The Breakthrough family of awards, presented each year by the Office of the Vice President for Research, recognizes USC faculty and graduate students for their research and scholarly excellence with three distinct honors. The Breakthrough Leadership in Research award recognizes USC’s distinguished senior faculty, the Breakthrough Star award honors outstanding early-career faculty and the Breakthrough Graduate Scholar award acclaims exceptional graduate students.
Discussing the signature research award program, Vice President for Research Prakash Nagarkatti notes, “Each year, the competition for these awards is incredibly strong, which is a credit to our institution as it demonstrates just how many talented faculty and student researchers and scholars fill the halls of the University of South Carolina. The few ultimately selected represent the very best of the best. These are the researchers making a positive impact, both in their fields of study and in the education of their students, and who we know will continue to make even more outstanding contributions throughout their careers. It is my great pleasure to congratulate the 2016 Breakthrough award recipients.”
USC President Harris Pastides joined Nagarkatti in congratulating the 2016 recipients, saying, “This group of excellent faculty and graduate student researchers embodies USC’s mission to educate, inspire and lead our state to a brighter, healthier, more prosperous future. I commend them for all of the impressive work they have done to achieve this honor and look forward to seeing what they will do next.”
The Office of the Vice President for Research is extremely pleased to announce the 2016 class of Breakthrough award recipients, and to celebrate their contributions to the USC research community throughout the spring 2016 semester.
2016 Breakthrough Leadership in Research Award Recipients
Kirstin Dow, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Geography, College of Arts and Sciences
James Hébert, MSPH, Sc.D., Health Sciences Distinguished Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health and USC School of Medicine, and Director, Cancer Prevention and Control Program
Angela Liese, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health
Daniel Reger, Ph.D., Carolina Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences
Igor Roninson, Ph.D., SmartState Endowed Chair in Translational Cancer Therapeutics and Director, Center for Targeted Therapeutics, SC College of Pharmacy
Ralph White, Ph.D., Professor and Distinguished Scientist, Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing
2016 Breakthrough Stars
Michael Beets, M.Ed., M.P.H., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health
Saurabh Chatterjee, M.Sc., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health and Director, Environmental Health and Disease Laboratory
Maksymilian Chruszcz, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences
Tanvir Farouk, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing
Michy Kelly, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, and Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science, USC School of Medicine
Brent Morris, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of History, USC Beaufort
Kasia Pawelek, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Computational Science, USC Beaufort
Ryan Rykaczewski, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
Howard Scher, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
Matthias Schindler, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Arts and Sciences
Guoan Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing
Miao Yu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing
2016 Breakthrough Graduate Scholars
Jennifer Blevins, MFA and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences
Keith Brazendale, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health
Diptadip Dattaroy, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health
Stephanie DeJong, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences
Amin Ghaderi, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing
Robert Greene, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences
Justin Hardee, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health
Li Huang, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marketing, Darla Moore School of Business
Allison Manuel, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, USC School of Medicine
Alexandria McCombs, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography, College of Arts and Sciences
Mary Ann Priester, Ph.D. candidate in the College of Social Work
Aaron Provence, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, SC College of Pharmacy
Danielle Schoffman, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health
15 January 2016