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The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

President Obama Honors Outstanding Early-Career Scientists

President Obama today named 102 researchers as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.  The winners will receive their awards at a Washington, DC, ceremony in the coming year.

“The impressive achievements of these early-stage scientists and engineers are promising indicators of even greater successes ahead,” President Obama said. “We are grateful for their commitment to generating the scientific and technical advancements that will ensure America’s global leadership for many years to come.”

The Presidential Early Career Awards embody the high priority the Obama Administration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers to advance the Nation’s goals, tackle grand challenges, and contribute to the American economy. The recipients are employed or funded by the following departments and agencies: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of the Interior, Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Intelligence Community, which join together annually to nominate the most meritorious scientists and engineers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for assuring America’s preeminence in science and engineering and contributing to the awarding agencies' missions.

The awards, established by President Clinton in 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach.

This year’s recipients are:

Department of Agriculture

Dr. Steven Cannon, Iowa State University

Dr. Isis Mullarky, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Dr. Justin Runyon, U.S. Forest Service

Department of Commerce

Dr. Gretchen Campbell, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Dr. Adam Clark, University of Oklahoma

Dr. Alan Haynie, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Dr. R. Joseph Kline, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Dr. Ana Rey, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado at Boulder

Dr. Scott Weaver, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Department of Defense

Dr. Jennifer Dionne, Stanford University

Dr. Mohamed El-Naggar, University of Southern California

Dr. Gregory Fuchs, Cornell University

Dr. Kristen Grauman, University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Mona Jarrahi, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Mr. Lane Martin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Yael Niv, Princeton University

Dr. Derek Paley, University of Maryland

Dr. Greg Pitz, Air Force Research Laboratory

Dr. Ronald Polcawich, U.S. Army Research Laboratory

Dr. Rodney Priestley, Princeton University

Dr. Jeremy Robinson, Naval Research Laboratory

Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor, Air Force Research Laboratory

Dr. Ramon van Handel, Princeton University

Dr. David Weld, University of California at Santa Barbara

Dr. Yongjie Zhang, Carnegie Mellon University

Department of Education

Dr. Jeffrey Karpicke, Purdue University*

Dr. Young-Suk Kim, Florida State University

Department of Energy

Dr. Brian Anderson, West Virginia University

Dr. Theodore Betley, Harvard University

Dr. Matthew Brake, Sandia National Laboratories

Mr. Adrian Chavez, Sandia National Laboratories

Dr. Gary Douberly, University of Georgia

Dr. Mattan Erez, University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Sean Hartnoll, Stanford University

Dr. Daniel Kasen, University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Dr. Meimei Li, Argonne National Laboratory

Dr. Miguel Morales, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Dr. Jennifer Reed, University of Wisconsin at Madison

Dr. Seth Root, Sandia National Laboratories

Dr. Adam Weber, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Debra Auguste, City College of New York

Dr. Jessica Belser, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr. Jeremy Clark, University of Washington

Dr. Andreea Creanga, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr. Damien Fair, Oregon Health and Science University

Dr. Thomas Fazzio, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Dr. Jessica Gill, National Institutes of Health

Dr. Andrew Goodman, Yale University School of Medicine

Dr. Aron Hall, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr. Xue Han, Boston University

Dr. Susan Harbison, National Institutes of Health

Dr. Richard Ho, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Dr. Shingo Kajimura, University of California at San Francisco

Dr. Young Kim, Yale University School of Medicine

Dr. Todd Macfarlan, National Institutes of Health

Dr. Gaby Maimon, Rockefeller University

Dr. Sandra McAllister, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Quyen Nguyen, University of California at San Diego

Dr. Sallie Permar, Duke University School of Medicine

Dr. Katherine Radek, Loyola University Chicago

Dr. Katherine Rauen, University of California at San Francisco

Dr. Ida Spruill, Medical University of South Carolina

Dr. Andrew Yoo, Washington University School of Medicine

Department of Interior

Dr. Anna Chalfoun, U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Gavin Hayes, U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Burke Minsley, U.S. Geological Survey

Department of Veterans Affairs

Dr. Karunesh Ganguly, San Francisco VA Medical Center

Dr. Brian Head, VA San Diego Healthcare System

Dr. Katherine Iverson, VA Boston Healthcare System

Dr. Hardeep Singh, Houston VA Medical Center

Environmental Protection Agency

Dr. Steven Purucker, Environmental Protection Agency

Intelligence Community

Dr. Joeanna Arthur, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Dr. Lucy Cohan, Central Intelligence Agency

Mr. Justin Jacobs, National Security Agency

Dr. Steven Jaslar, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Dr. Daniel Stick, Sandia National Laboratories

Dr. Charles Tahan, National Security Agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dr. Joshua Alwood, NASA Ames Research Center

Dr. Douglas Hoffmann, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology

Dr. Randall McEntaffer, University of Iowa

Dr. Tamlin Pavelsky, University of North Carolina

Dr. Patrick Taylor, NASA Langley Research Center

National Science Foundation

Dr. Theodor Agapie, California Institute of Technology

Dr. Javier Arce-Nazario, University of Puerto Rico at Cayey

Dr. Sarah Bergbreiter, University of Maryland at College Park

Dr. Moises Carreon, University of Louisville

Dr. Sigrid Close, Stanford University

Dr. Raffaella De Vita, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Dr. Abigail Doyle, Princeton University

Dr. Daniel Goldman, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Joel Griffitts, Brigham Young University

Dr. Samantha Hansen, University of Alabama

Dr. Rouslan Krechetnikov, University of California at Santa Barbara

Dr. Tamara Moore, University of Minnesota

Dr. Daniela Oliveira, Bowdoin College

Dr. Jonathan Pillow, University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Benjamin Recht, University of Wisconsin at Madison

Dr. David Savitt, University of Arizona

Dr. Noah Snavely, Cornell University

Dr. Junqiao Wu, University of California at Berkeley

Dr. Ahmet Yildiz, University of California at Berkeley

Smithsonian Institution

Dr. Rossman Irwin III, National Air and Space Museum

*Jeffrey Karpicke was nominated by both the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation