Robotics, exoplanets, quantum theory earn Research Excellence Awards

Revealing how psychiatric drugs reshape the brain, designing next-generation missions to find distant worlds, and redefining the limits of quantum computation are among the research themes that helped this year's faculty earn Cornell Engineering Research Excellence Awards - the college's highest recognition for groundbreaking scientific impact.

The awards were presented at the Engineering Faculty Reception and Meeting held on Dec. 16.

Recipients of these annual awards are nominated by their departments and chosen by a committee not only for their research achievements, but also for their broader contributions including societal impact, professional reputation, leadership, mentorship, and service to the college and university.

"These awardees embody the bold research culture that defines our college," said Lois Pollack, associate dean for research and graduate studies at Cornell Engineering. "Their pioneering work pushes boundaries while sharing the common goal of translating discovery into meaningful impact. We are proud to honor their remarkable achievements."

The 2025 recipients are:

Nate Cira, assistant professor, Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering

Cira creates innovative microfluidic technologies that enable high-throughput, finely controlled experiments to probe complex biological systems. His platforms allow researchers to manipulate thousands of miniature environments, revealing how microbes interact, how genetic variants shape disease susceptibility, and how cells make fate decisions. Cira's work has produced high-impact publications and earned major recognition, including a MIRA award from the National Institutes of Health. By uniting engineering creativity with biological insight, his lab expands what can be experimentally measured and controlled, opening new opportunities across biotechnology, microbiology and medicine while accelerating discoveries that would be impossible with conventional methods.

Julia Dshemuchadse, assistant professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Dshemuchadse develops computational and machine-learning approaches to uncover how complex materials form and transform across length scales. Her group has discovered more than 20 previously unknown crystal structures, revealing unexpected self-assembly pathways that challenge long-held assumptions in materials science. She also identifies structural signatures in liquids and tracks solid-solid transitions with particle-level precision, offering new insight into phenomena such as martensitic transformations, in which atoms shift collectively to form a new crystal structures. Through close collaborations with experimental groups, her models guide the synthesis of metal-organic frameworks, semiconductor clusters and colloidal systems. Her work is reshaping inverse materials design across hard and soft matter.

Esteban Gazel, Charles N. Mellowes Professor in Engineering, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Gazel explores how Earth's deepest processes shape the planet's surface and climate. A leading geochemist, he uses volcanic rocks to trace how key gases such as carbon dioxide and water move through the mantle and influence volcanic activity. Gazel's lab has developed some of the most precise methods in the world for measuring these gases, leading to new insights into eruption behavior and Earth's carbon cycle. His recent work expands into critical mineral sustainability, biological extraction of rare elements, natural hydrogen resources, and even the chemistry of rocky exoplanets, reflecting a rapidly growing and highly collaborative research program.

Alex Kwan, professor, Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering

Kwan develops advanced imaging and computational tools to reveal how fast-acting psychiatric drugs reshape the brain. His lab uses cutting-edge multiphoton microscopy and neural circuit analyses to map how compounds such as ketamine and psilocybin drive rapid and lasting plasticity linked to antidepressant effects. Kwan's discoveries - including evidence that psilocybin rapidly remodels synapses and engages distinct brain circuits for short- and long-term outcomes - are redefining the neurobiology of psychedelics. His recent brain-wide imaging and machine-learning pipelines are accelerating efforts to design next-generation therapies that deliver clinical benefit without hallucinogenic effects.

Dmitry Savransky, associate professor, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Savransky is a leading figure in exoplanet direct imaging, uniting engineering and astronomy to design the missions that search for worlds beyond the solar system. His group develops advanced tools for wavefront control, autonomous telescope alignment, and mission scheduling, anchored by an open-source simulator widely used to compare future mission architectures. Savransky plays key roles in NASA's Roman Coronagraph and Habitable Worlds Observatory efforts, helping translate ambitious science goals into feasible observing systems. He also leads Starlift, a major initiative shaping the emerging field of cislunar space logistics, positioning Cornell at the forefront of next-generation space engineering.

Robert Shepherd, John F. Carr Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Shepherd is advancing the frontiers of soft robotics through systems that blend flexible materials, distributed sensing and novel actuation strategies to solve real-world problems. Leading the Organic Robotics Lab, he develops robots and wearable technologies that can monitor human performance, explore challenging environments and enable new forms of biohybrid design. His work has appeared in top journals, earned extensive citation, and inspired successful startup ventures translating his group's discoveries into health, safety and manufacturing applications. Shepherd's contributions have helped define the modern field of soft robotics, positioning Cornell at its forefront.

Mark Wilde, associate professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Wilde is a leading architect of quantum information theory, known for foundational contributions that shape how scientists understand the limits of computation and communication. His research blends physics, mathematics and computer science to develop quantum algorithms and information measures that outperform classical approaches. Wilde recently introduced efficient methods for training quantum Boltzmann machines - opening new possibilities in quantum machine learning - and has advanced core theory through influential results such as the sandwiched Rényi relative entropy, crucial for studying quantum entanglement. His work continues to guide the development of next-generation quantum technologies and inspire researchers across multiple fields.

Patrick Gillespie is a communications specialist with Cornell Engineering.