Recent awards spotlight accomplishments of URochester faculty

The National Academy of Medicine and the Packard Foundation are among the organizations recognizing University of Rochester faculty members.

University of Rochester faculty regularly earn regional, national, and international awards and honors for their professional contributions to research, scholarship, education, and community engagement.

As part of an ongoing series, we're spotlighting their accomplishments.

Hussein Aluie elected fellow of the American Physical Society

Hussein Aluie, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Mathematics and a senior scientist at the University's Laboratory for Laser Energetics, was named an American Physical Society Fellow. Aluie was recommended for the honor, which recognizes scientists for research excellence and exceptional service to the physics community, by the APS Topical Group on the Physics of Climate.

Aluie was nominated "for developing a coarse-graining framework to analyze multiscale and inhomogeneous turbulent flows and generalizing this framework to the sphere to unravel coupled-scale processes within the ocean and Earth's climate system, and for service to APS, particularly in bridging the Topical Group on the Physics of Climate and the Division of Fluid Dynamics."

• Read about Aluie's work to understand how the atmosphere affects ocean weather.

Michelle Dziejman appointed to American Society for Microbiology board

Michelle Dziejman, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology, has been named to the American Society for Microbiology Board of Directors. As an at-large board director, Dziejman will play a pivotal role in advancing the organization's strategic roadmap.

Dziejman studies the evolution of bacterial pathogens and the molecular interactions between host and microbe that promote infectious disease.

One of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences, the American Society for Microbiology comprises more than 37,000 scientists and health practitioners working together to promote the microbial sciences.

• Visit the Dziejman Lab website to learn more about her research.

Karl Glastad selected as one of 20 Packard Fellows

Karl Glastad, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, has been named a 2025 Packard Fellow by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The fellowship annually honors 20 science and engineering professors across the United States who are pursuing research early in their careers. Each fellowship is accompanied by an individual grant of $875,000, distributed over five years.

Glastad's research focuses on using ants as models to understand aging. At the cellular level, aging is characterized by an accumulation of damage and dysfunction in multiple dimensions that are thought to precipitate the decline in health as an organism approaches end of life. While this process and these forms of damage are highly consistent across the animal kingdom, the complexity of the process has stymied an understanding of the aging process.

In many ant species, the nonreproductive individuals (workers) live six to eight months, but their reproductive sisters (queens) live for decades, outliving most mammals. The Glastad Lab is using modern genomic, molecular, and transgenic techniques to understand the aging process and how ants have hacked this process more than essentially any other organism on the planet.

• Find out more about Glastad's research.

Neurobiologist Suzanne Haber elected to National Academy of Medicine

Suzanne Haber, Dean's Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Recognized as one of the highest accolades in health and medicine, the distinction acknowledges Haber's significant contributions to the fields of neuroscience and psychiatry over the past 40 years.

Haber, also a professor of psychiatry, of brain and cognitive sciences, and of neuroscience, is an internationally recognized scientist whose work has transformed an understanding of the brain networks that play a central role in many mental health disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression.

She is a biological map maker, charting the brain regions and circuits that regulate motivation, cognition, and motor control. Through anatomical studies and the use of advanced imaging techniques, she's identified abnormalities in brain circuitry that contribute to neurological and mental health disorders ranging from schizophrenia and OCD to post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, and depression.

• Read more about Haber's longstanding contributions and accomplishments.

Sandeep Mannava and Susan McDowell named AOA Fellows

Sandeep Mannava and Susan McDowell, both associate professors of orthopaedics, have been inducted as fellows of the American Orthopaedic Association, nominated by peers within the AOA for exceptional leadership and accomplishments in the field. Fewer than 10 percent of practicing orthopaedic surgeons have achieved this honor.

Mannava's research focuses on clinical outcomes, translational science, and medical education, including NIH-funded studies on how ACL and rotator cuff injuries lead to post-traumatic arthritis.

McDowell, the Dr. C. McCollister Evarts Professor in Orthopaedics, is involved in clinical research in the fields of orthopedic surgery and treatment for bone and soft tissue sarcoma.

• Find bios of the latest class of AOA Fellows.

Ellie Prager recognized with Best Young Researcher Paper Award

Ellie Prager, an assistant professor of economics at Simon Business School, received a Best Young Researcher Paper Award at the 2025 CRESSE Conference.

Prager's paper, "Collusion through Common Leadership," coauthored by Jessica Jeffers (HEC Paris) and Alejandro Herrera-Caicedo (Wisconsin), received one of the two Best Paper Awards for Young Researchers. The paper examines how shared executives or board members between firms can increase the likelihood of collusion-a timely topic in antitrust policy and corporate governance.

CRESSE is a network of academics and professionals working in competition policy, regulation, and law. Its mission includes hosting annual conferences, summer schools, lawyers' courses, and executive programs to advance research, training, and public debate in competition and regulatory policy.

• Read more about the honor.

Pablo Sierra Silva receives J. Franklin Jameson Award

Pablo Sierra Silva, an associate professor in the Department of History, has received the 2025 J. Franklin Jameson Award for editing historical sources. Sierra Silva received the award for Mexico, Slavery, Freedom: A Bilingual Documentary History, 1520-1829 (Hackett, 2024). The Jameson Award was established in 1974 for outstanding achievement in the editing of historical sources.

Sierra Silva's research is centered on the experiences of Africans and their descendants in colonial Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic during the 16th through 18th centuries.

• Learn more about Sierra Silva's approach to teaching.