2026 Rhodes Scholar, Highly Cited Researchers List, American Academy of Sciences and Letters Elections

Columbia News produces a monthly newsletter (subscribe here!) and article series featuring a roundup of awards and milestones that Columbia faculty, staff, and students have received in recent days. In this edition, you’ll find awards and milestones from Oct.16 to Nov. 20, 2025.

If you have an accomplishment you’d like to be considered for inclusion, please email [email protected] with your name, title, school, department, and a link to the relevant award or milestone. 

You can take a look at past accomplishments on our Awards & Milestones page. And you can subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox. 

INSTITUTIONAL

New York Blood Center awarded a Blood Drive Program Milestone Award to Columbia University for surpassing 20,000 blood donations and more than 30 years of dedicated partnership in ensuring the stability of New York City’s blood supply.  

More than 50 Columbia researchers were included on Clarivate's Highly Cited Researchers list, which identifies global research scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields of research.

FACULTY

ARTS & HUMANITIES

Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang, Adjunct Associate Professors at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), won Metropolis Magazine’s 2025 Planet Positive Award in the Pavilion category for the ResilienCity Park Pavilion in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Hannah Farber, Associate Professor of History, is one of 17 U.S. historians appointed to the Organization of American Historians’ Distinguished Lectureship program. 

Gustavo Pérez Firmat, David Feinson Professor Emeritus of Humanities, and Katja Maria Vogt, Professor of Philosophy, were invested as members of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Eleonora Pistis, Associate Professor of Art History and Archaeology, is the winner of the 2025 Berger Prize, the leading book prize in the field of British art history, for her volume, Architecture of Knowledge: Hawksmoor and Oxford (2024).

Shana L. Redmond, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, received the 2025 ASCAP Foundation Paul Williams “Loved the Liner Notes” Award. She was recognized for her liner notes for the Grammy-nominated album, Paul Robeson – Voice of Freedom: His Complete Columbia, RCA, HMV, and Victor Recordings (Sony Classical, 2024).

Hilary Sample, IDC Foundation Professor of Housing Design at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) and GSAPP Professor Sebastián Adamo received the Holcim Foundation Award for Latin America for the project, Chacarita Alta Social Housing.

Magdalena Stern-Baczewska, Senior Lecturer in the Music Department, was awarded the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Arts and Music Award from the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America. 

MEDICINE & SCIENCE

Jeffrey A. Ascherman, Thomas S. Zimmer Professor of Reconstructive Surgery, was elected as the new Chair of the Board of Trustees of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons at its national meeting.  

Cory Abate-Shen, Robert Sonneborn Professor of Medicine; Anil Rustgi, Herbert and Florence Irving Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Michael Shen, Arthur J. Antenucci Professor of Medical Sciences (in Medicine), Genetics and Development and Urological Sciences (in Urology), received $10,000,000 over five years from the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research for “Mechanisms and therapeutic targeting of lineage plasticity and tumor progression in bladder and esophageal cancer.”  

Kiyohito Iigaya, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology, was honored with the 2025 Society of Neuroeconomics Early Career Award, recognizing significant contributions to neuroeconomics.

Benjamin Izar, Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Associate Professor of Medicine, has been honored as a term member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Michel W. Sadelain, Director of the Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy and Herbert and Florence Irving Professor of Medicine, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Chunhua Weng, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, received the Donald A.B. Lindberg Award for Innovation in Informatics from the American Medical Informatics Association. 

Hanrui Zhang, Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences, received a grant of $6,326,432 over seven years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Finding and pushing the limits of macrophage efferocytosis in atherosclerosis.”

ENGINEERING

Gil Zussman, Kenneth Brayer Professor of Electrical Engineering, was invested as a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Douglas Almond, Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs, and Zoey Yiyuan Zhou, Assistant Professor of Climate, Columbia Climate School, have been honored with the 2025 GRASFI Conference Prize for Best Data and Metrics Award from the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment. 

Philip Hamburger, Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, received the 2025 Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters. 

Nadia Urbinati, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory in the Political Science Department, was awarded the 2025 Serena Medal of Honor by the British Academy, for her contribution to the study of political theory, the history of political thought, and democracy.  

POSTDOCS & STUDENTS

Stanley Davis (CC’26) was named a 2026 Rhodes Scholar. He is among 32 Americans chosen for the prestigious scholarship, which provides funding for two or three years of postgraduate study at Oxford.

Harry Reyes Nieva, Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Division of Infectious Diseases, was selected as a 2025 STAT Wunderkind, an award recognizing the work of early-career scientists and clinicians.

Sofia Ouyang, Doctoral Candidate in the Music Department, has received a 2025–26 Copland House Residency Award. 

Aishworya Shrestha, PhD student at Columbia School of Social Work, was selected as a member of the United Nations’ 5th cohort of 17 Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals.

Thomas Werkmeister, Simons Junior Fellow and Postdoctoral Research Scientist, was selected by the American Physical Society as the recipient of the 2026 Richard L. Greene Dissertation Award in Experimental Condensed Matter or Materials Physics. This award, one of the highest honors for recent PhD graduates in the field, recognizes Werkmeister’s outstanding doctoral research.

STAFF & RECENT ALUMNI

Amanda Bielskas, Director of Science, Engineering, and Social Science Libraries, was selected as the 2025 recipient of the Geoscience Information Society (GSIS) Mary B. Ansari Distinguished Service Award. 

Robert Davis, who retired in 2025 as the Librarian for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies at Columbia University Libraries, won the 2025 CLIR Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Colby King (CC’22) was named a 2025 David Prize recipient, whose work as arts leader, educator, and advocate sits at the intersection of culture, justice, and community. The David Prize provides $200,000 to five New Yorkers with ideas, projects, products, and passions for a better New York City. 

Connor Martini, recent PhD graduate from the Religion Department, won the 2025 American Religion Dissertation Prize for his thesis, “The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in an Enchanted Universe.” This annual prize is awarded by a jury of editors of the journal to works demonstrating excellence in the study of religion in America.