National Academy of Engineering elects 10 University of California researchers

Stuart Russell: A professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Russell was inducted for “contributions to developments in artificial intelligence, including reasoning, probabilistic modeling, planning, safety, and education.” He is also the director of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence.

David Schaffer: A professor of bioengineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering, and neuroscience who holds joint appointments in the College of Engineering and the College of Chemistry, Schaffer was honored for “the application of fundamental molecular and cellular engineering principles to enable the clinical success of gene and cell therapies.” He also serves as the director of QB3 and Bakar Labs.

The NAE also elected Victoria Coleman, a visiting professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, for "innovations in software operations related to national and cyber security and consumer electronics." She is chief executive officer and head of North America Research and Technology at Acubed.

UC Berkeley & Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Kristin Persson: The Daniel M. Tellep Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Persson was elected for “pioneering data-driven materials design through the creation and stewardship of open materials databases and associated data-mining algorithms.” She serves as director of the Materials Project, a multi-institution, multinational effort to compute the properties of all inorganic materials and provide the data and associated analysis algorithms to researchers free of charge, and is a faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Margaret Torn: A senior scientist at Berkeley Lab’s Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division and an adjunct professor in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources, Torn was recognized for “contributions to the understanding of soil carbon dynamics and sustained leadership of the long-term monitoring of climate change.” At Berkeley Lab, Torn is the head of the Biosphere-Atmosphere Program and leads the AmeriFlux Management Project and the Belowground Biogeochemistry Science Focus Area.

UC Irvine

Kyriacos Athanasiou: A distinguished professor and the Henry Samueli Chair of Biomedical Engineering, Athanasiou was recognized for “contributions to the understanding and treatment of musculoskeletal afflictions and for leadership in bioengineering.” Athanasiou’s established one of the world’s most recognized research groups in tissue regeneration and is a leading authority on translating engineering innovations into commercially available medical instruments, devices and biologics. His functional, tissue-engineered cartilage replacements can be used all over the body, from nose and ears to shoulders, spine, hips and knees.

Eric Rignot: The Donald Bren Professor in the School of Physical Sciences, Rignot was honored for “contributions to modeling and analysis of the effects of global climate change on polar ice sheets.” He utilizes a variety of technologies, including synthetic-aperture radar satellites, airborne laser and radio echo sounding sensors, and submersible robots to collect field data, alongside climate and ice sheet numerical models to comprehend the dynamics of glacier ice along the coasts of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and their impact on sea level rise.

UCLA

Aydogan Ozcan: The Volgenau Chair in Engineering Innovation and a professor of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering, Ozcan was inducted for “contributions to mobile sensing and telepathology for medical diagnostics.” A pioneer of computational optics, Ozcan has developed new technologies with broad applications in biomedicine and health care that have helped increase access to advanced measurements in resource-limited areas. Ozcan is also the associate director for entrepreneurship, industry and academic exchange at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and a professor with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Lixia Zhang: A distinguished professor of computer science who holds the Computer Science Department’s Jonathan B. Postel Chair in Computer Networks, Zhang was recognized for “the development of internet protocols which significantly impacted internet quality and performance, and for leadership in setting standards.” Among Zhang’s notable achievements is the design of the Resource Reservation Protocol, or RSVP, a robust network signaling protocol used to manage network resources that has sustained internet growth for over two decades. She is also the lead principal investigator of the NSF-funded Named Data Networking project, a multi-institutional initiative to rethink and redesign the internet for enhanced quality and security.

UC San Diego

Robert Heath: The Charles Lee Powell Chair of the Jacobs School of Engineering, Heath was recognized for “contributions to the theory and practice of wireless communication.” Heath’s group has made diverse contributions to advance MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) communication technology in commercial wireless systems including analysis, algorithms and prototyping. His current research focuses on MIMO communications for next generation wireless networks.

UC alumni

Joshi Abhay (UC Irvine, MBA): The president and chief executive officer of Axent Biosciences, Abhay was honored for “taking botulinum toxin medicines from initial lab-scale production to global commercialization and distribution.”

James Dooley (UC Davis, M.S.): The chief technology officer for Forest Concepts, Dooley was inducted for “engineering achievements in the design of innovative wood products, biomass processes, and processing equipment.” 

Judith Estrin (UCLA, B.S.): The chief executive officer at JLabs, Estrin was inducted for “contributions to the early development and adoption of networking technologies, products, and services, and for leadership that advanced innovation.” 

Suresh V. Garimella (UC Berkeley, Ph.D.): The president and a distinguished professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Suresh was inducted for “contributions to microscale heat and mass transport, academic leadership, and service to the nation.” 

Justin Hanes (UCLA, B.S.): The Lewis J. Ort Professor at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Hanes was inducted for “developing innovative technologies that improve drug and gene delivery, resulting in multiple approved products.” 

Elizabeth Hausler (UC Berkeley, M.S., Ph.D.): The founder and chief executive officer of Build Change, Denver, Hausler was recognized for “transformational impact as an international social entrepreneur, saving lives by building sustainable communities with natural hazard resilience.” 

Don Mark Lipkin (UC Santa Barbara, Ph.D.): A professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, Lipkin was recognized for “innovations of coatings and rhenium recovery that contributed to higher efficiency and sustainability of jet engines and gas turbines.” 

John Manferdelli (UC Berkeley, Ph.D.): Manferdelli leads confidential computing incubation in VMware’s Office of the CTO and was previously a co-PI for the Intel Science and Technology Center for Secure Computing at UC Berkeley.

Leslie Momoda (UCLA, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.): The executive vice president of HRL Laboratories, Momoda was recognized for “delivering materials innovation and application of advanced technologies across diverse industry sectors, ranging from hypersonics to high performance electronics.” Momoda is also chair of the dean’s corporate advisory board at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.

Radhakrishnan Nagarajan (UC Santa Barbara, Ph.D.): The senior vice president and chief technology officer for Optical Platforms, Marvell Technology, Nagarajan was honored for “advances in high-speed lasers and photonic integration technologies.” 

Kristala Prather (UC Berkeley, Ph.D.): The Arthur D. Little Professor and head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Prather was honored for “the development of innovative approaches to regulate metabolic flux in engineered microorganisms with applications to specialty chemicals production.”

Ellen M. Rathje (UC Berkeley, M.S., Ph.D.): The Janet S. Cockrell Centennial Chair in the Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, Rathje was honored for “contributions to seismic slope assessment and site response analysis and the development of cyberinfrastructure for natural hazards engineering.” 

Mary Roybal (UCLA, Ph.D.): A retired senior principal engineering fellow at Raytheon, Roybal was recognized for “contributions to the structural integrity and producibility of some of the world's most advanced missile systems.” 

Robert A. Weller (UC San Diego, Ph.D.): A senior scientist in physical oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Weller was inducted for “contributions to the theory, observation, and instrumentation of the upper ocean and air-sea interface.”