Faculty across disciplines are being honored for groundbreaking research, leadership, and mentorship.
Share your updates
Know of a faculty member receiving an award or honor? Contact us so we can help share the news.
University of Rochester faculty regularly earn regional, national, and international awards and honors for their professional contributions to research, scholarship, education, and community engagement.
As part of an ongoing series, we’re spotlighting their accomplishments.
Hesam Askari earns Editor of Distinction Award
Assistant Professor Hesam Askari from the Department of Mechanical Engineering was recognized by Springer Nature with a 2025 Editor of Distinction Award for his role with The Journal of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (JOM). The award recognizes exceptional service in improving the author experience and ensuring the peer review process is efficient, constructive, and fair.
Hesam has edited three special topics during the past two years in JOM and was selected to receive the Author Service Award for his contributions to the journal.
Acoustical Society of America honors Laurel Carney
Laurel Carney, the Marylou Ingram Professor in Biomedical Engineering and a professor of neuroscience, received the 2025 David T. Blackstock Mentorship Award from the Acoustical Society of America. Presented by the ASA Student Association, the Blackstock Award recognizes exceptional mentorship in the field of acoustics and is based on nominations submitted by ASA members.
The award was established in 2004 by the ASA Student Council to honor individuals who demonstrate outstanding dedication and excellence in mentoring students across a wide range of areas. It was named in honor of David T. Blackstock, a pioneer in nonlinear acoustics and a former professor at both the University of Rochester and the University of Texas at Austin.
Carlo Ercoli to lead Academy of Prosthodontics
Carlo Ercoli, chair of prosthodontics at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health, has been named the 102nd president of the Academy of Prosthodontics. Ercoli was installed at the academy’s recent annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Ercoli is a past president of the American Prosthodontic Society and was awarded Educator of the Year by the American College of Prosthodontists in 2020. He has served as chair of the EIOH Prosthodontics Department since 2006. He has been at the forefront of EIOH’s efforts to establish a hub for excellence in digital dentistry, integrating new technologies into all the departments and residency training programs.
Established in 1918, the Academy of Prosthodontics is one of the profession’s oldest and most influential organizations.
Wyatte Hall named to Forbes’ Accessibility 100
Wyatte Hall, an expert in language deprivation as a social public health epidemic in deaf communities and an assistant professor of public health sciences, was named to Forbes’ inaugural Accessibility 100 list, which recognizes the “100 top innovators and impact-makers in the field of accessibility.”
“When a child is born deaf or hard of hearing, their access to and understanding of language can be severely limited during these crucial [early] years, causing lifelong consequences,” Hall’s award profile states, appearing under the Education category. “(Any learning of American Sign Language often comes much later.) Hall’s Visual Language Access and Acquisition Lab is a leader in researching those adverse effects and possible solutions.”
Beyond research, Hall is an advocate and mentor. At Rochester, he established a Deaf Academic Group as an informal peer mentoring group to support deaf trainees at all levels, and he worked towards improving Deaf Professional Interpreting Services at the University. Hall also co-created the Wilmot Future Deaf Scientists to introduce deaf high school students to the world of science and medicine, with a focus on cancer research.
Christopher Heuer selected as a Getty Scholar
Christopher Heuer, a professor of art history in the Department of Art and Art History and the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies, is among the scholars and arts professionals worldwide who have received a 2025–26 fellowship from the GRI Getty Scholars Program. This year’s scholars will gather in the coming academic year to engage with research exploring the theme of “Repair.”
Heuer engages the theories, ecologies, materialisms, and politics of Europe from AD 1400 to the present, with a particular interest in early modern myths of North, poverty, and waste. The most relevant and recent work pivots on “Robert Smithson and Waste.” Robert Smithson was an American artist whose work explored spatial arts and pioneered the Land Art Movement.
Since its inception in 1985, the Getty Scholars Program has supported approximately 1,300 scholars from more than 50 countries, providing a collaborative space for inquiry and exchange at the Getty Center and Getty Villa in Los Angeles.
Ehsan Hoque named a finalist for the 2025 Norwegian Letten Prize
Professor Ehsan Hoque from the Department of Computer Science received the Letten Prize Runners-Up Award “for his unique and applied research into the matters of bringing equity to the health condition of people across the globe.”
The Letten Prize is a biannual award highlighting young researchers who contribute to solving major global challenges in health, development, and environment. Of 158 applications, Hoque is one of five young researchers shortlisted for the prize.
Hoque was nominated for his research on integrating artificial intelligence in health diagnosis in ways that aim to improve the lives of people who do not have access to medical practitioners, thus securing equity and equal access across the world. The Letten Prize Committee noted Hoque’s work building Parkinson’s Analysis with Remote Kinetic Tasks (PARK), a web-based screening tool that can automatically analyze video recordings of participants doing simple motor tasks.
AAP appoints Lainie Ross to lead bioethics committee
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has appointed Lainie Friedman Ross to a four-year term as chair of the AAP Committee on Bioethics, effective July 1, 2025. In the role, Ross will guide the academy in crafting and reviewing policy statements, technical reports, and clinical guidelines on complex ethical issues in pediatric care.
An internationally renowned bioethicist, Ross is the inaugural chair of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry’s new Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics and director of the Paul M. Schyve, MD Center for Bioethics. Ross also holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Neurology, Pediatrics, Philosophy, and Surgery.
She has published five books, over 225 peer-reviewed articles, and is currently authoring a sixth book on ethical issues in siblings’ roles in healthcare.
