ABQ Times

Eight faculty members from the University of New Mexico have been recognized with the 2024 Research and Creative Works Leadership Awards. These awards, announced by the Office of Academic Affairs, honor recently promoted faculty for their outstanding research or creative works.

The recipients were celebrated at a ceremony held at University House this fall. The awards acknowledge significant contributions across various fields including psychology, education, music, computer science, and medicine.

Jeremy Hogeveen, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology within the College of Arts and Sciences, combines cognitive neuroscience with clinical psychology to study emotions and decision-making processes in the brain. His work examines how factors like socioeconomic disadvantage affect motivation centers in the brain.

Yu Yu Hsiao, an associate professor in the Department of Individual, Family and Community Education at the College of Education and Human Sciences, is noted for his advances in quantitative methodologies applied to psychological and educational instruments.

Cármelo de los Santos from the Department of Music in the College of Fine Arts is an internationally acclaimed violinist known for his performances and recordings. He also serves as concertmaster for the New Mexico Philharmonic.

Abdullah Mueen, a professor in Computer Science at the School of Engineering, focuses on developing algorithms for data mining and machine learning. His work has applications ranging from renewable energy systems to social media analysis.

Vanessa Svihla from the Department of Organization, Information and Learning Sciences investigates how students learn through problem framing. Her collaborative efforts have led to innovations in instructional design across various disciplines.

This year’s awards also included faculty from UNM Health Sciences Center. Julie In from Internal Medicine focuses on intestinal host-environmental interactions supported by NIH grants. Alicia Bolt from Pharmacy researches tungsten toxicity related to cancer biology. Andrew L. Sussman specializes in cancer control continuum research aimed at improving outcomes for rural populations.

The Research and Creative Works Leadership Awards were established in 2020 following a recommendation by the Faculty Senate Research Policy Committee. Candidates are nominated by a Provost’s Advisory Review Committee and selected after an external review process evaluating their scholarly impact.