Every year, educators and researchers throughout the MIT School of Engineering receive esteemed accolades for their contributions to innovation, technology, society, and learning. In honoring these accomplishments, the school regularly showcases select awards bestowed upon its faculty, laboratories, and centers. The individuals listed below were acknowledged in spring 2025:
Markus Buehler, the Jerry McAfee (1940) Professor in Engineering within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was awarded the Washington Award. This accolade celebrates engineers whose professional achievements have significantly advanced the betterment of humanity.
Sili Deng, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was honored with the 2025 Hiroshi Tsuji Early Career Researcher Award. This award acknowledges excellence in foundational or applied combustion science studies. Deng was recognized for her research on energy conversion and storage, including the fundamentals of combustion, data-driven modeling of reactive flows, carbon-neutral energetic materials, and flame synthesis methods for catalysis and energy storage.
Jonathan How, the Richard Cockburn Maclaurin Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics, received the IEEE Transactions on Robotics King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Paper Award. This accolade recognizes the finest paper published each year in the IEEE Transactions on Robotics based on technical quality, originality, impact potential, clarity, and practical relevance.
Richard Linares, the Rockwell International Career Development Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, received the 2024 American Astronautical Society Emerging Astrodynamicist Award. This award honors early-career researchers who are making notable advancements in the field of astrodynamics.
Youssef Marzouk, the Breene M. Kerr (1951) Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was named a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He was recognized for his significant contributions to various aspects of uncertainty quantification, particularly in Bayesian analysis and measure transport.
Dava Newman, the director of the MIT Media Lab and the Apollo Program Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, received the Carolyn “Bo” Aldigé Visionary Award. This award was granted in recognition of the MIT Media Lab’s WHx program focused on women’s health for its innovative research in advancing women’s health.
Martin Rinard, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was honored with the 2025 SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award. This award recognizes his groundbreaking contributions in developing the emerging domains of program repair and approximate computing.
Franz-Josef Ulm, the Class of 1922 Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was designated an ASCE Distinguished Member. He was acknowledged for his contributions to nano- and micromechanics of diverse materials, including cement, concrete, rock, and bone, with applications in sustainable infrastructure, underground energy harvesting, and human health.