Joel Burken, Curators’ Distinguished Professor and Mathes Chair of Environmental Engineering, was awarded the 2024 President’s Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers for his spirit of leadership and lifelong learning that extends beyond the classroom.

Cihan Dagli, professor of engineering management and systems engineering, received the Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) award at the 2025 CAS conference, hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in March.

In June, Christi Luks, teaching professor of chemical engineering and associate chair of Missouri S&T’s Linda and Bipin Doshi Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, took over as president of the American Society for Engineering Education. 

Kathryn Northcut, professor of English and technical communication, traveled to North South University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in February as a Fulbright Specialist. There, she worked with grant writers and researchers to expand their research capacity by sharing her experience with proposal development.

In January, an ancient microscopic fossil species discovered in the Arctic Ocean was named Batiacasphaera obohikuenobeae in honor of renowned palynologist, geology and biological sciences professor and associate dean for academic affairs Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe. Palynology, Oboh-Ikuenobe’s specialty, is a sub-discipline of paleontology that focuses on tiny organic-walled microfossils, such as pollen, spores and dinoflagellate cysts.

Ronald J. O’Malley, Missouri S&T’s F. Kenneth Iverson Endowed Chair of Steelmaking Technologies, received the 2025 Tadeusz Sendzimir Memorial Medal for Innovation in Steel Manufacturing Technology from the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. The medal recognizes O’Malley’s work using fiber optic sensors to monitor temperature and strain in steelmaking, which allows real-time data collection across a range of extreme-environment applications in steelmaking.

Joseph Smith, a professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, was elected president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for 2025. 

New Fellows

Mehdi Ferdowsi, S&T’s Schlumberger Endowed Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and associate dean for research for the College of Engineering and Computing, was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Gary Long, professor emeritus of chemistry, was named a 2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Douglas Ludlow, a professor in Missouri S&T’s Linda and Bipin Doshi Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Michael Moats, professor and chair of materials science and engineering, was elected to the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration 2025 class of Fellows. 

William P. Schonberg, professor of civil engineering, was elected a Fellow of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety.

Wan Yang, professor of geology and geophysics, was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.