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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dear Colleagues:</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">To recognize the value of the outstanding research done by our PhD students, Dean Tedesco instituted the Best Dissertation Award. The award recognizes one first place and one second
place graduating doctoral students from the Cullen College of Engineering. The selection is made based on the originality and importance of the research, and the potential for the student to make a significant contribution to the discipline. The first place
recipient receives an honorarium of $1,000 and the second place recipients receives an honorarium of $500.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">There were seven outstanding nominations for this year’s (Fall 2022, Spring 2023 and Summer 2023) awards. The committee had a difficult task to choose the first and second place winners.
The final decision was to award one first place and two second place winners:</span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">First Place Recipient</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">: Feng Fang, Department: Biomedical Engineering, Dissertation Title:
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Brain Controllability Analysis<span style="background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">, Advisor: Dr. Yingchun Zhang</span></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Second Place Recipient:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"> Adam Mallette, Department: Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering,
</span><span style="background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Dissertation Title:
</span>Regulating Zeolite Nucleation using Alkali Cations and Higher Valence Elements<span style="background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"> Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Rimer</span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Second Place Recipient:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"> Kosar Mozaffari, Department: Mechanical Engineering, Dissertation Title:
</span><span style="color: black;">The Interaction of Nonlinear Deformation and Electrostatics with Applications for Designing New Materials and Explaining Natural Phenomena</span><span style="background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">,
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Advisor: Dr. Pradeep Sharma</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"></span></p>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; background: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Our congratulations to the awardees and their advisors.</span></p>
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Suresh Khator</p>
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<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">________________________________________________________</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Suresh K. Khator, Ph.D., P.E., Fellow IISE Phone: 713-743-4205</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Senior Associate Dean Fax: 713-743-4214</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Cullen College of Engineering Email:
</span><a href="mailto:skhator@uh.edu" id="OWA548aa9cb-e978-84f1-04f5-f4b149741957" class="OWAAutoLink"><span style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">skhator@uh.edu</span></a><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"></span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Professor of Industrial Engineering
</span><a href="http://www.ie.uh.edu/faculty/khator" data-auth="NotApplicable" id="OWA381bdac5-af62-a03d-5e5d-aa655bf32199" class="OWAAutoLink"><span style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">www.ie.uh.edu/faculty/khator</span></a><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">
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<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">E421 Engineering Building 2
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<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Houston, TX 77204-4008</span></p>
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