National Academy of Engineering, Sloan Research Fellowships, and More Honors
From science to engineering, writing to architecture, here are the Columbians who received awards recently.
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 January 23 to February 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
Five Columbia faculty members have won 2025 Sloan Research Fellowships, one of the most prestigious awards available to early-career scholars. Lydia B. Chilton, Assistant Professor of Computer Science; Milan Delor, Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Vikram Gadagkar, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience; Raquel Queiroz, Assistant Professor of Physics; and Evan D. Sadler, Associate Professor of Economics, were each awarded two-year $75,000 fellowships. These fellowships recognize “exceptional researchers at U.S. and Canadian educational institutions, whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders.”
FACULTY
ARTS & HUMANITIES
Lila Abu-Lughod, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, received Honorable Mention for the International Studies Association Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Book Prize for The Cunning of Gender Violence: Geopolitics and Feminism, co-edited with Rema Hammami and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian.
The work of Andrés Jaque, Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, is featured in the permanent collection exhibition in the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The architectural project, “Reggio School, Madrid, Spain,” was completed in 2022.
Christia Mercer, Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy, has received the 2025 Stefanopoulos Philosophical Society Award.
Graciela Montaldo, Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, received the 2025 Kalman Silvert Award from the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). The Kalman Silvert Award, named after LASA’s first president, is presented every year to an eminent senior scholar for distinguished lifetime contributions to the study of Latin America, and is LASA's highest honor.
The 2025 AIANY Design Awards include the works of faculty members from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation: Kate Orff for Memphis’s Tom Lee Park by Studio Gang and SCAPE, which received the Honor Award in the Landscape and Planning category, and Marc Tsurumaki for Biogenic House Sections by LTL Architects, which received the Honor Award in the Projects category.
MEDICINE & SCIENCE
Riana Elyse Anderson, Associate Professor of Social Work, earned an APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology in applied research. The award recognizes excellent psychologists who are at early stages of their research careers.
Andrew J. Einstein, Professor of Medicine, was elected a member of the Association of University Cardiologists.
Dawn Hershman, Witten Family Professor of Medicine, received the David Karnofsky Science of Oncology Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
W. Ian Lipkin, John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, received a grant of $9,374,871 over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for the project, “Center for Solutions for ME/CFS.”
Alan Tall, Tilden-Weger-Bieler Professor of Medicine, received a grant of $12,059,294 over five years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for the project, “Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Atherosclerosis.”
Meghan Reading Turchioe, Assistant Professor of Nursing, will be inducted as a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.
ENGINEERING
Elham Azizi, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Cancer Data Research at Columbia Engineering, was awarded the 2025 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science. The Vilcek Prize honors Azizi’s innovative approach to cancer science and recognizes her role as a leader among immigrant scientists.
Keren Bergman, Charles Batchelor Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia Engineering, has been awarded the 2025 C.E.K. Mees Medal. Bergman was recognized for her pioneering research on optical interconnects and photonic architectures for high-performance computing.
Michal Lipson, Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor of Applied Physics, and Venkat Venkatasubramanian, Samuel Ruben-Peter G. Viele Professor of Engineering, have been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE), which is among the highest professional distinctions for an engineer.
STUDENTS, POSTDOCS, & ALUMNI
Julia Ding (SEAS’27), a member of the Kappa Phi Lambda Sorority, was awarded a $1,000 scholarship from the Holmes Murphy Fraternal Practice. The scholarship is awarded to students who are working to further their education for a greater purpose within the insurance industry.
Columbia Climate School MA in Climate & Society students Salomé Dormoy, Siddharth Gundala, Erik Stein, and Eszter Varga won second place for their sustainable market transformation roadmap from among 45 teams in the ESG Dilemma Design Challenge, co-sponsored by University of Michigan's Erb Institute and Ross Business+Impact as well as the Alliance for Responsible Capitalism.
Shayna Gersten (GS'24) was named a Matthew Isakowitz Commercial Space Scholar. The 10 selected “Matthew Scholars” will have the opportunity to advance their aerospace careers through policy-focused paid internships at cutting-edge commercial space companies in the Washington, D.C., area.
Jeffrey Meris (SOA’19) was awarded the 2025 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Visual Arts for his work engaging materiality, installation, and performance. His art explores the power of ecology and embodiment to liberate and heal from individual and historical trauma.
Oluremi C. Onabanjo (CC’15, GSAS’20,’21, PhD candidate) was awarded the 2025 Vilcek Prize in Curatorial Work for her work examining the power, position, and production of Blackness in relation to the unfinished global history of the photographic medium.
Victoria Perez, Postdoctoral Fellow in Dermatology, received a Resident of Distinction Award from DermMentors.