The UCLA Samueli School of Engineering recently honored four professors at its annual awards dinner.
Adnan Darwiche, professor and chair of computer science, received the Lockheed Martin Award for Excellence in Teaching Award. Darwiche directs the Automated Reasoning Group at UCLA. His research interests span probabilistic and symbolic reasoning, and their applications including machine learning. The Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award honors the achievements of senior faculty members.
Yvonne Chen, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, was honored with the Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award. Chen’s lab works to apply synthetic biology to the engineering of new biological circuits, specifically cell-based therapy for cancer.
Jonathan Hopkins, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, received the V.M. Watanabe Excellence in Research Award. Hopkins’ research aims to enable the design, analysis and fabrication of sophisticated flexible structures that possess new capabilities. The Watanabe Excellence in Research Award recognizes innovation in pursuing critical research that addresses a major societal challenge and engaging graduate and undergraduate students in the research program.
Jia-Ming Liu, associate dean of academic personnel and professor of electrical and computer engineering, received the University Service Award. Liu’s work focuses on nonlinear and ultrafast optics, laser dynamics and chaos, semiconductor lasers and other processes.