2016 O’Donnell Awards Recipients

2016 O'Donnell Award recipients
2016 O’Donnell Award recipients Joshua Mendell, Van Truskett, Alessio Figalli and Andrea Alù.
The recipients of the 2016 O’Donnell award are recognized for their contributions to medicine, technology, science and engineering, including: Dr. Joshua Mendell’s work defining miRNAs functions in normal mammalian physiology and in cancer; Dr. Van Truskett’s impactful research on some of the most fundamental problems for enabling nanoscale manufacturing in semiconductor, hard disk drives and flat panel display applications; Dr. Alessio Figalli’s extraordinary mathematical work in partial differential equations, calculus of variations and geometric measure theory; and Dr. Andrea Alù’s pioneering advances in optical nanocircuits and nanoantennas, magnetic-free non-reciprocal devices for sound, radio-waves and light, and giant nonlinear response in optical metamaterials.

Medicine

Joshua T. Mendell, M.D., Ph.D.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Dr. Mendell received the award for pioneering work on the functions of noncoding RNAs in cancer and tissue regeneration. Using a mouse model of liver cancer, his team found that delivery of one noncoding RNA called miR-26a dramatically inhibited cancer progression and killed liver cancer cells without harming nearby healthy cells.

Engineering

Andrea Alù, Ph.D.

The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Alù has made a number of groundbreaking, highly-cited and recognized contributions to science and engineering. These contributions include seminal work on cloaking and invisibility, pioneering advances in optical nanocircuits and nanoantennas, magnetic-free non-reciprocal devices for sound, radio-waves and light, and giant nonlinear response in optical metamaterials.

Science

Alessio Figalli, Ph.D.

The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Figalli’s mathematical work has tackled questions of optimization related to the most economical way to transport and distribute goods or resources. Recently, his work has been applied in meteorology to describe how clouds evolve over time, a discovery that contributes to better models of complex climate phenomena.

Technology Innovation

Van N. Truskett, Ph.D.

Canon Nanotechnologies, Inc.

Van N. Truskett, Ph.D., ‎Director of Jetting Technology at Canon Nanotechnologies, Inc., is recognized for her impactful body of work in science, inventorship and engineering on some of the most fundamental and important problems for enabling nanoscale manufacturing in semiconductors, hard disk drives and flexible films for display applications.

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