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<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Dear Colleagues,</span><br>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">The committee for selecting outstanding dissertation for PhD graduating in Spring 2019 met. They selected the following two students as the recipients of the Best Dissertation
Award:</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D"><span style="">1.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Chih-Hao Liu, Biomedical Engineering, Major Professor: Dr. Kirill Larin</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Dissertation Title: Translational Optical Coherence Elastography</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Chih-Hao published 22 refereed papers over the period he was at UH with 9 as the first author. He is also one of the collaborator for a patent application.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D"><span style="">2.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Wenbo Luo, Mechanical Engineering, Major Professor: Dr. Venkat Selvamanickam</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Dissertation Title: Fabrication and Electromechanical Study of Symmetric Tape Round (STAR) ReBCO wires</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Wenbo published eight refereed journal papers and received as co-collaborator one patent and another one is pending for the work done at UH.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Both Chih-Hao and Wenbo will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a plaque at Spring graduation ceremony.</span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Departmental winners:</span></b></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Here are the other four departments outstanding dissertation awardees:</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D"><span style="">1.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Jingyi Wang, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Major Professor: Dr. Miao Pan</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Dissertation Title: Big Data Privacy Preservation for Cyber-Physical Systems</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D"><span style="">2.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Aein Khabazian, Industrial Engineering, Major Professor: Dr. Jiming Peng</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Dissertation Title: Systemic Risk Assessment and Mitigation in Financial Networks Based on Optimization Modeling and Technique.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D"><span style="">3.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Wenli Yang, Materials Engineering, Major Professor: Drs. Brankovic and Robles</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Dissertation Title: Low Temperature Synthesis Sapphire or Ruby and their Applications.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D"><span style="">4.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Wenfeng Li, Petroleum Engineering, Major Professor: Ahmad Sakhaee-Pour</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Dissertation Title: Upscaling the Geomechanical Properties of Shale Formulations from Drill Cuttings.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">If you see any of these PhD students and their major professors, please congratulate them for the wonderful research and mentoring they have done.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Warm regards,</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D"><br>
Suresh Khator</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">________________________________________________________</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Suresh K. Khator, Ph.D., P.E. Phone: 713-743-4205</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Associate Dean, College of Engineering Fax: 713-743-4214</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Professor of Industrial Engineering Email:
<a href="mailto:skhator@uh.edu"><span style="color:#0563C1">skhator@uh.edu</span></a>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">E421 Engineering Building 2
<a href="http://www.ie.uh.edu/faculty/khator"><span style="color:#0563C1">www.ie.uh.edu/faculty/khator</span></a></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#1F497D">Houston, TX 77204-4008</span></p>
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