Six receive Faculty Scholar Medals for scholarly, creative excellence

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Six University faculty members have received 2026 Faculty Scholar Medals for Outstanding Achievement.

They are Amy Bridger, assistant research professor of higher education strategy at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College; Cui-Zu Chang, professor of physics in the Eberly College of Science; Alexander Hristov, distinguished professor of dairy nutrition in the College of Agricultural Sciences; Michelle Newman, professor of psychology and psychiatry in the College of the Liberal Arts; Xingjie Ni, associate professor of electrical engineering in the College of Engineering and David Witwer, distinguished professor of American studies and history at Penn State Harrisburg.

Established in 1980, the award recognizes scholarly or creative excellence represented by a single contribution or a series of contributions around a coherent theme. A committee of peers reviews nominations and selects candidates.

Amy Bridger

Bridger's applied research interests are centered on institutional innovation, entrepreneurial ecosystems and strategic alignment in higher education. Her scholarly contribution lies in designing systems that enable the success of other researchers and, through them, students. Nominators said she builds environments where faculty expertise can be applied to real industry problems and where students gain hands-on research and entrepreneurial experience.

Bridger also serves as assistant dean for innovation and corporate strategy at Penn State Behrend, where she provides strategic leadership for initiatives that support innovation, entrepreneurship and industry engagement.

"Her work focuses on building entrepreneurial pathways that connect Penn State's academic expertise with employers, startups, and regional economic development partners, strengthening the University's impact across communities and industries," a nominator said.

Nominators said Bridger conceptualized, structured and secured the funding model for the proposed Center for Manufacturing Competitiveness, which represents a significant investment in regional research capacity and economic development. She designed and executed a multi-layered model merging federal, state, local, foundation and other funding sources, a model that has become a template for approaching large-scale innovation infrastructure.

"This work transcends administration; it is strategic, research-enabling scholarship that drives and supports Penn State Behrend's 'Open Lab' strategy," a nominator said. "Dr. Bridger has operationalized the Open Lab philosophy, building a sustainable system where public investment, industry need and academic strength align."

Bridger also established the James R. Meehl Innovation Commons, a nationally recognized model for university-industry engagement. Nominators said her leadership there has enabled students to be involved in more than 25 patent applications and enabled hundreds of students to engage in advanced prototyping, feasibility testing and industry-driven research experiences. The Commons has also served as a pipeline for companies seeking student talent and faculty expertise.

She has played a leading role in securing more than $20 million in public funding related to entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystems, applied research infrastructure and regional economic development.

She was also instrumental in attracting flagship industry partners to the region, including Kyocera's AVX division headquarters. This 49,000-square-foot-manufacturing and design center is projected to grow to a $50 million dollar operation adjacent to campus, providing valuable internships, full-time hires and sponsored research across disciplines.

"These are the outcomes of a faculty scholar who designs environments where academic capability becomes regional capability," a nominator said. "These impacts are matched by the ways Bridger invests in the people around her. Her clarity on value creation, her instinct for aligning corporate need with academic capability and her advocacy for faculty researchers made that collaboration not only possible but enduring."

Cui-Zu Chang

Chang is a condensed matter experimentalist. His research centers on topological and superconducting materials, particularly the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect and interface superconductivity. His work explores dissipation-free transport in QAH insulators and their integration with superconductors, with implications for low-energy electronics and quantum computing.

"Chang played an important role in the progress and development of quantum materials and technology. In particular, his research aims to advance scalable quantum information science, enabling the development of dissipationless quantum devices," a nominator said. "The QAH effect, where electrons are confined to the edges of material and flow without resistance, holds promise for applications in Majorana physics and the next generation of spintronic and electronic devices with ultralow power consumption."

His research has led to the discovery of new quantum phenomena, including the axion insulator in magnetic topological insulator sandwich structures, multiple dissipation-free channels in QAH insulators and interface superconductivity between two magnetic materials. In April, Chang published two back-to-back papers in Nature about his research demonstrating that superconductivity can be switched on in a once-magnetic material and revealing a new "quantum dance" between superconductivity and a moiré superlattice.

Chang has received multiple honors for his work, including election as an American Physical Society Fellow, the Gordon and Betty Moore EPiQS Materials Synthesis Investigator Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Army Research Office Young Investigator Program Award, the Macronix Prize, the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.

Nominators said Chang's research has resulted in a slew of findings that pave the way for new paradigms in topological quantum computation and energy-efficient electronic systems.

"He is widely recognized as a major player in this field," a nominator said. "His more recent works have been breaking new ground, developing platforms for eliciting topological quantum responses in artificially-grown and patterned quantum materials in an attempt to take them from the discovery stage to possible applications."

Since 2020, Chang's group has published more than 60 high-profile papers on topological and superconducting materials with novel quantum properties, including one in Review Modern of Physics, four in Nature, two in Science, six in Nature Materials, five in Physical Review Letters, 11 in Nature Communications and 10 in Nano Letters. Recent highlights include two the Nature papers published last week; his 2023 review article "Colloquium: Quantum anomalous Hall effect"; and his 2020 Nature paper, "Tuning the Chern number in quantum anomalous Hall insulators".

"Chang is deserving of this honor because his pioneering experimental discoveries in topological quantum materials have fundamentally reshaped condensed matter physics. His work on the quantum anomalous Hall effect and topological superconductivity has opened entirely new fields with profound implications for quantum computing, spintronics, and energy-efficient technologies," a nominator said. "The scale of his impact is global, influencing both fundamental science and emerging quantum technologies, and his leadership has driven major advances recognized by the scientific community worldwide."

Alexander N. Hristov

Nominators said Hristov's career is a model of scientific excellence and impact, saying his pioneering research in dairy cattle nutrition, greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen use efficiency has transformed our understanding of sustainable agriculture.

Through decades of work, he has developed nutritional strategies that reduce nitrogen excretion and enteric methane emissions, which address critical challenges for the future of dairy farming and environmentally responsible food systems. 

"Hristov is a world-renowned scientist, educator, and inventor whose work is having a sizable impact on the science and practice of animal nutrition, but just as importantly his work is poised to greatly benefit humankind through innovative and practical solutions to reducing the environmental impact of animal agriculture and providing science-backed guidance for setting climate goals and measuring success," a nominator said. "His recent research focuses primarily on measuring and mitigating the environmental impact of livestock production, which are his pioneering and most important contributions to date."

Hristov led internationally recognized studies on prediction models for livestock environmental emissions and anti-methanogenic feed additives such as 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP) and seaweeds, which have influenced global policy and contributed to assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

His protein nutrition research contributed key discoveries related to mitigation of nitrogen losses and ammonia emissions from dairy manure, quantification of livestock contribution to atmospheric small particulate matter in the United States, and led to the discovery of histidine as a limiting amino acid in dairy cattle nutrition, which sparked industry interest in supplementing reduced‐protein diets with rumen-protected histidine. The findings helped steer the latest National Academies of Sciences' "Nutrient Requirements for Dairy Cattle" recommendations. 

The methane inhibitor 3-NOP, approved in the United States and many other countries around the world under the commercial name Bovaer, reduces emissions by 30% with no side effects on animal productivity.

"If you just consider the number of dairy cattle in the U.S., which is 9.3 million, and the potential reduction in CO2 equivalents that would be achieved by broad adoption of Bovaer in the dairy industry, it would result in a nearly 7 million tons reduction annually," a nominator said. "As a land-grant institution that places a high priority on research that impacts people's lives, the impact of this work can hardly be overstated."

Hristov has published more than 270 peer-reviewed articles, with more than 25,700 citations and an h-index of 88, reflecting the depth and global reach of his work. He is a member of the Journal of Dairy Science 100 Club, a distinction reserved for researchers with more than 100 publications in that journal alone.

"His work exemplifies the land-grant mission of Penn State - advancing science, supporting producers, and addressing societal needs," a nominator said. "Hristov's contributions have not only elevated the field of dairy nutrition but have also helped shape a more sustainable agricultural future." 

Michelle Newman

Newman's research focuses on the nature and treatment of anxiety disorders and depression. Nominators said she uses cutting-edge methodology to examine the etiology and classification, individual predictors of psychotherapy outcome and impact of brief psychotherapy with respect to these disorders. Newman is also conducting several basic experimental studies examining underlying processes related to these disorders.

"A world leader in the science of anxiety and depressive disorders, Dr. Newman is both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary in her scholarship," a nominator said. "Her scholarship cuts across clinical psychology, neuroscience, and computational modeling, bridging mental health science with digital technology. At Penn State, she has strengthened interdisciplinary collaborations between psychology, computer science and data science, advancing the University's strategic vision of harnessing research and innovation to advance global health and well-being."

Newman is a leading expert in the social and behavioral sciences of emotion, anxiety and depression. Nominators said her research program integrates cognitive-behavioral theory, affective science, and longitudinal methods to address fundamental questions about how worry, avoidance, and rumination sustain psychopathology. Nominators said Newman was at the forefront of anxiety research, which affects about 5% of the global population. In the U.S., one in three will experience an anxiety disorder in their lifetime.

"To this end, Professor Newman has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of how anxiety disorders develop and persist," a nominator said. "The 'Contrast Avoidance Model of Worry,' which Professor Newman developed with her colleague Sandra Llera, has become a cornerstone theory to explain why individuals with generalized anxiety disorder engage in chronic worry. The model's key insight is that worry, a defining feature of the disorder, is a maladaptive strategy that serves the function of avoiding sudden contrast in emotional experience."

Nominators said Newman's model has been described as one of the most significant theoretical advancements in understanding generalized anxiety disorder that represents a paradigm shift from reducing worry to uncovering the source of the anxiety.

Her research also examines issues relevant to health implications of anxiety disorders. Current research projects include; artificial intelligence for emotion detection, diagnostic classification, and prediction of therapy outcomes; evaluation of technologically driven mobile momentary interventions in the U.S.; assessment and classification of anxiety disorders and mood disorders; momentary assessment of symptoms and emotion in anxiety disorders; examination of the impact of psychotherapy beyond the targeted symptoms of a particular disorder; mediators and moderators of psychotherapy; emotion regulation in anxiety disorders and its relationship to therapeutic mechanisms and dysfunctional interpersonal styles in anxiety disorders. 

"Her careful work and sophisticated multi-method approaches further helped to develop novel interventions for disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder that failed to respond to traditional anxiety disorder treatments," a nominator said. "Through her visionary scholarship, Dr. Newman has transformed the field's conceptualization of generalized anxiety disorder and has catalyzed new approaches to research and treatment."

Xingjie Ni

Xingjie Ni is a leading figure in nanophotonics, metamaterials and metasurfaces, and optical materials and devices.

Nominators said his transformative research has advanced the understanding and engineering of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale, with national and international impact across sensing, compact imaging systems, communications, quantum technologies and energy-efficient computing. The work has the greatest impact in optical computing for AI (artificial intelligence) efficiency, deployable ultracompact meta-optics and high-density integrated photonics.

Nominators said his devices do not merely improve performance, they shift the design space, enabling unprecedented capabilities that traditional optics and electronics cannot reach in size, speed or power.

"As data growth collides with energy limits, Dr. Ni - building on the work mentioned above - offers a highly innovative path: treating light not only as a signal to be sensed but as a medium that can compute, route and reveal information with minimal power and near-zero latency," a nominator said. "The cross-industry pain points are clear - AI workloads face power and memory walls; imaging for phones, augmented and virtual reality, drones, and small satellites must shrink without sacrificing fidelity; and networks require denser, more efficient photonics. Ni tackles these bottlenecks by redesigning light-matter interactions at the nanoscale and translating those advances through to manufacturable systems."

Nominators said Ni's research addresses challenges that extend far beyond a single field, carrying solutions from fundamental materials and device innovation all the way to scalable, manufacturable technologies. His group uses metasurfaces, ultrathin films patterned at the nanoscale level, to control light with exceptional precision, nominators said. This dramatically shrinks devices such as cameras while also making imaging more informative, reducing AI computing costs by letting light perform part of the computation.

"Ni's research unites fundamental insight with foundry-ready engineering, translating breakthroughs into scalable, reliable systems," a nominator said. "The benefits are tangible: lighter cameras with instrument-grade performance, single-shot imagers that capture rich spectral and polarization data, and dramatically lower energy use for AI and optical networks. These advances are already changing how information is sensed, processed, and transmitted, with impact extending from clinics and farms to data centers and mobile devices."

Nominators said Ni has an excellent record of external funding, student mentoring and professional service. His current research, as principal or co-principal investigator, is supported by more than $11 million provided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, Raytheon Technologies and Sony Corporation. His former doctoral advisees have advanced to leading industries, national laboratories and universities.

Ni is a fellow of Optica and a member of the American Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, SPIE - the international society for optics and photonics - and the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society. He serves as an associate editor for Science Advances and the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, and as faculty adviser to the Optica/SPIE Penn State Student Chapter.

"Ni's visionary research and leadership have profoundly impacted the field of nanophotonics and metamaterials," a nominator said. "His ability to bridge fundamental science with practical applications sets him apart as a leader in our field. I am confident that his continued contributions will shape the future of science and technology."

David Witwer

Witwer's research focuses on the impact of union corruption scandals on modern American politics; it brings together the intersecting historical fields of labor, politics, journalism and organized crime. Nominators said his sustained, field-shaping research program on corruption in the U.S. labor movement stands as a nationally recognized and internationally influential body of work.

His current book project, "In Search of Jimmy Hoffa," traces the history of what is known about International Brotherhood of Teamsters president Hoffa's disappearance, his involvement with organized crime and what his career reveals about working-class attitudes towards corruption.

"This represents not merely a continuation of an established research program, but the culmination of decades of archival scholarship, public engagement and innovative analysis on one of labor history's most enduring mysteries," a nominator said. This work "marks a major intellectual contribution to the humanities and significantly deepens his scholarly impact."

His first book, "Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters Union," focused on the causes of corruption, including the role played by organized crime, in one of the nation's most important labor organizations. By profiling a series of long overlooked reform efforts within the Teamsters, nominators said, the book also challenged the stereotypical image of union members as apathetic and cynical towards corruption.

Nominators said that Witwer's work also highlights the way those opposed to organized labor manipulated the issue of corruption to delegitimize the labor movement; and in doing so, they and their allies in the media misrepresented the causes of corruption, ignoring the role of employers and corrupt elements of the state, and placing the blame solely on the phenomenon of union power.

Anti-unionists promoted a broad definition of corruption, one that tagged many legal but aggressive tactics by unions as forms of racketeering, Witwer said. It is also true, he said, that the real existence of corruption and organized criminal influence in some unions helped give this tactic its potency.

In "Shadow of the Racketeer: Scandal in Organized Labor," Witwer used the history of the conservative journalist Westbrook Pegler's exposé of a major corruption scandal involving the Chicago mob, Hollywood movie studios and the leadership of two national unions to demonstrate how such scandals have tainted the public's view of union power.

"This body of work has established Witwer as the leading scholar in the United States on the intersection of labor, organized crime, political reform, and media representation," a nominator said. "His writing combines meticulous archival research, extensive use of government and journalistic sources, and a rare capacity to reconstruct complex networks of influence and corruption that shaped the political landscape of the 20th century and continue to inform public debates today."

Witwer served on the editorial board of the journal Labor History,  and he has published articles in the Journal of American History, Journal of Social History, Journal of Women's History, Social Science History, Journalism History, Trends in Organized Crime,  Criminal Justice Review and International Labor and Working Class History.