The award recipients were honored at the College of Engineering’s Scholarship and Awards Reception on Sept. 19.
Dinesh Katti, a Jordan A. Engberg Presidential Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, has been named the 2024 College of Engineering Researcher of the year.
Katti is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the field of multiscale modeling of nanomaterials. He and his research group have made significant strides in understanding the genesis of material properties, particularly at the nanoscale. In a groundbreaking work, he pioneered the use of molecular modeling and dynamics for geotechnical engineering problems associated with swelling clay.
He has published over 200 journal and conference papers, three books and 11 book chapters and his research is supported by over $5M in grants from several sources.
Katti joined NDSU in 1996. He is also the recipient of the NDSU 2013 Fred Waldron Research Award, 2017 Patriot Award from Office of the Secretary of US Department of Defense, and the 59th NDSU Faculty Lectureship in 2020.
Trung Le, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, was also honored for his research work.
Le was awarded the 2024 Early Career Researcher of the Year for his work in the area of environmental fluid mechanics, biofluids and computational science and engineering.
Since joining NDSU in 2018 he has established a robust and vibrant research program. In 2023, Le received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, considered the agency’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty. The CAREER project is focused on understanding the flow of river ice, with the goal of developing the technology needed to obtain high-resolution flow data in ice-covered rivers which will lead to new ways to prevent river ice disasters.
The College of Engineering’s final research award, Graduate Student Researcher of the Year, was presented to Sharad Jaswandkar.
As a graduate research assistant at NDSU he demonstrated unique strengths in materials science and engineering, focusing on biomaterials and biological materials, and has expertise in modeling and experiments.
His work included the characterization of various materials to understand their behavior, optimization of mechanical properties of polymer-clay nanocomposites and the development of a versatile microsphere system by integrating polymers and bioceramics.
Jaswandkar earned his Ph. D. earlier this year and now works as a biomaterials characterization specialist at Virginia Tech University.
Katti, Le and Jaswandkar were honored at the College of Engineering’s Scholarship and Awards Reception on Sept. 19.
