Awards and Recognition

Peter McMahon, associate professor, was selected as the 2025 recipient of Optica’s Adolph Lomb Medal. He was honored for demonstrating new forms of optical-physics-based computing machines that might one day surpass the standard digital-electronic von Neumann computers.

“I’m very grateful to have been recognized with this award,” said McMahon. “The Lomb Medal has an amazing list of past recipients, many whose research has inspired me since graduate school. Although this award names me, it really recognizes the work my lab has done collaboratively, and which has been led by the wonderful postdocs and students I have had as colleagues in my group. I am most indebted to them.”

The Adolph Lomb Medal is presented annually to an individual who has made a noteworthy contribution to optics at an early career stage. Contributions from any area of optics, fundamental or applied, are considered. The medal was established in 1940 to honor Adolph Lomb, the Society’s first treasurer, for his devotion to the Society and the advancement of optics. In 2023, Will Renninger (B.S.’06 in engineering physics and Ph.D. ’12 in applied physics working with Professor Frank Wise) also won this medal. Renninger’s award was “For pioneering contributions to opto-mechanics, ultrashort pulse generation, novel fiber lasers, and multimode nonlinear optics.”

McMahon’s other awards include the IUPAP Early Career Scientist Prize for Applied Aspects on Laser Physics and Photonics (2022), an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award (2022), a Sloan Research Award (2022),  a Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering (2021), a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholarship in Quantum Information Science (2020), and a Google Quantum Research Award (2019).

Bruce R. Kusse, professor emeritus, and Frank Wise, Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering Emeritus, were approved for emeritus status effective January 1, 2025.

Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor of Energy Systems Engineering, has received the International Association of Engineers Distinguished Scientist Award for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Engineering. You will receive his award at the IAENG Summit 2025 February 20 in New York City.

The Fengqi You Research Group received a U.S. National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) Award for its proposal, AI for Sustainability Sciences and Engineering. AISSE will integrate advanced AI tools with sustainability research across the campus to address grave environmental challenges.  

Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor of Energy Systems Engineering, had his study “Perspectives for sustainability analysis of scalable perovskite photovoltaics” featured on the cover of the Energy & Environmental Science.

Zhiting Tian, associate professor, was one of six Cornell faculty members to be receive 2025 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the White House announced Jan. 14. Director of the ZT Research Group, Tian is known for her innovative research on polymer-based thermal diodes, hybrid organic-inorganic material thermal conductivity, and advanced thermal management in semiconductors.

Allison Hutchison, senior lecturer, won the 2024 Region 1 Outstanding Teaching in an IEEE Area (University or College) Award. The IEEE Region 1 includes Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, some of New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor of Energy Systems Engineering, has received an Amazon Research Award for Sustainability for his proposal “Large Language Model Co-Pilot for Transparent and Trusted LCA.” You is one of only 10 researchers across the country to receive at ARA and will have access to Amazon public datasets, along with AWS AI/ML services and tools.

Raaz Dwivedi, assistant professor, won the 2024 Blackwell-Rosenbluth Award, which is given to outstanding junior researchers in Bayesian statistics.

Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor of Energy Systems Engineering, had his paper his paper “Interpretable Surrogate Learning for Electronic Material Generation” featured on the cover of ACS Nano.You also had his paper “GenAI for Scientific Discovery in Electrochemical Energy Storage: State-of-the-Art and Perspectives from Nano- and Micro-Scale” featured on the frontispiece of Small, renowned for its focus on cutting-edge research in nanoscience. Additionally, You’s paper, “Perspectives for sustainability analysis of scalable perovskite photovoltaics”, was featured on the cover of Energy & Environmental Science.