College celebrates 14th annual awards ceremony online

Faculty and staff gathered online over Zoom last Friday for the College of Engineering’s 14th annual awards ceremony. The purpose was to honor faculty and staff for their dedicated service to the state, the university, and the college.

Recognized for 20 years-of-service were June Akers, Thong Lien, and Song Choi. CEE Professor Panos Prevedouros was recognized for his 30 years of service with the college while master technician Ben Respicio was honored for an impressive 50 years of service.

Faculty members who received national awards within the last year were also highlighted. In May, CEE Associate Professor Sayed Bateni was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to conduct water research in Qatar. Through his research, Prof. Bateni aims to predict heat wave duration and intensity by merging remotely sensed land surface temperature and meteorological data within machine learning approaches.

In April, fellow CEE Professor Roger Babcock was awarded a Board of Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching from UH Mānoa, out of nearly 300 campus-wide nominations. This award reflects an extraordinary level of subject mastery and scholarship, teaching effectiveness and creativity, and exemplary personal character.

Based upon the recommendations of the college’s Service Awards Selection Committee, Dr. Yi Zuo was the Faculty Research awardee, Jill Nakatsu was the faculty service awardee, and Shayna Yee was the staff service awardee.

Special recognition was given to longtime college member Carrie Matsuzaki, this year’s Meritorious Service awardee. This award is personally selected by the dean and is bestowed upon those who have demonstrated exceptionally meritorious service that advances the mission and function of the college.

Over the last 30 plus years, Carrie has worked in nearly every capacity there is in the college—from running events to editing grant proposals and technical papers. She is familiar with all procedures and processes from fiscal to HR to academic affairs. She has shown that she will do anything that is needed if it is a benefit to the college, its faculty or its students.