Honorees recognized for outstanding teaching, research, service and mentoring
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Baltimore, Md. — Two University of Maryland Eastern Shore professors are among 16 peer educators across the state being honored by the University System of Maryland as recipients of the 2021 Regents’ Faculty Awards.
The awards are the highest honor presented by the board to exemplary faculty members. They honor excellence in: Teaching; Public Service; Mentoring; Excellence in Scholarship, Research or Creative Activity. Dr. Hoai-An Truong, a professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administration, was recognized in the public service category while Dr. Kausik Das, an associate professor of physics in the Department of Natural Sciences, was chosen in the scholarship, research or creative activity category.
Institutional faculty nominating committees make recommendations to the institutional presidents, who review nominations and supporting material and forward recommendations to system Chancellor Jay A. Perman. The Regents Faculty Review Committee makes the final recommendations.
Truong joined the UMES faculty in June 2012 and “has worked as a Fellow at the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, acting as on outreach ambassador. At the state level, he serves on Governor Hogan’s Advisory Committee on Minority Health. At the national level, he has chaired committees for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and American Public Health Association. Internationally, he has created opportunities for his students to provide care for patients in Haiti, Vietnam and South Africa.
Das has secured $1.4 million in extramural funding and is known for involving undergraduate students-many from underrepresented minority groups-in his research, writing and presentations. His research includes work on nano fluidics (study of manipulating fluids in extremely small spaces), efforts to create on-chip graphene-based nano-inductors and work on light-activated resistive switches. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and assisted by students, he built a payload that flew a zero-gravity parabolic flight to collect data that will be valuable in future space missions. He became a UMES faculty member in February 2014.
Perman and Board of Regents Chair Linda Gooden will recognize the winners as part of the scheduled Zoom meeting of the full board April 16.
“We look forward to recognizing these outstanding faculty members next month,” Chair Gooden said. “As always, it is a pleasure to celebrate their commitment and achievements with the individual institutions throughout the USM.”
“It’s an honor to recognize these faculty members, whose impact on their students is so profound. And while these awards recognize years of dedication, we know that the past 12 months have involved extraordinary challenges unique to COVID,” Chancellor Perman said. “Systemwide, our faculty have worked hard to maintain instructional quality under circumstances none of us wanted, and I’m grateful for that. But the efforts of these honorees are especially impressive and contribute so much to the USM’s resilience and strength.”Each award carries a $2,000 prize provided by the institutions and the University System of Maryland Foundation.
