University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Grainger College of Engineering
Mechanical Science & Engineering

Faculty and Staff Recognition

MechSE Alumni Effective Teaching Awards

Sanjiv Sinha

Sanjiv Sinha

Five-Year Effective Teaching Award

Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler

Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler

Two-Year Effective Teaching Award


For more than 40 years, the MechSE Alumni Board has sponsored two Alumni Effective Teaching Awards. The awards were established so that alumni two and five years into their professional careers have the opportunity to honor faculty whose teaching they now perceive as having had the greatest impact on their careers. Our former students vote to recognize truly outstanding teaching in the department - this year, the classes of 2019 and 2022.

MechSE Staff Award for Exemplary Service

Stephanie Ott-Monsivais

Stephanie Ott-Monsivais

Susan Roughton

Susan Roughton


This honor is given annually to staff members for their contributions to the department and their outstanding service to faculty, students, and colleagues. Nominations are solicited and submitted by MechSE faculty, staff and students.

Faculty Awards 2023-24

Nikhil Admal

  • NSF CAREER Award

Gaurav Bahl

  • Named the George B. Grim Professor

Lili Cai

  • SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award
  • Office of Naval Research Young Investigators Program award

Randy Ewoldt

  • Named the Alexander Rankin Professor
  • Engineering Council Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence
  • Appointed to 2024-26 cohort of U.S. Defense Science Study Group

Mattia Gazzola

  • Named a Charles Conrad Kritzer Faculty Scholar

Naira Hovakimyan

  • ASME Fellow
  • Grainger College of Engineering Excellence in Translational Research

Iwona Jasiuk

  • Named a Richard W. Kritzer Faculty Scholar

Bill King

  • Grainger College of Engineering Excellence in Faculty Mentoring
  • ASME William T. Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award
  • Elected to the ASME Board of Governors

Katie Matlack

  • ASME C.D. Mote Jr., Early Career Award
  • Named a Richard W. Kritzer Faculty Scholar

Prashant Mehta

  • IEEE Fellow

Nenad Miljkovic

  • Named the Founder Professor in Mechanical Science and Engineering
  • R&D Magazine Top 100 Innovation

Martin Ostoja-Starzewski

  • Elected as a Foreign Member of Academia Europaea

Taher Saif

  • Elected to the National Academy of Engineering

Huseyin Sehitoglu

  • Campus Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring
  • International Congress on Fracture, Paul C. Paris Gold Medal
  • Selected to Acta Materialia Board of Governors

Kyle Smith

  • Grainger College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Early Innovation for Associate Professor

Sameh Tawfick

  • Named a Ralph A. Andersen Faculty Scholar