Watson School announces five honorees for annual Watson Awards
Awards recognize excellence among the school’s faculty and staff
Since 2017, Binghamton University’s Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science has given out the Watson School Recognition Awards to honor excellence among the school’s faculty and staff.
Nominations are taken from department chairs, faculty and staff in the Watson School, and a committee reviews the nomination dossiers. The awards are generally given during a spring meeting of all faculty and staff, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented recognizing the winners in person this year.
“We had several excellent nominees for the Watson Awards this year,” said Dean Krishnaswami “Hari” Srihari. “As always, the committee reviewing the nominations did an excellent job. I know that the committee faced a difficult task in choosing the awardees from among our dedicated faculty and staff, and it is indeed significant that these recipients have been chosen for this honor. I send my personal congratulations to all of this year’s awardees.”
The 2019-20 Watson Awards winners are:
- Early Stage Distinguished Research Award - Xin Yong (assistant professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering)
- Outstanding Faculty Service - Dmitry Ponomarev (professor, Department of Computer Science)
- Outstanding Staff Service - Trisha Gana (senior assistant to the chair for the Department of Biomedical Engineering) and Elizabeth Kucharek (senior assistant to the chair for the Department of Mechanical Engineering)
- Distinguished Educator - Sangwon Yoon (associate professor, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering)
Srihari praised all faculty and staff in the Watson School for their work during the pandemic.
“The past 10 weeks have been a whirlwind of change and new challenges. We’ve encountered and overcome difficulties that we never could have imagined,” he said. “I have seen courage and generosity from so many of you. The way all of you have served our students, our school, our campus and each other has made me and should make all of you very proud.”
Previous Watson Award winners
2016-17
- Outstanding Faculty Service: Eileen Head (Computer Science)
- Early-Stage Distinguished Research: Zhanpeng Jin (formerly Electrical and Computer Engineering)
- Outstanding Research Achievement: Kartik Gopalan (Computer Science)
- Outstanding Staff Service: Erin Hornbeck (Systems Science and Industrial Engineering)
- Distinguished Educator: Dmitry Ponomarev (Computer Science)
- Distinguished Alumni: Sandeep Tonapi, MS ‘98, PhD ‘01, Founder and CEO at Anveshak Technology and Knowledge Solutions (SSIE department)
2017-18
- Early-Stage Distinguished Research Award: Guy German (Biomedical Engineering)
- Distinguished Educator: Amber Doiron (formerly Biomedical Engineering)
- Outstanding Staff Service: Lucy Pompeii (Computer Science – retired)
- Distinguished Alumni: Ken Goldblatt ‘87, CIO and portfolio manager at S Squared Technology (computer science alum)
2018-19
- Outstanding Faculty Service: Sha Jin (Biomedical Engineering)
- Outstanding Staff Service: April St. John (Computer Science)
- Outstanding Research Achievement: Yu “David” Liu (Computer Science)
- Early Stage Distinguished Research: Yao Liu (Computer Science)
- Distinguished Alumni: Jim Bankoski ‘91, Distinguished Engineer, Google (computer science alum)