Honors and Awards Harry L. Kent, Jr. Professorship in Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2025) Texas Discover-to Impact Bridge to Phase-II Award, The University of Texas at Austin (2025) Board of Directors, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (2025) Senior Member of National Academy of Inventors (2025) Welch Foundation Best Faculty Poster Award, First-place prize (2024) Texas Discover-to Impact Proof-of-Concept Award, The University of Texas at Austin (2024) Review Committee for Fellow Election, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (2024, 2025) Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (2024) Advisory Committee, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University (2024) Keynote speaker, Nanomotors International Conference, Barcelona, Spain (2024) Invited Official Nominator for the VinFuture Prize, VinFuture Foundation (2024) Program Chair of the International Conference on Manipulation, Automation, and Robotics at Small Scales, Delft, Netherlands (accepted invitation, 2024) Plenary Talk at the International Conference on Manipulation, Automation, and Robotics at Small Scales, Delft, Netherlands (July 2024) Plenary Talk at the 15th biennial conference on Photonics, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India (July 2023) National Science Foundation Mid-Career Advancement Award (2022) 2022 Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering Ilene Busch-Vishniac Lectureship (“This lecture features outstanding women in engineering and highlights the intellectual contributions of the lecturers while serving to inspire young women to pursue degrees and careers in engineering”) Plenary Talk at Materials Engineering & Sciences Division, 2022 AIChE Annual Meeting (November 2022) Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2021) Keynote speech, 2021 The International Symposium on Microfluidics and BioMEMS (2021) Keynote speech, Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS), Rome, Italy (2019) Keynote speech, ASME NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology Congress (NEMB) (2018) Official Individual Nominator of Japan Prize, The Japan Prize Foundation (Invited, since 2017) Robert & Jane Mitchell Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Engineering (2017) – Cockrell School of Engineering, the University of Texas at Austin Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society (invited member) (2020) Research on bottom-up assembled rotary nanomotors included in Science Year by Year, DK Smithsonian (2017) Research Featured by NBC Learn and NSF (2015) SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards Finalist (2015) – (“SCIFI No Longer” — awarded for the coolest scientific achievement or discovery that before 2014 was only possible in science fiction) National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 2014 Arab-US Frontier Symposium, invited participant (2014) Research on nanomotors ranked #3 among “10 discoveries that will shape the future in 2014” by BBC Focus Magazine (2014) Lab selected to showcase to the Director of the National Science Foundation, Dr. France A. Córdova when she visited UT (2014) Featured by “Woman in Nanoscience,” a National Science Foundation sponsored blog that highlights the achievements of woman scientists in nanoresearch in the U.S. (2014) Featured alumna by the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering Magazine (2014) Invited as one of 60 European and US young engineers, National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 2013 EU-US Frontier of Engineering Symposium (2013) Honor list of outstanding Alumni, Kuang Yaming Honors School, Nanjing University (2013) National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2012) Graduate Student Award, NSF/KNI Summer Program, California Institute of Technology (2007) Early college admission to gifted program with Academic Excellence Scholarship and exemption from the National College Entrance Examination, Nanjing University (1995) Prestigious Prizes in STEM Competitions: Physics (national and provincial), Biology (provincial), Mathematic (regional) (middle and high school) SELECTED MENTEES’ HONORS AND AWARDS TechConnect World Best Student Abstract Award, Jiazheng Bao, 2025 TechConnect World Innovation Conference & Expo (2025) Best Presentation Award, First Place, $500 in prize, Parthiv Shah, Justin Wei, Carter Peeler, Ana Millan, and Vikash Vijayakumar, First-Year Introduction to Research Experience (FIRE) Program, Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2023). Engineering Foundation Endowed Graduate Presidential Scholarship, Graduate School, The University of Texas at Austin (Hyungmok Joh) (2023). Harry and Rubye Gaston Graduate Scholarship, Graduate School, The University of Texas at Austin (Huaizhi Li) (2023). FIRE Undergraduate Research Scholarship, $2500, Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (Luke Abrahams) (2023). Best Presentation Award, First Place, Niam Zaidi, Kelly Shih, Tyler Yan, Aiden Benson, First-Year Introduction to Research Experience (FIRE) Program, Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2022). Cullen M. Crain Endowed Scholarship in Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (Hyungmok Joh, 2022) Harry and Rubye Gaston Graduate Scholarship, The University of Texas at Austin (Huaizhi Li, 2022) Materials Research Society Spring Meeting, Symposium SF13 Best Presentation for Novel Materials or Fabrication, $500 (Huaizhi Li, 2022) Best Presentation Award, Second Place $300 in prize to Luke Abrahams, Conny Yijia Cai, Nolan Cummins, and Amelie Nguyen, FIRE Program, Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2021) The Ben Streetman Award, $500 prize, The University of Texas at Austin (Zexi Liang, 2021) Harris L. Marcus Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science & Engineering, UT-Austin (Hyungmok Joh, 2021) Cockrell School of Engineering Continuing Graduate Fellowship, Cockrell School of Engineering, UT-Austin (Zexi Liang, 2019) Harris L. Marcus Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science & Engineering, UT-Austin (Yifei Liu, 2019) Graduate Student Silver Award, Materials Research Society Fall Meeting (Jianhe Guo, 2018) University Graduate Continuing Fellowship, UT-Austin (Weigu Li, 2018-2019) Best Poster Presentation Award, First Place $200 in prize, undergraduate students in the FIRE Program (2018) ASME National Science Foundation Student Travel Award (Jianhe Guo, 2018) ASME Finalist of Best Graduate Student Presentation Award (Jianhe Guo, 2018) George J. Heuer, Jr. Ph.D. Endowed Graduate Fellowship Fund, Cockrell School of Engineering, UT-Austin (Zexi Liang, 2018) Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Office of Vice President for Research at UT-Austin, $963 (Marshall Tekell, 2016-17) Harris L. Marcus Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science & Engineering, UT-Austin (Zexi Liang, 2018) Best Symposium Poster Award, Materials Research Society Spring Meeting (Jianhe Guo, 2017) Warren A. and Alice L. Meyer Endowed Scholarship in Engineering, UT-Austin, (Weigu Li, 2017) Harris L. Marcus Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science & Engineering, UT-Austin (Yun Huang, 2017) Research Poster Contest Award, Mechanical Engineering, UT-Austin (Jianhe Guo, 2017) Research Poster Contest Award, Mechanical Engngineering, UT-Austin (Weigu Li, 2017) Research Poster Contest Award, Mechanical Engineering, UT-Austin (Jianhe Guo, Kwanoh Kim, Xiaobin Xu 2016) Gordon Research Conference Graduate Student Academic Scholarship (Jianhe Guo, 2017) Graduate Student Assembly Travel Grant, UT-Austin, to ACS National Meeting (Jianhe Guo, 2016) Continuing Bruton Fellowship, Graduate School, UT-Austin (Chao Liu, 2015) Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Student Research Fellowship (Jianhe Guo, $43000/year for three years, 2015 -2018) Best Poster Award, Materials Science and Engineering Program, UT-Austin (Chao Liu, 2015) Chinese Government Award for Self-Financed Students Abroad, $6000 scholarship (Xiaobin Xu, 2014) Graduate Student Silver Award, Materials Research Society (Xiaobin Xu, 2014) Student Spotlight by the Texas Materials Institutes (Xiaobin Xu, 2014) AFOSR/NSF Materials Research Society Meeting Travel Award, Materials Research Society Meeting (Kwanoh Kim, 2014) Harris L. Marcus Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science & Engineering, UT-Austin (Jianhe Guo, 2014) Research Poster Contest Award, Second Place, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, UT-Austin (Kwanoh Kim, 2014) Best Poster Award, Materials Science and Engineering Program, UT-Austin (Xiaobin Xu, 2014) Best Graduate Student Presentation Award, Nano and Molecular Science and Technology Center, UT-Austin (Xiaobin Xu, 2014) Materials Research Society Graduate Student Chapter Travel Award (Jianhe Guo, 2014) Nano Portfolio Program Travel Award, Nano and Molecular Science and Technology Center, UT-Austin (Kwanoh Kim, 2014) Graduate Student Professional Development Award, Materials Science and Engineering, UT-Austin (Jianhe Guo, 2014) Graduate Student Professional Development Award, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UT-Austin (Kwanoh Kim, 2014) Nano Portfolio Program Travel Award, Nano and Molecular Science and Technology Center, UT-Austin (Xiaobin Xu, 2014) Nano Portfolio Program Travel Award, Nano and Molecular Science and Technology Center, UT-Austin (Kwanoh Kim, 2013) Best Poster Award, Materials Science and Engineering Program, UT-Austin (Xiaobin Xu, 2013) Graduate Student Professional Development Award, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UT-Austin (Kwanoh Kim, 2013) Chair’s Honorable Mention Award, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UT-Austin (Kwanoh Kim, 2013) Graduate Student Professional Development Award, Materials Science and Engineering Program, UT-Austin (Chao Liu, 2013) Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Office of Vice President for Research at UT-Austin, $700 (Virgilio Martinez, 2013) Graduate Student Professional Development Award, Materials Science and Engineering Program, UT-Austin (Xiaobin Xu, 2013) Regional Finalists of Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology (Anna and Ester Huang, 2012) National Science Foundation Graduate Student Travel Award for ASME-IMECE (Kwanoh Kim, 12% selection rate, one of 40 awardees among 342 applicants, 2012)
