Kalpana Katti, University Distinguished Professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been named the 2018 College of Engineering Researcher of the year.
Katti is the director of the Center for Engineered Cancer Test Beds, an interdisciplinary research program to find a cure for breast and prostate cancer. The center is part of the university’s Grand Challenge Initiative, which focuses NDSU’s research expertise and resources on solving some of the world’s most complex problems.
Katti, who was given NDSU’s Waldron Research Award earlier this year, joined NDSU in 1997. Her primary area of research is in tissue engineering, cancer scaffolds and biomimetics. Her group has introduced, for the first time, a ‘cancer test-bed’ through tissue engineering that enables humanoid testing of anticancer drugs.
Zhibin Lin, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, also was honored for his research work.
Lin was recognized with the 2018 Early Career Researcher of the Year for establishing an active research program in the field of advanced materials that will significantly benefit civil engineering fabricators, designers, contractors and, ultimately, the public.
Lin, who arrived at NDSU in 2013, supervises several graduate and undergraduate researchers and has directed several interdisciplinary projects supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Minnesota Department of Transportation and North Dakota Department of Transportation.
He also is an active participant in the college’s outreach efforts, mentoring and interacting with high school students through the North Dakota Governor’s School program.
The College of Engineering’s final research award, Graduate Student Researcher of the Year, was presented to Longeeshan Velmanickam, a doctoral student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
His focus is on the field of bio-sensing and in his time at NDSU Velmanickam has developed a new technique for the early detection of cancer.
Velmanickam joined the graduate program at NDSU in the fall of 2015.
Katti, Lin and Velmanickam were honored at the College of Engineering Scholarship and Awards Reception Oct. 4 in the NDSU Memorial Union Great Plains room. The event was a celebration of student scholarship recipients, scholarship donors and faculty award winners.
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