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Each year, faculty and researchers across the MIT School of Engineering are recognized with prestigious awards for their contributions to research, technology, society, and education. To celebrate these achievements, the school periodically highlights select honors received by members of its departments, institutes, labs, and centers. The following individuals were recognized in spring 2026:
Faez Ahmed, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, received a 2025 Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program Award. The award provides early-career U.S. scientists and engineers with up to $450,000 over three years to support innovative research.
Navid Azizan, the Alfred Henry (1929) and Jean Morrison Hayes Career Development Professor and an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a foundation-wide activity that offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, was named a Boston Globe Tech Power Player 2026. The annual list highlights the impact of local leaders on technology and business.
Samantha Coday, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received a 2025 ARPA-E IGNIITE Award. The award aims to support early-career innovators seeking to convert disruptive and unconventional ideas into impactful new technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications.
Srini Devadas, the Edwin Sibley Webster Professor and a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received the 2026 ACM-IEEE CS Eckert-Mauchly Award, which recognizes contributions to computer and digital systems architecture.
Joel Emer, professor of the practice in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received the 2026 ACM SIGARCH/IEEE TCCA Influential Paper Award. This award recognizes the paper from the ISCA Proceedings 20 years earlier that has had the most impact on the field (in terms of research, development, products, or ideas) during the intervening years.
Chuchu Fan, an associate professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, received the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Academic Career Award in Robotics and Automation. The award recognizes academics who have made an identifiable contribution or contributions that have had a major impact on the robotics and/or automation fields.
Yoel Fink, the Danae and Vasilis (1961) Salapatas Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, received the American Physical Society Andrei Sakharov Prize, which recognizes outstanding leadership and achievements of scientists in upholding human rights.
Aristide Gumyusenge, an assistant professor the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, received the 2026 Early Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society's Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division. Honorees are chosen from early-career emerging leaders who have made significant contributions in their respective fields within polymer materials science and engineering.
Paula Hammond, dean of the School of Engineering and an Institute Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, received the AIChE 2026 John M. Prausnitz Institute Lecture Award. The Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lectureship is awarded to a distinguished member of AIChE who has made significant contributions to chemical engineering in their field of specialization.
Robert Langer, the David H. Koch (1962) Institute Professor in the departments of Biological Engineering (BE) and Chemical Engineering, received the 2026 Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry from the Welch Foundation. This prestigious prize recognizes important research contributions that have had a significant and positive impact on humankind.
Gareth McKinley, the School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Innovation and a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Awardees are recognized by their peers for their outstanding contributions to research in the natural and social sciences.
Farnaz Niroui, Robert J. Shillman (1974) Career Development Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an associate professor, received the Rising Star of Microsystems Award, which is intended to highlight the next generation of innovators shaping the future of microsystems, microfabrication, MEMS, micro/nanomanufacturing, and closely related fields.
Tomás Palacios, the Clarence J. LeBel Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received the 2026 Quantum Devices Award from the International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors for significant advancements in wide bandgap semiconductors and nanostructures to improve electronics and pave the way for heterogeneous integration with silicon CMOS.
Ritu Raman, the Eugene Bell Career Development Professor of Tissue Engineering and an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, received a Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Grant from the National Academy of Engineering. The grants provide seed funding for participants at U.S.-based institutions to support further pursuit of new interdisciplinary research and projects stimulated by interactions at the U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium.
Lindsey Raymond, an assistant professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and of Economics, was named a 2025 Early Career Fellow by Schmidt Sciences AI2050. AI2050 issues awards to enable and encourage bold and ambitious research, often multidisciplinary, that is typically hard to fund but socially beneficial. Awards are given for exceptional work tackling one or multiple items from a working list of hard problems.
Daniela Rus, the Panasonic Professor and a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received the 2026 High-Tech Prize of the Bavarian Minister-President. This prize is the most highly endowed award for technology and engineering in Germany.
Afreen Siddiqi, a research scientist in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, received a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship. Working across 55 disciplines, the fellows were selected from almost 5,000 applicants for “prior career achievement and exceptional promise.”
Vincent Sitzmann, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received both a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and the Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) Young Researcher Award from the IEEE Computer Society. The PAMI Young Researcher Award is given to a researcher within seven years of completing their PhD for outstanding early career research contributions.
Loza Tadesse, the Latham Family Career Development Professor and an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was named to Chemical & Engineering News’ 2026 Talented 12. This annual list recognizes early-career researchers who are rising stars in chemistry, selected for their innovative work and growing impact in the field.
Kripa Varanasi, the Maher A. Elmasri Professor of Mechanical Engineering, accepted a United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization Global Award on behalf of his startup, AgZen. The award recognizes the company’s efficient agrochemical spraying patent portfolio.
