NYU Tandon 2026 Faculty Awards
At Tandon, we take the time each year to honor exemplary faculty members for their research expertise, teaching skill, dedication to their students, and commitment to our school.
Excellence in Research Award
The Excellence in Research Award — which is given annually to senior faculty in recognition of significant and sustained research accomplishments — was awarded to the following faculty:
Claudio Silva
Institute Professor Claudio Silva (CSE, VIDA) has made pioneering contributions to computer graphics, scientific visualization, and urban informatics. Throughout his distinguished career, his research has fundamentally reshaped how we process, visualize, and derive meaningful insights from massive, complex datasets. Silva is a Fellow of the IEEE and has received the IEEE Visualization Technical Achievement Award, among many other honors.
Katepalli Sreenivasan
Dean Emeritus Katepalli Sreenivasan (MAE, AP, among other NYU affiliations) has made transformative contributions to fluid dynamics and the physics of turbulence, fundamentally reshaping our understanding of the chaotic and complex nature of fluid flows. His research has bridged diverse physical phenomena, seamlessly merging mathematical theory, cutting-edge numerical simulations, and elegant physical experiments.
Junior Faculty Research Award
Eugene Vinitsky
Assistant Professor Eugene Vinitsky (CUE) is the winner of this year's Junior Faculty Research Award, presented to a tenure-track Assistant Professor to honor their notable research accomplishments, as demonstrated by publications in top-tier venues, funded research proposals, student mentoring, and recognition by professional societies. Vinitsky is working to see complex, human-like behavior emerge from unsupervised interaction between groups of learning agents with applications focused on robotics and transportation.
Distinguished Teacher Award
Richard Stein
Industry Associate Professor Richard Stein (CBE) received this year's Distinguished Teacher Award, which is bestowed upon someone who has demonstrated sustained excellence in teaching during their time at Tandon and is considered the school's premier teaching award. The honor recognizes the consistently positive feedback he receives from those in his courses, his high instructor evaluations, the mentoring he enthusiastically provides to students at all levels, and his tireless efforts to improve every aspect of the Tandon experience. His research involves the 3D mapping of proteins and DNA organization in infectious bacteria, and he is inspiring his students to do equally important work.
Jacobs Excellence in Education Innovation Award
Nikhil Gupta
The Jacobs Excellence in Education Award, aimed at recognizing and fostering innovation and excellence in teaching, went to Professor Nikhil Gupta (MAE, CUE, CCS), in honor of his unwavering commitment to teaching and his development of inclusive and interactional strategies. Gupta's work in the science and technology of advanced lightweight composite materials, additive manufacturing methods and manufacturing security is helping shape a new generation of materials scientists and cybersecurity experts.
Inclusive Excellence Award for Faculty
Shizhu Liu
Industry Associate Professor Shizhu Liu (TMI) received the Inclusive Excellence Award for Faculty. The award was established to honor a Tandon faculty member who demonstrates inclusive leadership and manifests the ideals of diversity, belonging, and equity through research and scholarship, creative work, teaching, mentoring, and service. As Deputy Director of the M.S. Management of Technology Program, she goes above and beyond to fully support her students in their successful scholarly and professional endeavors.
Dean's Award for Excellence in Online Education
Alon Hillel-Tuch
Industry Assistant Professor Alon Hillel-Tuch (CSE, CCS) received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Online Education, given to instructors who have demonstrated excellence through personal commitment to students and the development and delivery of innovative online education material. Hillel-Tuch teaches a variety of courses and mentors students in cybersecurity, bringing his extensive background in the field as a practitioner into the classroom, digitally and otherwise.
