dr. Andrea Ofori-Boadu, College of Science and Technology

Intellectual Property Award: Dr. Shengmin Sang, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Interdisciplinary Team Award: NC-MS PIRT: College of Engineering/Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

Senior Researcher of the Year: Dr. Lijun Wang, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Outstanding Young Investigator: Dr. Robert Newman, College of Science and Technology

Rookie of the Year: Dr. Sung-Jin Cho, Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

Intellectual Property Award: Dr. Ajit Kelkar and Dr. Lifeng Zhang, Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering