April 26, 2018
New Keystone Research Faculty Scholar awards
Two faculty members in the College of Engineering have been named Keystone Research Faculty Scholars. The awards were established to recruit and retain top scholars in the early stages of their careers who are in high demand for faculty positions throughout the U.S.
Cornelia Caragea, associate professor of computer science and the Lloyd T. Smith creativity in engineering chair, is a Michelle Munson-Serban Simu Keystone research faculty scholar, funded by Michelle Munson, 1996 K-State graduate in electrical engineering, and her husband, Serban Simu.
Caragea received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program, or CAREER, award while on the faculty at the University of North Texas in the computer science and engineering department. Joining the K-State faculty in the College of Engineering in fall 2017, she continues her NSF CAREER project in designing approaches that will make information more accessible and comprehensible to scholarly web users, helping them discover knowledge more effectively and efficiently.
She also is the co-PI on a $900,000 grant from the NSF Critical Techniques, Technologies and Methodologies for Advancing Foundations and Applications of Big Data Sciences and Engineering program, where she will explore domain adaptation solutions based on deep learning to help emergency response organizations deal with the overload of information in real time.
Ryan Hansen, assistant professor of chemical engineering, is a Steve Hsu Keystone research faculty scholar, funded by Steve Hsu, 1959 master's degree graduate of K-State in mechanical engineering.
Hansen joined the Tim Taylor Department of Chemical Engineering at Kansas State University in 2015, transitioning from the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he performed research in nanobiotechnology. At K-State he leads the Hansen Biointerface Lab, focused on designing novel tools and advanced materials for detecting and characterizing microorganisms. He holds four current or pending U.S. patents.
As a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, his research was recognized at an American Association of Cancer Research Conference. As a postdoc, Hansen was awarded an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship. Since his arrival at K-State, he has been awarded the K-State Mentoring Fellowship Award and was recognized for his teaching at an American Society for Engineering Education conference. He is currently the lead investigator on an NSF EAGER grant and a recently awarded DOE Small Business Technology Transfer grant.
Having previous records of outstanding research accomplishment, faculty members are nominated by their department head for these positions. Each Keystone Research Faculty Scholar receives a three-year appointment with a salary supplement and discretionary funds to support travel, specialized equipment and additional graduate students to join his or her research team.
