Smitha Rao's work at the intersection of environment, development, and social policy includes (1) extreme weather events and contextual vulnerability, (2) improving adaptive capacities among communities to deal with climatic and other stressors, and (3) understanding the effects of air pollution on environmental health and improving access to clean energy. With community partners, she is co-leading a multi-phase research project [Weather and Aging Resilient Model (W.A.R.M)] with support from the City of Columbus and the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging to understand the perspectives and experiences of disasters and disaster preparedness among older adults and persons with disability living in affordable housing communities. Additionally, this project involves service providers working closely with these communities to understand barriers to and experiences of disaster preparedness to strengthen current systems of care. Rao's community-focused work engages graduate and undergraduate students across disciplines in research aimed at improving community lives and capacities in the face of environmental and climate challenges.

Shang-Tian Yang has been involved in bioprocessing research for more than 40 years and has 12 related patents, including several licenses for commercial development. His research group developed the first 3D cell culture system that can mimic in vivo tissue environment and be used reliably in high-throughput screening of chemicals for their embryotoxic potentials and/or as cancer drug targets. His current research involves biocatalysis, fermentation for value-added products from biomass and industrial wastes, metabolic engineering, stem cell and tissue engineering, and biochips for high-throughput cell-based assays and biodiagnostics. A prolific researcher, Yang has published more than 375 journal papers, proceeding articles and book chapters in bioprocess engineering.

Srinivasan Parthasarathy directs Ohio State’s Data Mining Research Laboratory, which is a part of the High End Systems Group and affiliated with the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Research. He is the founder and co-director of the Data Analytics major. He also co-leads the Responsible Data Science Community of Practice as part of the Translational Data Analytics Institute leadership team. He has designed award-winning novel architecture-conscious data structures and tiling strategies to enhance chip utilization and out-of-core performance on single-node and cluster systems. Parthasarathy was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his contributions to high-performance data mining and network analysis.

A world-renowned polymer expert, Judit Puskas’ groundbreaking research in the field of polymer science and engineering has significantly impacted her field and society. Her outstanding leadership and mentorship abilities inspire and educate the next generation of scientists.

The AAAS Fellowship, recognizing scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications, is one of the most prestigious honors a U.S. scientist can receive. Fellows are elected by their academic peers. Aylin Yener, professor of electrical and computer engineering, computer science and engineering, and integrated systems engineering, was recognized for distinguished contributions to the fields of communications, information theory and signal processing, particularly for the development of wireless physical layer security and design principles of sustainable energy harvesting wireless networks. 

The AAAS Fellowship, recognizing scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications, is one of the most prestigious honors a U.S. scientist can receive. Fellows are elected by their academic peers. Matthew Sullivan, professor of microbiology and director of the Center of Microbiome Science, was recognized for pioneering studies of viral economics to study viruses in complex communities via quantitative sample-to-sequence pipelines, and linking viruses to hosts, and studying viral impact in the marine environment.

Harvey Miller, Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA) director and SI affiliated faculty member, along with former CURA GRA, Luyu Liu, and former consulting manager and senior researcher, Adam Porr, have received the 2023 JGS Best Paper Award for their article in the Journal of Geographical Systems, entitled “Realizable Accessibility: Evaluating the Reliability of Public Transit Accessibility Using High-Resolution Real-Time Data.” Their study introduces a new method, realizable real-time accessibility, to more accurately measure public transit accessibility to essential services, addressing overestimations by traditional methods that don't fully account for delays and assume perfect rider information. By applying this method to the Central Ohio Transit Authority bus system, the research confirms its effectiveness as a more conservative and realistic approach for transit planning, revealing consistent patterns of unreliability in traditional accessibility measures.

In recognition of sustained excellence in innovation and education, Umit Ozkan has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Class of 2024. Ozkan, a Distinguished University Professor, was elected “for research in electrocatalysis and elucidation of mechanisms of oxidation catalysis.” Also chair of the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ozkan is an internationally recognized leader in thermal-catalytic and electro-catalytic manipulations of hydrocarbons. 

In recognition of sustained excellence in innovation and education, Antonio Conejo has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Class of 2024. Conejo was elected “for power systems planning and electricity markets.” His research interests include control, operations, planning and economics of electric energy systems, as well as statistics and optimization theory and its applications.

The National Science Foundation has awarded Assistant Professor Xiaoguang (William) Wang a five-year Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. The award will support his research on polymer properties for a variety of use applications, including renewable energy and battery development.