The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Outstanding Research Awards, which highlight notable research activities taking place at the University of Oregon.
Early-Career Award
The Early Career Award is the UO’s highest award for early career faculty. It celebrates an emerging and significant record of scholarship and research on our campus.
Lana Lopesi, assistant professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, is recognized for her contributions to the area of Pacific studies, gender studies, and cultural studies. Lopesi is the author of multiple books, including False Divides, Bloody Woman, and Pacific Arts Aotearoa, the latter two both longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Lopesi is also a recent grant award recipient from the Oregon Department of Education for her collaborative research focused on the design and implementation of culturally responsive Pacific Islander Studies curricula for students in the state. In 2023, she was recognized with the New Zealand Order of Merit for her service to the arts, one of the highest honors bestowed by the New Zealand government.
Her nominator wrote, “Since her arrival at the UO, she has demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to excel in every aspect of her professional responsibilities, but especially in research. [Her] trajectory of dynamic work exceeds expectations for research and proves that she is clearly one of the University of Oregon’s shining stars.”
Mid-Career Award
The Mid-Career Award is given to tenured faculty at the associate professor rank with a track record of distinguished scholarship who are well-recognized in their field of research.
Melynda Casement, associate professor of psychology and Director of the Sleep Lab, is recognized for her record of scholarly output, external funding, and broad recognition of her research findings. Casement is a principal investigator on two National Institutes of Health R01 grants, both of which examine reward- and stress-related processes in the brain as factors that may explain the link between poor sleep quality and mental health problems in adolescents. One grant focuses specifically on depression and the other grant focuses on risky alcohol use.
Her nominators wrote, “Dr. Casement has established very high visibility at a national and international level and is one of the leading figures working at the intersection of sleep and mental health,” and that she also often engages in “outreach efforts [that] reflect Dr. Casement’s commitment to translating her research findings—which have extremely broad health relevance—to the general public.”
Wonkak Kim, associate professor of clarinet in the School of Music and Dance, is recognized for his ambitious program of both solo and collaborative performances since joining the UO—more than 200 performances in over 100 venues spanning 14 countries. Kim’s recording of full-length albums and his position as a featured soloist on other albums makes him an internationally recognized recording artist. The number of works Kim has commissioned, including Arcade: Works for Clarinet and Piano by Korean Female Composers, as well as frequently giving master classes or providing guest teaching, also reflects a commitment nurturing the field of chamber music. Dozens of commissioned works fuse contemporary western music with the elements of traditional Korean music and its traditional musicians.
Senior-Career Award
The Senior-Career Award is the UO’s highest award for faculty to recognize and celebrate a deep and distinguished record of scholarship and research.
David Johnson, professor of chemistry and Rosaria P. Haugland Foundation Chair, is recognized for his long research career in the chemistry and physics of solid-state materials, which includes hundreds of publications as well as three patents on engineered materials. He helped develop unique research/industry training programs, one of which has formalized into the Knight Campus Graduate Internship Program. His leadership helped initiate the Center for Advanced Materials Characterization in Oregon (CAMCOR), which included garnering significant funding support from the State of Oregon. Johnson’s development of unique synthesis methods made possible new materials with previously unknown physical and chemical properties. His research funding has supported nearly 100 undergraduate and graduate students during the past decade.
His nominator wrote, “Taken together, his impressive research portfolio, pioneering impact on materials, and lasting impact on UO research over his career are highly deserving of a UO Outstanding Research Award.”
John Seeley, professor of special education and associate dean for research in the College of Education, is recognized for his research career in mental health and suicide prevention, particularly in developing assessments and interventions, engaging in validation and efficacy studies, and investigating the variables that impact implementation. With more than 300 publications to his name, Seeley is one of the top 10 scholars at the UO based on citations. He also serves as an associate dean for research and senior advisor to the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health. Seeley is known for being an exceptional teacher who integrates student participation into his research work, as well as the mentorship he provides to students, postdocs, and junior faculty.
His nominator wrote, “He is such an accomplished scholar who cares about building the next generation of scholars, leaders, and innovators. He is equally thoughtful about his work in community and applied settings and higher education.”
Career Research Faculty Award
The Career Research Faculty Award goes to non-tenure track faculty to recognize and celebrate a substantial and impactful scholarly record on our campus or their work providing exceptional and innovative technical support to UO researchers.
Angela Lin, senior research engineer in the Guldberg Lab at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact and the director of the X-ray Imaging Research Core Facility, is recognized for her range of talents. Lin’s research focuses on developing hydrogels and scaffolds for bone tissue engineering, novel osteoarthritis therapies, and musculoskeletal tissue mechanics with the goal of improving the bone healing process through micro-scaffolding and targeted drug delivery. In addition to her work at the Knight Campus, Lin stretches her skillset in sometimes unexpected ways: For example, she used microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) scanning to aid paleontologists in scanning the geode-like, oldest-known fossil grasshopper egg pod on Earth at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Finally, she is also recognized for her mentorship of undergraduate and graduate students.
A nominator wrote, “Angela’s world class expertise and collaborative spirit have combined to have a profound impact on the fields of biomedical imaging and bioengineering. The techniques she has developed and published are used by investigators all over the world.”
Anne Marie Mauricio, associate research professor in the College of Education and the Prevention Science Institute (PSI), is recognized for her accomplishments and work in implementation science, school-based mental health, and prevention. Mauricio’s expertise with Hispanic populations, Spanish language fluency, and ability to supervise students engaging in treatment with Spanish speaking populations has improved the collective research at the PSI. As the principal investigator or co-investigator of multiple federally funded projects, Mauricio frequently collaborates across disciplines and schools, and with colleagues across the nation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mauricio helped secure $10 million of funding linked to the RADx program and other recovery funds to support research in prevention and intervention of disease in the Hispanic community. Mauricio’s expertise in implementation in community settings has helped facilitate a start-up company, Northwest Prevention Science, Inc., which supports uptake of the Family Check-Up model in community settings. She provides vital support for students as the clinical training director of Counseling Psychology.
Her nominator wrote, “Dr. Mauricio has been an incredible asset to our research and academic community. Her work on implementing evidence-based interventions in community settings is timely and supports our overall efforts at the UO to increase our science in this area, particularly in schools.”
Innovation and Impact Award
The Innovation and Impact Award recognizes an outstanding individual or team that distinguished themselves and the university through entrepreneurial activities that resulted in innovations with a measurable societal or environmental impact and/or individuals whose broader public engagement activity has proactively shared their research or viewpoints on research and policy issues with the public via traditional and/or new media channels.
Calin Plesa, assistant professor of bioengineering, is recognized for his accomplishments as a nationally and internationally recognized leader in synthetic biology, gene synthesis, and protein engineering, and in particular, his role as co-founder, platform architect, and scientific advisor of SynPlexity, Inc. Plesa developed a method called DropSynth, which allows the generation of large libraries of thousands of genes and functional testing of all possible mutations at relatively low cost. Plesa’s technical rigor and creativity have aided him in creating a record of garnering external research funding, including from federal funders, private philanthropy, and industry. In addition to his innovative approaches to research, Plesa is also recognized for his mentorship of students.
A nominator wrote, “It is clear to me that his desire to spin his work out from academia and into society is having an impact on lives, while also raising the stature of the University of Oregon and the Knight Campus.”
Advancing a Flourishing Research and Innovation Community Award
This award recognizes any faculty or staff’s significant scholarly work and achievements in building a more flourishing environment across the research and innovation enterprise at the UO. The award is given to an individual or team that has demonstrated leadership, impact, and advocacy to broaden participation in research, build new partnerships with communities, and develop and implement novel programming or innovations to improve the culture of our research and innovation climate.
The NUMBER Project team is recognized for its work on early math interventions. The NUMBER team itself inclusive of a wide range of researchers—from undergraduates to tenure track faculty— and its work is impactful outside academia, helping children with disabilities, their families, and other community members successfully participate in STEM education. The project aims to empower parents as the experts, encouraging them as partners in the design of interventions that best fits their child. The NUMBER team has built partnerships with schools and community members, providing much needed professional development and establishing connections, ultimately helping 100 families during the funding period. The team’s website under development is another aspect of the work that advances flourishing by disseminating resources, tools, and findings so that many families and educators, regardless of where they are in the nation or world, can access math practice and professional development materials.