School of Engineering Faculty Members Receive AS&E Awards
From its inception, Tufts University has prided itself on providing students with a high-quality education while also supporting outstanding research that advances knowledge and understanding across disciplines. Four School of Engineering faculty members recently received AS&E faculty awards recognizing exceptional contributions to teaching, research, and service.
Seymour Simches Award for Distinguished Teaching and Advising: Professor Sergio Fantini of the Department of Biomedical Engineering
This award is presented annually to a senior member of the School of Arts and Sciences faculty and a senior member of the School of Engineering faculty, recognizing a lifetime of outstanding teaching and advising.
Sergio Fantini joined Tufts University as an Assistant Professor in 1999 and was one of the inaugural faculty members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, created at Tufts in 2002. Fantini's research interests are in the area of biomedical optics, specifically in diffuse near-infrared spectroscopy and imaging of biological tissues. His research laboratory has ongoing projects aimed at non-invasive functional imaging of the brain, the study of cerebral and skeletal muscle hemodynamics, and the development of novel instrumentation for optical mammography.
Lerman-Neubauer Prize for Outstanding Teaching and Advising: Assistant Teaching Professor Milod Kazerounian of the Department of Computer Science
Nominated by graduating seniors, this award is presented annually to a faculty member who has had a profound intellectual impact on his or her students, both inside and outside the classroom.
Milod Kazerounian completed his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he studied programming languages with his advisor, Jeff Foster, who is now the chair of the computer science department at Tufts. His research explored ways to introduce expressive type systems to dynamic languages like Ruby. His research spanned numerous methodologies, including programming language design, type theory, formal verification, and machine learning. At Tufts, he teaches Data Structures and other courses in computer science.
Faculty/Staff Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) Service Award: Associate Professor Madeleine Oudin of the Department of Biomedical Engineering
This award recognizes the contributions of members of the AS&E faculty and staff who have made significant efforts to define Tufts as a DEIJ environment in which race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, and sexual orientation are not barriers to the full enjoyment of community membership.
The primary focus of Madeleine Oudin's research is to investigate the role of the various components of the tumor microenvironment in driving tumor metastasis and drug resistance, using an interdisciplinary approach that combines cell biology, microfluidics, intravital imaging, systems biology, and implantable devices.
Henry and Madeline Fischer Award: Professor Matthew Panzer of the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering
This award is given annually to a faculty member of the School of Engineering judged by graduating seniors of the School of Engineering to be "Engineering's Teacher of the Year." The recipient has demonstrated teaching excellence, inspired and motivated students to be their best, and left them a lasting and gratifying memory of a special teacher and a profound intellectual experience.
This is Matt Panzer’s fourth time receiving the Henry and Madeline Fisher Award. He was previously selected for the honor in 2015, 2021, and 2022. His teaching excellence has also been recognized with the Lillian and Joseph Leibner Award for Distinguished Teaching and Advising (2016), and the Recognition of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence (ROUTE) Award from Tufts University (2014). The Panzer group's research efforts are driven by the significant challenge facing the world today to develop cleaner, safer, and more sustainable energy solutions.
Learn more about the AS&E Faculty Awards.