Branislav Notaros 

                  Branislav Notaros, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named a University Distinguished Teaching Scholar. Faculty members who receive this honor have records of performance ranking them among the most outstanding teachers and educators in their disciplines. Established in 2000, the title of UDTS may be granted to up to 12 members of the faculty, and these scholars hold the title for the duration of their affiliation with CSU. Notaros is being recognized for his exceptional achievements in undergraduate and graduate teaching of electromagnetics and related courses. These achievements are evidenced by dramatic improvements in student learning, mastery, success, and satisfaction. In addition, Notaros has been a tireless research advisor to students, whether for National Science Foundation grants, or in supervising ECE senior design projects. Notaros has also made many contributions to the theory and practice of electromagnetics education at the national and international levels, through innovative textbooks, pioneering pedagogical methodologies, electronic resources and assessment tools. Among his many professional honors: the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Undergraduate Teaching Award; Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Colorado Professor of the Year Award; American Society for Engineering Education ECE Distinguished Educator Award; IEEE Region 5 Outstanding Engineering Educator Award; CSU System Board of Governors Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award; CSU Provost’s N. Preston Davis Award for Instructional Innovation; UMass Dartmouth Scholar of the Year Award; IEEE Microwave Prize; IEE Marconi Premium; and the IEEE Fellow Award. Wrote College of Engineering Dean David McLean in his nomination letter: “[Notaros] is a highly productive and dedicated teacher and scholar. He is nationally and internationally recognized for his exceptional achievements and contributions advancing engineering education. His balanced record of achievement in research, teaching and service embodies the land grant mission. Dr. Notaros has clearly contributed to CSU’s reputation for world-class excellence.”

LeRoy Poff

                  LeRoy Poff, professor and director of the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, has received the Scholarship Impact Award, one of the highest faculty honors at Colorado State University, in recognition of his exceptional biology research. Given by the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Scholarship Impact Award comes with a $10,000 grant to support the recipient’s research. Poff, a stream and river ecologist in the Department of Biology, focuses his research on how human-caused ecological consequences change natural patterns in rivers and modify the interactions between species, structure and function of aquatic and riparian ecosystems. “Dr. Poff’s research touches on the global challenges we face every day, specifically dealing with the critical resource of water,” said Alan Rudolph, vice president for research. “His research contributions have furthered our understanding of human-induced effects on our planet. In his social-responsibility-focused research, he exemplifies CSU’s land-grant mission values.” Poff is globally recognized in an area that he helped pioneer, “environmental flows,” a scientific analysis of how much water rivers require to be functionally self-sustaining in the face of human water demand. Poff, who graduated with his Ph.D. in 1989 from CSU, has published more than 120 peer-reviewed journal articles and invited book chapters. His work is among the frequently cited in the field of aquatic ecology. Poff has advised both government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, Trout Unlimited and American Rivers, to seek solutions to critical problems in water management and conservation. His work has been influential in shaping sustainable water quantity management policy in U.S. agencies and several U.S. cities and states, as well as Europe and Australia. Poff currently has active research projects on streams and rivers in the western U.S., Ecuador and Australia. His international work has been presented through keynote presentations in Australia, Canada, China, England, Finland, Korea, Spain, and Switzerland. Poff is a former president of the International Society of Freshwater Science. He was selected as a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program of the Ecological Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  At CSU, Poff has been named a Monfort Professor and a Professor Laureate in the College of Natural Sciences.

Lori Peek

                  Lori Peek, associate professor in the Department of Sociology, has won this year’s Board of Governors Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. “Dr. Lori Peek has established herself as one of the most hard-working, dedicated and distinguished professors on the Colorado State University campus,” wrote her nominators in the department, Associate Professor Jack Brouillette and doctoral student Meghan Mordy. “The numerical evaluations of her teaching and courses are among the highest of any professor on the university campus. In addition, the quality of the written evaluations that she receives are unparalleled.” Peek, co-director of CSU’s Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis, teaches courses on contemporary race and ethnic relations, the sociology of disasters and qualitative research methods. “Regardless of whether she is teaching incoming first-year students or advanced doctoral students, she engages the students in and out of the classroom in innovative activities and learning opportunities,” Department Chair Michael Carolan wrote in his nomination letter. She is one of the top-rated CSU instructors on the online system CSU students use to rate their professors. More than half of the student comments submitted after her fall 2014 and spring 2015 race relations course described Peek as their “favorite” or the “best” teacher they’ve had at CSU. Many said memorizes every student’s name, even when enrollment exceeds 100. “Lori continues to impress me with her knowledge of the subjects she teaches, and her passion for students and her willingness to help,” one student wrote. “Lori is by far the most influential professor I have had in my academic career.” Peek has received numerous teaching honors from the college and university. She served the College of Liberal Arts as the Master Teacher Coordinator at CSU, was named an Institute of Learning and Teaching (TILT) fellow and chaired the Teaching and Mentoring Committee for the Environment and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association. Peek established a student-alumni network for the department, chairs the departmental student awards committee and advises the department’s honor society. “I was fortunate to have been raised by parents who encouraged me to read and to have had teachers who pushed me to love learning,” Peek said. “Being a teacher is a privilege that I never take for granted.” The Department of Sociology is in the College of Liberal Arts.

Shrideep Pallickara

                  Shrideep Pallickara, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, has been named a Monfort Professor, one of the university’s highest honors for faculty. Since 2002, the Monfort Family Foundation has generously helped the university recruit and retain talented faculty. Each year, two Monfort Professors are selected by a provost-appointed committee. Monfort Professors receive $75,000 per year to further their research and teaching. Pallickara’s research is in the area of cloud computing and big data. His focus is on how to allocate and manage computation workloads in large-scale distributed environments operating on data streams. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles, and has garnered more than $6 million in research support from agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom, including an NSF CAREER award. Beyond his many research accomplishments, Pallickara is dedicated to teaching, and receives exceptional course evaluations from students and peers. He received the College of Natural Sciences Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2014, and the Department of Computer Science Effective and Innovative Teaching Award in 2012. Exceptional, too, is his service to both the department and his profession. He has served on multiple NSF panels, is a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Autonomic Computing and the Journal of Big Data, and is on the Technical Program Committee of over 30 conferences. In addition to his professional service and teaching, as part of his NSF CAREER award, Pallickara conducts a mathematics summer camp targeted at Native American students from Cortez Middle School in Cortez, CO. Pallickara plans to use the Monfort resources to extend his research efforts in designing systems for collecting and processing data streams generated in health care settings. Specifically, he will direct the funds toward developing a proactive, preventative care approach to early detection of cardiac distress for in-home patients. Wrote CS department chair Darrell Whitley, in nominating Pallickara: “Shrideep has a powerful blend of skills and talents: developing innovative solutions, understanding and directing multidisciplinary projects, communicating complex ideas effectively, and pushing the boundaries of discovery. These are evident in his outstanding academic accomplishments and, combined with his motivation, will drive his success and make him a future leader in his field.”

Sudeep Pasricha

                  Sudeep Pasricha, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named a Monfort Professor. Pasricha has authored or co-authored more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, many in the most prestigious IEEE journals such as Transactions on Computers, Transactions on Mobile Computing, and Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, with these articles being cited more than 1,950 times. Six of these articles have also been shortlisted for Best Paper Awards at IEEE or ACM conferences, with four receiving the honor. Deeply committed to education, Pasricha has been active in developing two new graduate courses on embedded electronics systems; redesigning undergraduate and graduate-level courses on computer architecture; and leading the effort to create a cross-departmental online certification in embedded systems and computer engineering. His commitment to undergraduate senior design has been unparalleled, having mentored 54 undergraduate students as part of 20 different senior design projects since 2009, with six of these projects being recognized with awards at the CSU Engineering Days (E-Days) competition. Among Pasricha’s many other accomplishments: ACM Special Interest Group on Design Automation Service Award; IEEE Technical Committee on Scalable Computing Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher Award; George T. Abell Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Award, College of Engineering; Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award; and the ACM SIGDA Technical Leadership Award. “In a word, Sudeep’s performance has been phenomenal, and it is impossible to over-state the impact of his accomplishments,” wrote Anthony Maciejewski, ECE department head, in his nomination letter.