Xiangfu Wu and Dharmakeerthi Nawarathna earned research awards from the NDSU College of Engineering.
Xiangfa Wu, professor of mechanical engineering, has been named the 2020 NDSU College of Engineering Researcher of the Year.
Wu’s research interests include renewable energy harvesting, multifunctional nanofibers and nanostructures, polymer matrix composites and computational materials science. He is part of a research team that earned a $3 million grant from the Department of Energy to study low-pressure electrolytic ammonia production. He also recently earned a major grant award from the North Dakota Corn Utilization Council to study high-efficiency electricity generation using corn-based bioethanol.
Wu joined the NDSU faculty in 2008. He earned his doctorate in applied mathematics from the Beijing Institute of Technology in 1998 and a doctorate in engineering mechanics from the University of Nebraska in 2003.
Dharmakeerthi Nawarathna, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was also honored for his research efforts by being named the College of Engineering Early Career Researcher of the Year.
Nawarathna received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2020. NSF awards CAREER grants to scholars who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. It’s considered the agency’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty.
Nawarathna’s research has the potential to be a game-changer in delivering quality health care at an affordable price. His proposal is focused on developing a low-cost, highly-sensitive sensor that can detect the early stages of cancers and other diseases.
The Graduate Student Researcher of the Year was presented to Xingyu Wang.
Wang is a doctoral student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and has been working on several research projects supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the North Dakota Department of Transportation. Other research accomplishments include seven journal papers, 13 conference papers and two patent disclosures.
Wu, Nawarathna and Wang were honored at a virtual awards event Sept. 23.
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