Silvia Chiang (Pediatrics)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Chiang conducts clinical and epidemiological research on pediatric and adolescent tuberculosis. Current research funding includes an International Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institutes of Health to study adolescent adherence to tuberculosis treatment, and a Charles Hood Foundation Child Health Award. She received a Young Physician-Scientist Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation and is a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Most of Chiang’s extensive field research takes place in Lima, Peru. She authored the tuberculosis chapter in the most recent edition of Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.

Nicolas Fawzi (Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Fawzi’s research centers on increasing understanding of the structure, interactions, regulation and function of a class of RNA processing assemblies whose dysfunction has implications for several neurodegenerative diseases. He has achieved success in visualizing the structural detail of disordered protein phrase separation — previously, understanding the physiology of membrane-less organelles and their pathological dysfunction associated with cancer, ALS and frontotemporal dementia was hampered by the inability to see these poorly understood proteins with atomic resolution. Fawzi received a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2019.  

Michael Littman (Computer Science)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

Littman’s research focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning and human-computer interaction. He is co-director of Brown’s Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative, leading work to make computers, robots and other devices more easily usable. Littman is a leader in reinforcement learning, a subfield of artificial intelligence, and has received best-paper awards on complexity analysis of planning under uncertainty, algorithms for efficient reinforcement learning and meta-learning for computer crossword solving. He was made an Association for Computing Machinery fellow for contributions to design and analysis of sequential decision-making algorithms in artificial intelligence.

Peter Monti (Alcohol and Addiction Studies)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

Monti directs the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown, and has long been a leader in understanding the bio-behavioral mechanisms that underlie addictive behavior, as well as its prevention and treatment. He has published approximately 400 papers, monographs and chapters, and several books, primarily focused on assessment, mechanisms, early intervention and treatment. Monti has trained hundreds of students and has won many awards, most recently, National Institutes of Health’s Mendelson Award for his long-standing contributions to the understanding and treatment of substance use disorders. He is a past president of the Research Society on Alcoholism.

RaMell Ross (Visual Arts)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Ross is a writer, photographer and filmmaker, and was director, cinematographer, film editor and co-writer for “Hale County This Morning, This Evening," an impressionistic film on the black experience in rural Alabama. It won many awards, including a special jury prize from the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. His most recent film, “Easter Snap,” about hog processing in the South, has won several awards. His photography has been exhibited internationally and published in major newspapers, magazines and journals. He is currently a 2020 USA Artists Fellow.

John Sedivy (Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

Sedivy is the director of Brown’s Center on the Biology of Aging and has been recognized internationally for making advances in basic research on a form of cellular aging and death known as cell senescence. His recent research has focused on primitive viral-like entities in human genomes known as retrotransposable elements and their role in promoting age-related inflammation of tissues, including in the nervous system. Sedivy is currently engaged in the translation of these discoveries for the treatment of age-associated disorders including Alzheimer’s. His group has published over 140 original articles.  

Anita Shukla (Engineering)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Shukla’s research focuses on designing responsive and targeted biomaterials for applications in drug delivery and regenerative medicine.  A member of the Center for Biomedical Engineering at Brown, she has done considerable work to treat infections, including development of bacteria- and fungi-degradable hydrogels to control resistance and toxicity. She is the recipient of a number of awards, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and an Office of Naval Research Director of Research Early Career Grant.

Elizabeth Brainerd (Biology and Medical Science)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

She has been instrumental in developing X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology (XROMM), a new technology for visualizing bones and joints in motion, making research areas in comparative and orthopedic biomechanics accessible. Her work on the biomechanics of respiration and feeding is cited as having contributed to understanding major transformations in the evolutionary history of vertebrates. Her honors include: President, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology; President, International Society of Vertebrate Morphology; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

James Green (History and Portuguese and Brazilian Studies)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

He is cited as the leading scholar of gender and homosexuality in Brazil, and is prominent among experts on the 1964-85 Brazilian dictatorship. He is author of three books, seven co-edited volumes, ten co-edited journal issues, and two textbooks. His first book, “Beyond Carnival: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Brazil,” is seen as a pioneering classic. Director of the Brazil Initiative at the Watson Institute, Professor Green also leads a multi-national project documenting the early LGBT movement in Latin America and is the Brazilian Studies Association’s executive director.

Monica Munoz Martinez (American Studies)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Her research focuses on immigration, histories of violence and policing, and public memory of history. Her widely-praised first book, “The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas,” is about recovery of officially suppressed history: thousands of ethnic Mexicans killed by U.S. soldiers and law enforcement. Professor Martinez is primary investigator for Mapping Violence, documenting histories of racial violence in Texas. She won an Andrew Carnegie fellowship in 2017.

Andrew Peterson (Engineering)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

His work focuses on understanding and controlling chemical reaction processes on solid surfaces, and has primary applications for energy and environmental technologies such as solar fuel production and carbon dioxide capture and conversion. He has published more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Professor Peterson has received an NSF CAREER award and a Young Investigator Award from the U.S. Navy.

Kali Thomas (Health Services, Policy and Practice)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Her research focuses on identifying ways to improve the quality of life of older adults needing long-term services and support. Professor Thomas has led projects related to care delivered in long-term care facilities and the role of home- and community-based services in preventing or postponing nursing home placement. She has published 65 peer-reviewed papers. In 2016, she received the Gerontological Society of America Carroll L. Estes Rising Star Award.

Lai-Sheng Wang (Chemistry)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

He is cited for contributions in areas of atomic clusters and multiply-charged anions, having helped open new fields of physical chemistry research that could lead to design of novel nanomaterials. His work has led to important discoveries, including one-atom-thick boron nanostructures similar to graphene, and boron nanocage structures. Professor Wang has more than 460 peer-reviewed publications, and has won numerous awards, including Humboldt Senior Research Award in 2007 and Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy and Dynamics from the American Physical Society in 2014.

Huajian Gao (Engineering)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

Gao was cited for lasting contributions in his primary field, the mechanics of solids and structures, such as in the mechanics of thin films and nanostructured and energy storage materials. He has been recognized by many professional organizations with their highest awards, including the Theodore von Karman Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Erica Larschan (Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Larschan was cited for the strong start in her research career in terms of both basic research and medical applications, including important discoveries in the field of gene regulation involving the CLAMP protein. She is the winner of a PECASE Award, among other notable early career awards.

Rose McDermott (Political Science)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

McDermott was cited for her pioneering scholarship, including in the area of political psychology, and her innovative interdisciplinary work that includes political science, international relations, psychology, and behavior genetics. She was also highlighted for her record of publication and research mentorship, and she is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Itohan Osayimwese (History of Art and Architecture)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Osayimwese was cited for her research in the fields of modern architecture and colonial studies, looking at intersections between geopolitics and architectural discourse in a variety of contexts. She was also cited for her impressive success in publishing and in winning grants and awards, including a Society of Architectural Historians/Mellon Award.

Stefanie Tellex (Computer Science)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Tellex was cited for her artificial intelligence research as she designs new approaches for humans to communicate with robots that could revolutionize such interactions. She has won many top-tier awards and fellowships, including an NSF CAREER Award and a DARPA Director’s Fellowship. She has published widely in top journals, and has organized many research conferences and workshops.

Rena Wing (Psychiatry and Human Behavior)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

Wing is internationally recognized as one of the top researchers about the treatment of obesity and related health problems, especially type 2 diabetes. She has served as president of many national organizations, won dozens of awards, including a lifetime achievement award from the American Psychological Association, and has had continuous NIH funding since 1983. Her extraordinary mentorship was also cited, helping dozens of young investigators become major researchers on their own.

Maurice Herlihy (Computer Science)
Research Innovation Award

Award reviewers praised Herlihy’s achievements in transforming the field of computer science, including through his multiprocessor synchronization specialty, as well as for the profound influence he has had on Brown’s computer science program.

Vincent Mor (Health Services, Policy, and Practice)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

Mor was cited for his sustained success in advancing research in gerontology and health services, and his leadership in building an outstanding public health research program at Brown.

Constantine Dafermos (Applied Mathematics)
Distinguished Research Achievement Award

Dafermos has been influential in creating and shaping the Department of Applied Mathematics at Brown, and has had many career achievements, including work in nonlinear systems of hyperbolic conservation laws that brought him the prestigious Norbert Wiener Prize.

Susan Moffitt (Political Science)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Moffitt’s research about American political institutions and public policy is seen as highly innovative, and she was commended for her growing success as a researcher.

Joseph Braun (Epidemiology)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Braun was highlighted for having notable success in obtaining research support as he focuses on studying early life environmental chemical exposures, as well as publishing influential papers and providing excellent research mentorship.

Tim Kraska (Computer Science)
Early Career Research Achievement Award

Kraska’s success was cited for obtaining support for research focusing on interactive data exploration and Big Data management systems, and for rapidly becoming established as a leader in his field.