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Engineering Research Faculty Awards

Researcher of the Year - 2022-2023

Stephen Gent headshot

Stephen Gent, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of the North Central Regional Sun Grant Center, was named the college’s outstanding researcher at the university’s Celebration of Faculty Excellence Awards Feb. 21.

Gent’s research team has secured funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. departments of energy, commerce, transportation, defense and agriculture as well as private industry. Gent has advised dozens of students in his research lab whose core focus is the development and implementation of high-fidelity simulations to realize products and processes in engineered and biological systems.

His research portfolio includes high energy particle physics, tissue engineering, renewable energy, implantable medical devices, water treatment facilities and agricultural systems. Gent’s team has published more than 75 peer-reviewed manuscripts and one textbook.


Early Career Investigator of the Year - 2023

Saikat Basu headshot

Dr. Saikat Basu is an assistant professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at South Dakota State University (SDSU) and directs the Biomedical and Bioinspired Fluid Dynamics Lab there. The group works on fluid dynamics of biophysical systems, with respiratory transport modeling and tumor microenvironment flow physics as the current focus topics. Basu’s scholarly background is in theoretical and computational fluid mechanics. He received a B.S. in civil engineering from Jadavpur University, India in 2009 and a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech in 2014, followed by two postdoctoral stints at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan and at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill – School of Medicine. Basu joined SDSU in January 2019 and his group has since been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, along with industry-sponsored projects. Besides academic peer-reviewed publications, Basu’s work on intranasal therapeutics, respiratory infection onset mechanics, and bioinspired filtration has been widely reported on national and global media outlets, e.g., NewScientist, USA Today, Newswise, Phys.org and South Dakota Public Broadcasting. For his research contributions, Basu is also a recipient of the prestigious Fluid Dynamics Research Prize from the Japan Society of Fluid Mechanics.

Prior Researchers of the Year

  • 2022-2023: Stephen Gent
  • 2021-2022: Anamika Prasad
  • 2020-2021: Xijin GE
  • 2019-2020: Christopher Saunders
  • 2018-2019: Reinaldo Tonkoski
  • 2017-2018: Suzette Burckhard
  • 2016-2017: Nadim Wehbe
  • 2015-2016: Qiquan Qiao
  • 2014-2015: Chris Schmit
  • 2013-2014: Qi Hua Fan
  • 2012-2013: Francis Ting
  • 2011-2012: Delvin DeBoer
  • 2010-2011: Nadim Wehbe
  • 2009-2010: David Galipeau
  • 2008-2009: Fred Delfanian
  • 2007-2008: Kasiviswanathan (Muthu) Muthukumarappan

Prior Young Investigators of the Year

  • 2022-2023: Saikat Basu
  • 2021-2022: Yue Zhou
  • 2020-2021: Todd Letcher
  • 2019-2020: Rouzbeh Ghabchi
  • 2018-2019: Mostafa Tazarv
  • 2017-2018: Chris Saunders
  • 2016-2017: Cedric Neumann
  • 2015-2016: Stephen Gent
  • 2014-2015: Xijin Ge
  • 2013-2014: Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi
  • 2012-2013: Qiquan Qiao

Prior Grantswinship Award Winners

2023

  • Rouzbeh Ghabchi
  • Mostafa Tazarv
  • Xinwen Fu
  • Kwanghee Won
  • Xiaojun Xian
  • Gregory DeRynck
  • Gregory Vavra
  • Hossein Rekabdarkolaee Moradi
  • Saikat Basu
  • Jeffery Doom
  • Stephen Gent
  • Todd Letcher
  • Guanghui Hua
  • Sharon Vestal

2022

  • Aritra Banerjee
  • Rouzbeh Ghabchi
  • Guanghui Hua
  • Michael Pawlovich
  • Mostafa Tazarv
  • Francis Ting
  • Kaiqun FU
  • Songxin Tan
  • Reinaldo Tonkoski
  • Kwanghee Won
  • Xiaojun Xian
  • Yue Zhou
  • Gregory DeRynck
  • Gregory Vavra
  • Kurt Cogswell
  • John Jasper
  • Hossein Rekabdarkolaee Moradi
  • Saikat Basu
  • Jeffery Doom
  • Stephen Gent
  • Zhong Hu
  • Gregory Michna
  • Todd Letcher
  • Doang Nguyen
  • Anamika Prasad
  • Christopher Schmit
  • Sharon Vestal

2021

  • Suzette Burckhard
  • Rouzbeh Ghabchi
  • Guanghui Hua
  • Michael Pawlovich
  • Junwon Seo
  • Mostafa Tazarv
  • Francis Ting
  • Ekaterina Koromyslova
  • Huitian Lu
  • Timothy Hanson
  • Sung Shin
  • Sidd Suryanarayanan
  • Reinaldo Tonkoski
  • Kwanghee Won
  • Ruanbao Zhou
  • Yue Zhou
  • Gregory DeRynck
  • Larry Leigh
  • Kurt Cogswell
  • Gemechis Djira
  • Hossein Rekabdarkolaee Moradi
  • Cedric Neumann
  • Christopher Saunders
  • Saikat Basu
  • Marco Ciarcia
  • Jeffery Doom
  • Stephen Gent
  • Zhong Hu
  • Todd Letcher
  • Doang Nguyen
  • Anamika Prasad
  • Michael Twedt
  • Christopher Schmit
  • Sharon Vestal

2020

  • Christ Schmit
  • Suzette Burckhard
  • Larry Leigh
  • Sung Shin
  • Tim Hansen
  • Jeffrey Doom
  • Stephen Gent
  • Rich Reid
  • Greg Michna
  • Todd Letcher
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • John McMaine
  • Rouzbeh Ghabchi
  • Nadim Wehbe
  • Junwon Seo
  • Francis Ting
  • Greg Derynck
  • Xijin Ge
  • Dennis Helder
  • Cedric Neumann
  • Chris Saunders
  • Mostafa Tazarv
  • Reinaldo Tonkoski
  • Greg Vavra 

2019

  • Suzette Burckhard
  • Jeff Doom
  • Ge Xijin
  • Stephen Gent
  • Rouzbeh Ghabchi
  • Tim Hansen
  • Dennis Helder
  • Larry Leigh
  • Todd Letcher
  • John McMaine
  • Greg Michna
  • Cedric Neumann
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • Rich Reid
  • Chris Saunders
  • Chris Schmit
  • Junwon Seo
  • Shin Sung
  • Mostafa Tazarv
  • Francis Ting
  • Reinaldo Tonkoski
  • Nadim Wehbe

2018

  • Tom Brandenburger
  • Suzette Burckhard
  • Greg Derynck
  • Stephen Gent
  • Rouzbeh Ghabchi
  • Dennis Helder
  • Larry Leigh
  • Semhar Michael
  • Cedric Neumann
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • Rich Reid
  • Chris Saunders
  • Chris Schmit
  • Junwon Seo
  • Mostafa Tazarv
  • Reinaldo Tonkoski
  • Francis Ting
  • Greg Vavra
  • Nadim Wehbe

2017

  • Ross Abraham
  • Tom Brandenburger
  • Suzette Burckhard
  • Stephen Gent
  • Tim Hansen
  • Dennis Helder
  • Larry Leigh
  • Huitian Lu
  • Semhar Michael
  • Cedric Neumann
  • Jon Puetz
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • Rich Reid
  • Ghabchi Rouzbeh
  • Chris Saunders
  • Chris Schmit
  • Mostafa Tazarv
  • Francis Ting
  • Greg Vavra
  • Sharon Vestal
  • Nadim Wehbe

2016

  • Ross Abraham
  • Suzette Burckhard
  • Fred Delfanian
  • Stephen Gent
  • Dennis Helder
  • Zhong Hu
  • Guanghui Hua
  • Cedric Neumann
  • Jon Puetz
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • Rich Reid
  • Chris Saunders
  • Chris Schmit
  • Sung Shin
  • Reinaldo Tonkoski
  • Greg Vavra
  • Sharon Vestal
  • Nadim Wehbe

2015

  • Ross Abraham
  • Suzette Burckhard
  • Fred Delfanian
  • QiHua Fan
  • Stephen Gent
  • Dennis Helder
  • Cedric Neumann
  • Jon Puetz
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • Rich Reid
  • Chris Schmit
  • Sung Shin
  • Ken Skorseth
  • Sharon Vestal
  • Nadim Wehbe

2014

  • Ross Abraham
  • Suzette Burckhard
  • Fred Delfanian
  • Stephen Gent
  • Dennis Helder
  • Greg Michna
  • Jon Puetz
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • Xiao Qin
  • Rich Reid
  • Chris Schmit
  • Sung Shin
  • Ken Skorseth
  • Sharon Vestal
  • Nadim Wehbe

2013

  • Ross Abraham
  • Mahdi Baroughi
  • Venkat Bomissetty
  • Fred Delfanian
  • QiHua Fan
  • Dave Galipeau
  • Xijin Ge
  • Stephen Gent
  • Teresa Hall
  • Dennis Helder
  • Jung-Han Kimn
  • Alex Moutsoglou
  • Jon Puetz
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • Xiao Qin
  • Rich Reid
  • Chris Schmit
  • Sung Shin
  • Ken Skorseth
  • Mike Twedt
  • Sharon Vestal
  • Nadim Wehbe

2012

  • Mahdi Baroughi
  • Bruce Berdanier
  • Venkat Bommisetty
  • Fred Delfanian
  • QiHua Fan
  • Dave Galipeau
  • Xijin Ge
  • Stephen Gent
  • Teresa Hall
  • Dennis Helder
  • Jung-Han Kimn
  • Alex Moutsoglou
  • Jon Puetz
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • Xiao Qin
  • Rich Reid
  • Chris Saunders
  • Chris Schmit
  • Sung Shin
  • Ken Skorseth
  • Francis Ting
  • Mike Twedt
  • Sharon Vestal
  • Nadim Wehbe

2011

  • Ross Abraham
  • Bruce Berdanier
  • Venkat Bommisetty
  • Delvin DeBoer
  • Fred Delfanian
  • Dave Galipeau
  • Xijin Ge
  • Stephen Gent
  • Teresa Hall
  • Dennis Helder
  • Alex Moutsoglou
  • Jon Puetz
  • Qiquan Qiao
  • Rich Reid
  • Christopher Schmit
  • Ken Skorseth
  • Mike Twedt
  • Sharon Vestal
  • Nadim Wehbe