Duke CEE Highlights: 2020-2021

12/9/21 Duke CEE Magazine

National accolades, new grants and professional society recognitions—see who captured top honors in 2020-21

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Duke CEE Highlights: 2020-2021
2

NSF CAREER Awards

Andrew Bragg, Manolis Veveakis

$6.4M

New Research Awards

in 2020

Professional Honors

Henry Petroski of Duke University
8/24/21 Pratt School of Engineering

Petroski Named a Fellow of Sigma Xi

Henry Petroski was honored by “The Scientific Research Honor Society” for distinguished accomplishments and engaging histories of bridges in American Scientist

University Honors

Claudia Gunsch was named Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, providing leadership in Duke University’s efforts to ensure an inclusive and respectful environment where faculty, students, and staff can thrive and excel.

Marc Deshusses received an Incubation Fund Award from Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, providing $60,000 of support for further development of Stirling Solar Energy Generating System (S2EGS). This low-cost, renewable energy solution aims to generate and store energy by coupling a Stirling Engine with concentrated solar collectors and hot water storage.

Mike Bergin was named a Bass Fellow in recognition of his excellence in research and undergraduate education.

Michael Valerino, a PhD student in the Bergin lab, was awarded the 2021 Clean Energy Prize from the Duke University Energy Initiative and Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative. The $10K award will support Michael as he leads a team to develop an interactive, data-driven platform that aims to reduce the $10 billion in solar energy losses sustained annually, owed to dust accumulations on solar panels.

Graduate Student Honors: Senol Utku Annual Awards

This competition recognizes graduate students and their faculty advisors for intellectual excellence, creativity and quality of papers published in peer-reviewed journals.

Hanna Varga

Hanna Varga: Highest Distinction

“Effect of Dust Composition on the Reversibility of Photovoltaic Panel Soiling” Environmental Science & Technology. dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c06196

Advisor: Mark R. Wiesner

Boyang Zhang

Boyang Zhang: Highest Distinction

“Gauss’s Principle with Inequality Constraints for Multi-agent Navigation and Control” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, VOL. 67, NO. 2, February 2022

Advisor: Henri P. Gavin

Alexander McCumber

Alexander McCumber: High Distinction

“The Environment Shapes Swine Lung Bacterial Communities” Science of the Total Environment 758 (2021) 14362

Advisor: Claudia Gunsch

Mohammadreza Momenifar

Mohammadreza Momenifar: High Distinction

“Local Analysis of the Clustering, Velocities, and Accelerations of Particles Settling in Turbulence” Physical Review Fluids 5, 034306 (2020)

Advisor: Andrew D. Bragg

Tongshu Zheng

Tongshu Zheng: High Distinction

“Estimating Ground-Level Pm2.5 Using Micro-Satellite Images by a Convolutional Neural Network and Random Forest Approach” Atmospheric Environment 230 (2020) 117451

Advisor: David E. Carlson