FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
President Obama Honors Outstanding Early-Career Scientists
President Obama today named 102 researchers as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. The winners will receive their awards at a Washington, DC, ceremony in the coming year.
“The impressive achievements of these early-stage scientists and engineers are promising indicators of even greater successes ahead,” President Obama said. “We are grateful for their commitment to generating the scientific and technical advancements that will ensure America’s global leadership for many years to come.”
The Presidential Early Career Awards embody the high priority the Obama Administration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers to advance the Nation’s goals, tackle grand challenges, and contribute to the American economy. The recipients are employed or funded by the following departments and agencies: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of the Interior, Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Intelligence Community, which join together annually to nominate the most meritorious scientists and engineers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for assuring America’s preeminence in science and engineering and contributing to the awarding agencies' missions.
The awards, established by President Clinton in 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach.
This year’s recipients are:
Department of Agriculture
Dr. Steven Cannon, Iowa State University
Dr. Isis Mullarky, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Dr. Justin Runyon, U.S. Forest Service
Department of Commerce
Dr. Gretchen Campbell, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Dr. Adam Clark, University of Oklahoma
Dr. Alan Haynie, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Dr. R. Joseph Kline, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Dr. Ana Rey, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado at Boulder
Dr. Scott Weaver, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Department of Defense
Dr. Jennifer Dionne, Stanford University
Dr. Mohamed El-Naggar, University of Southern California
Dr. Gregory Fuchs, Cornell University
Dr. Kristen Grauman, University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Mona Jarrahi, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Mr. Lane Martin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Yael Niv, Princeton University
Dr. Derek Paley, University of Maryland
Dr. Greg Pitz, Air Force Research Laboratory
Dr. Ronald Polcawich, U.S. Army Research Laboratory
Dr. Rodney Priestley, Princeton University
Dr. Jeremy Robinson, Naval Research Laboratory
Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor, Air Force Research Laboratory
Dr. Ramon van Handel, Princeton University
Dr. David Weld, University of California at Santa Barbara
Dr. Yongjie Zhang, Carnegie Mellon University
Department of Education
Dr. Jeffrey Karpicke, Purdue University*
Dr. Young-Suk Kim, Florida State University
Department of Energy
Dr. Brian Anderson, West Virginia University
Dr. Theodore Betley, Harvard University
Dr. Matthew Brake, Sandia National Laboratories
Mr. Adrian Chavez, Sandia National Laboratories
Dr. Gary Douberly, University of Georgia
Dr. Mattan Erez, University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Sean Hartnoll, Stanford University
Dr. Daniel Kasen, University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Dr. Meimei Li, Argonne National Laboratory
Dr. Miguel Morales, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Dr. Jennifer Reed, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Dr. Seth Root, Sandia National Laboratories
Dr. Adam Weber, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Debra Auguste, City College of New York
Dr. Jessica Belser, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Jeremy Clark, University of Washington
Dr. Andreea Creanga, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Damien Fair, Oregon Health and Science University
Dr. Thomas Fazzio, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Dr. Jessica Gill, National Institutes of Health
Dr. Andrew Goodman, Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. Aron Hall, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Xue Han, Boston University
Dr. Susan Harbison, National Institutes of Health
Dr. Richard Ho, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Dr. Shingo Kajimura, University of California at San Francisco
Dr. Young Kim, Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. Todd Macfarlan, National Institutes of Health
Dr. Gaby Maimon, Rockefeller University
Dr. Sandra McAllister, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Quyen Nguyen, University of California at San Diego
Dr. Sallie Permar, Duke University School of Medicine
Dr. Katherine Radek, Loyola University Chicago
Dr. Katherine Rauen, University of California at San Francisco
Dr. Ida Spruill, Medical University of South Carolina
Dr. Andrew Yoo, Washington University School of Medicine
Department of Interior
Dr. Anna Chalfoun, U.S. Geological Survey
Dr. Gavin Hayes, U.S. Geological Survey
Dr. Burke Minsley, U.S. Geological Survey
Department of Veterans Affairs
Dr. Karunesh Ganguly, San Francisco VA Medical Center
Dr. Brian Head, VA San Diego Healthcare System
Dr. Katherine Iverson, VA Boston Healthcare System
Dr. Hardeep Singh, Houston VA Medical Center
Environmental Protection Agency
Dr. Steven Purucker, Environmental Protection Agency
Intelligence Community
Dr. Joeanna Arthur, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Dr. Lucy Cohan, Central Intelligence Agency
Mr. Justin Jacobs, National Security Agency
Dr. Steven Jaslar, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Dr. Daniel Stick, Sandia National Laboratories
Dr. Charles Tahan, National Security Agency
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Dr. Joshua Alwood, NASA Ames Research Center
Dr. Douglas Hoffmann, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology
Dr. Randall McEntaffer, University of Iowa
Dr. Tamlin Pavelsky, University of North Carolina
Dr. Patrick Taylor, NASA Langley Research Center
National Science Foundation
Dr. Theodor Agapie, California Institute of Technology
Dr. Javier Arce-Nazario, University of Puerto Rico at Cayey
Dr. Sarah Bergbreiter, University of Maryland at College Park
Dr. Moises Carreon, University of Louisville
Dr. Sigrid Close, Stanford University
Dr. Raffaella De Vita, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Dr. Abigail Doyle, Princeton University
Dr. Daniel Goldman, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Joel Griffitts, Brigham Young University
Dr. Samantha Hansen, University of Alabama
Dr. Rouslan Krechetnikov, University of California at Santa Barbara
Dr. Tamara Moore, University of Minnesota
Dr. Daniela Oliveira, Bowdoin College
Dr. Jonathan Pillow, University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Benjamin Recht, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Dr. David Savitt, University of Arizona
Dr. Noah Snavely, Cornell University
Dr. Junqiao Wu, University of California at Berkeley
Dr. Ahmet Yildiz, University of California at Berkeley
Smithsonian Institution
Dr. Rossman Irwin III, National Air and Space Museum
*Jeffrey Karpicke was nominated by both the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation
