Maseeh College Research Week Award Winners

Portland State University’s annual Research Awards acknowledge faculty who exhibit exceptional research, scholarship, creativity, and commitment to the success of PSU students, and recognize one research administrator who makes an outstanding contribution to the production of research at the university.

Recipients are nominated by their colleagues, then selected by a jury of their peers based on the significance and quality of their academic or creative work and their strong commitment to creating an environment that supports student success and research excellence. See award descriptions and nominations criteria.

PSU Presidential Career Research Award 2025

Dr. Raúl Bayoán Cal is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Portland State University; a faculty member since 2010. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2006 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University from 2006-9. His area of research is focused on the understanding of turbulence with emphasis placed on physics related to wall-bounded, free-shear, canopy, particle-laden and multi-phase flows as well as wind/solar energy. Cal uses theoretical and experimental approaches to address these problems.

PSU Faculty Award for Public Impact Research 2025

Dr. Elliott Gall is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science at Portland State University. Dr. Gall’s primary technical specialties are physics and chemistry of indoor air quality, heat and mass transfer phenomena in built environments, human exposure to air pollution, indoor environmental quality and sustainable buildings, building HVAC, and urban air quality. Gall’s research and teaching interests center around developing new approaches that improve building sustainability through an understanding of the intersection of building energy use, indoor air quality, and occupant well-being. Specific research areas include: i) fundamental laboratory and field studies of indoor air pollutant transport and transformation, ii) air pollution exposure assessment through modeling and personal exposure studies, and iii) evaluation of building technology and design with respect to indoor environmental quality.

PSU Graduate Mentoring Excellence Award 2025

Dr. Thomas Schumacher’s research is on non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and management of civil infrastructure with a focus on concrete structures. He is interested in stress wave and vibration-based techniques such as acoustic emission and ultrasonic monitoring and impulse response testing, respectively. Additionally, he has been collaborating with faculty at the University of Delaware to develop a novel distributed carbon nanotube (CNT)-based sensor that can be integrated with structural composites to form a self-sensing reinforcement to repair and rehabilitate concrete and steel structures. Finally, he is interested in video-based techniques to monitor structural motion. His additional research interests include the behavior and durability of concrete structures, bridges subject to wave forces, imaging and data fusion, data analysis and signal processing, and civil infrastructure asset management. Dr. Schumacher is the chair of ACI Committee 444 - Structural Health Monitoring and Instrumentation and a registered professional engineer (PE) in Delaware. He offers courses on structural analysis, vibrations and structural dynamics, matrix structural analysis, prestressed concrete, and sensing and monitoring for structures.

Maseeh College Researcher of the Year 2025

Dr. Diane Moug is an Assistant Professor in the Civil & Environmental Engineering department at Portland State University. She joined the department in 2017 after earning her PhD from the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on how to improve in-site testing for characterization of geotechnical soil properties and engineering behavior. Her research has a particular focus on improving geotechnical engineering methods with the cone penetration test for characterizing earthquake behavior of soils, and characterizing non-standard soil types. Her work has included studies of diatomaceous soils in Oregon, soils treated with microbially induced desaturation, and intermediate soils.

PSU Early Career Research Award 2024

Fang Song, Associate Professor, Computer Science | Watch video

Dr. Fang Song is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science at Portland State University. Song focuses on the theoretical foundations of computation, especially an emerging paradigm named quantum computing. His research explores the power of quantum computer algorithms to solve hard computational problems, and develops cryptographic techniques to combat the unprecedented threats to cybersecurity enabled by quantum computing. Song received his B.Sc. from the University of Science and Technology of China and his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. He is a recipient of 2020 NSF CAREER award.

Maseeh College Researcher of the Year 2024

Raúl Bayoán Cal, Daimler Professor, Mechanical and Materials Engineering | Watch video

Raúl Bayoán Cal is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Portland State University; a faculty member since 2010. Dr. Cal received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2006. During 2006 to 2009, Dr. Cal was a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University. His area of research is focused on the understanding of turbulence with emphasis placed on physics related to wall-bounded, free-shear, canopy, particle-laden and multi-phase flows as well as wind/solar energy. Dr. Cal uses theoretical and experimental approaches to address these problems.

PSU Research Administrator of the Year 2023

Helen Frey, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science

Helen Frey is the Research Coordinator for the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science at Portland State University. She joined the College of Engineering and Computer Science in February 2010 to assist with sponsored programs' documents, budgets, purchasing, and human resources. Helen graduated from Florida International University with a Master's in Science. Prior to joining PSU, she worked in research administration at University of CO Boulder and University of CO Denver. Her objective is to assist students, faculty, and staff.

Maseeh College Researcher of the Year 2023

John Lipor, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Watch video

Professor Lipor's research focuses on active and adaptive methods in machine learning, with an emphasis on applications in environmental sensing and monitoring. One area of his research is focused on low-dimensional and low-rank methods and their use in unsupervised/semi-supervised learning. Another aspect of his research focuses on developing algorithms that guide autonomous vehicles in understanding spatial phenomena ranging from air quality to geothermal energy resources.

Maseeh College Researcher of the Year 2022

Robert Bass, Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Professor Bass established and directs the Power Engineering Research Group at Portland State University. Dr. Bass’ group focuses on utility-sector research and development challenges. His on-going projects include development of a distributed energy resource aggregation system, distributed trust models for ensuring energy transaction trustworthiness, distribution system modeling, high-power electric vehicle charging impacts on distribution systems, ancillary service dispatch using aggregated DER, volt/VAr control and conservation voltage regulation within distribution feeders, and cybersecurity threat detection using phasor measurement units. He has successfully attracted funding from a wide variety of sources, including government and industry. Dr. Bass has partnered with Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, Pacific Northwest National Labs, Drive Oregon, Kitu Systems, Quality Logic, and the Transportation Research & Education Center, among others.

Maseeh College Researcher of the Year 2021

Jonathan Bird, Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Professor Bird’s research areas are at the intersection of applied electromagnetics, mechanics and controls. His graduate work involved investigating the performance capabilities of an electrodynamic wheel for high-speed ground transportation applications. While at General Motors, Dr. Bird designed high torque density induction and interior permanent magnet motors for hybrid and fuel-cell vehicle applications. At Portland State University Dr. Bird has been continuing his research into the use of electrodynamic wheels as well as investigating the capabilities of magnetically geared electrical machines for wind and ocean power generation applications. Dr. Bird has authored or coauthored over 40 peer reviewed papers in major journals and conferences. Dr. Bird’s research has been funded by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, NASA and the North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute.

Maseeh College Researcher of the Year 2020

Arash Khosravifar, Assistant Professor Civil & Environmental Engineering

Dr. Arash Khosravifar joined the Geotechnical Engineering group in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Portland State University (PSU) in December 2015. Prior to joining PSU, he worked for Fugro Consultants Inc. in California where he worked on seismic hazard studies for transportation projects (bridges) and energy developments (oil and gas, wind turbines). He obtained his PhD degree from University of California, Davis where he conducted research on analysis and design of piles in liquefied soils.

Maseeh College Researcher of the Year 2019

Peter Dusicka, Chair Civil & Environmental Engineering

Dr. Peter Dusicka is Professor and Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science at Portland State University. His primary research interests are in earthquake structural engineering, focusing on infrastructure resilience. Dr. Dusicka also manages iSTAR (infraStructure Testing and Applied Research) Laboratory, an on-campus facility for large scale experiments including real time shake table tests.

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