CSLA Awards '21: NJIT's College of Science and Liberal Arts Unites for Night of Celebration

With the spring semester nearly in the rearview, standout students, faculty, staff and alumni of NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA) gathered virtually for a night of due recognition and positive reflection at the college’s annual year-end celebration, the 2021 CSLA Awards.

At the second-consecutive virtual ceremony this month, Dean Kevin Belfield kicked off the evening by welcoming the CSLA community back together after a uniquely difficult year, while also taking time to highlight the college’s recent successes, particularly in areas of research and education.

“A year ago, most of us were scrambling just to get the most basic necessities of life, meanwhile many of us also wrestled with adjusting to teaching and learning online,” said Belfield. “Enormous credit goes to everyone in coping with the rapid transition to remote learning.”

“We have a lot to celebrate today,” he added, noting that in the last year CSLA’s applicants have risen 20%, while faculty have published more than 240 refereed journal articles, received over $10 million in new research funding, and now teach roughly 37% of the entire course sections offered at NJIT.   

The event also featured special guest, Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals and Rita Levi-Montalcini Distinguished University Professor at Washington University. Appropriately reflecting the diverse departments at CSLA, Thorp’s broad career experiences before his 2019 appointment at Science include his work as a distinguished biochemist, university chancellor, planetarium director, founder of a biotech company developing technology for electronic DNA chips, and more.

“It’s been an honor to be asked to speak, and I’ve enjoyed learning about the work that Dean Belfield and CSLA are doing,” Thorpe said. “I think NJIT is doing some great science and is committed to excellence in science teaching. … There aren’t enough places committed to being excellent at both of those things.”

But it was the topic of science discovery and communication, particularly in the COVID-era and current socio-political climate, that was central to the keynote talk he gave at the top of the evening.

“My colleagues have described what we do [at Science] as working backstage as the scientists’ research we publish and analyze are on the stage. In this last year like no other, we have been the stage managers of the greatest play of our time, as science has triumphed on the one hand by leading us out of the pandemic with the COVID vaccine. But it’s failed at the same time by not leveraging that success into a greater understanding and appreciation for science by the entire public.

“We’re living in a time when expertise, facts and dispassionate analysis are under assault, so by succeeding as students, faculty and staff, you are part of the story of knowledge driving us towards a more equitable and prosperous world.”

After Thorp’s appearance, the ceremony’s much-anticipated reveal of its alumni, faculty, staff and student awards commenced. More than 30 standout achievers round out the full winner’s list from the 2021 CSLA Awards. Here they are:

Student Awards

Outstanding Undergraduate Student Awards

Bhoomi Dave ’21 (Chemistry & Environmental Science)

Katherine DeMottie ’21 (History)

Jaime Felice ’21 (Aerospace Studies/ROTC)

Jonpierre Grajales ’21 (Physics)

Emily Jensen ’21 (Mathematical Sciences)

Justina Shafik ’21 (Humanities)

Nitya Shah ’21 (Biological Sciences)

Outstanding Graduate Student Awards

Jordan Baldridge ’21 (History)

Binan Gu ’21 (Mathematical Sciences)

Melissa Hayes (Dec. ’20) (Humanities)

Andrey Stejko ’21 (Physics)

Qi Wang (Dec. ’21) (Chemistry & Environmental Science)

Malgorzata Wisniewska (Summer ’21) (Biological Sciences)

Spirit of "Doc" Award

Victoria Nguyen ’21 (History)

Dr. Louis J. Lanzerotti and Dr. M. Yvonne De Wolf Lanzerotti Prize in Applied Physics

Manuel Gallego ’21 (Physics)

Faculty Awards

Distinguished Research Award

Somenath Mitra (Chemistry & Environmental Science)

Rising Star Research Award

Anand Oza (Mathematical Sciences)

Excellence in Service Award

J. Britt Holbrook (Humanities)

Excellence in Undergraduate Education Award

Jorge Golowasch (Biological Sciences)

Excellence in Graduate Education Award

Neil Maher (History)

Instructional & Research Staff Awards  

Excellence in Teaching by a University Lecturer Award

Andrew Pole (Mathematical Sciences)

Excellence in Teaching by an Adjunct Award

Evren Gulistan (Mathematical Sciences)

Excellence in Scholarship Award

Catherine Siemann (Humanities)

Outstanding Staff Award

Cheryl James (Physics/CSTR)

Dean's Distinguished Service Award 

Karen Rappaport (Mathematical Sciences)

Dean's Distinguished Leadership Award

Jonathan Luke (Mathematical Sciences)

Alumni Awards

Distinguished Alumnus Award

H. David Gnau (B.S. Induct. Admin ’85, M.S. Eng. Mgmt. ’89)

Satrajit Roychoudhury ’02 (Mathematical Sciences)

Rising Star Alumna Award

Pamela Carman ’16 (Biological Sciences)

Sarah Rizk ’15 (History/Law, Technology and Culture)

Rising Star Alumnus Award

Waydon Destin ’15 (Humanities/Science, Technology and Society)

Azmal Haidar ’16 (CES B.S., M.S. Chemistry)

Pejman Sanaei (M.S. Applied Statistics’16, Ph.D. Applied Mathematics ’17)