Portland State University's 2026 Research Award Honorees
Portland State University’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies has announced the recipients of the 2026 Research Awards, honoring seven exceptional faculty members, staff, and community partners whose work exemplifies PSU’s enduring commitment to research excellence, equity, and public impact. This year’s honorees span disciplines from microbial ecology to housing justice, from transportation safety to water science, each recognized not only for the rigor of their scholarship but for the tangible difference their work makes in classrooms, communities, and policy at the local, state, and national levels. President Ann Cudd reflected on the significance of this year’s cohort: “At Portland State, research is not an end in itself. It is how we fulfill our obligation to the city and communities we serve. This year’s Research Award recipients embody that commitment with exceptional depth and distinction. Their work advances knowledge, opens doors for students, and addresses the challenges that matter most to people’s lives.”
The Research Awards are among PSU’s most meaningful annual traditions, recognizing the people and partnerships that drive the university’s research mission forward. This year’s cohort includes a career researcher whose work has shaped federal education policy for multilingual learners, an early-career scientist already commanding national recognition, a non-tenure-track faculty member whose transportation safety research has influenced federal practice, a community-engaged scholar whose housing justice work has redrawn neighborhood policy in Portland, a nearly two-decade federal research partnership that has launched generations of water scientists, and a staff administrator whose deep institutional expertise quietly sustains the work of dozens of faculty across campus. “These awards reflect the breadth and depth of the remarkable work happening at Portland State,” said Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Rick Tankersley. “From groundbreaking scholarship that shapes national policy to the behind-the-scenes expertise that keeps our research enterprise running, each of this year’s honorees embodies our mission to let knowledge serve.”
The honorees will be celebrated at PSU’s Research Awards Ceremony on Friday, May 8, 2026, from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m. in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom. The ceremony will also recognize recipients of the 2026 College and School Research Awards, presented by the Deans on behalf of their respective colleges and schools.
PRESIDENTIAL CAREER RESEARCH AWARD
Julie Esparza Brown
Professor, Department of Special Education, College of Education
The Presidential Career Research Award is PSU’s most prestigious honor for senior research faculty, recognizing outstanding career-long achievements. This year’s recipient, Dr. Julie Esparza Brown, has spent more than two decades at PSU as a pioneer in research that supports multilingual learners and advances equitable educational practices.
Dr. Esparza Brown’s scholarship focuses on improving assessment and instructional practices for students at the intersection of multilingualism and disability. She developed the PLUSS Framework, an evidence-based model designed to improve instruction and intervention for multilingual learners within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and Response to Intervention (RTI) frameworks, a significant innovation that addresses a critical gap in the research literature. Her personnel preparation grants, totaling more than $7.7 million and a recent $3 million Department of Education grant supporting Project LEE, one of only three national model demonstration programs aimed at developing culturally and linguistically responsive multitiered systems of support. A co-authored book published by Teachers College Press (2019), five OSEP-funded practice briefs, and numerous chapters and articles have extended her research into classrooms nationwide. Dr. Esparza Brown has also served as a dedicated mentor, co-authoring numerous publications with her doctoral students and contributing to the preparation of the next generation of scholars in special education.
EARLY CAREER RESEARCH AWARD
Anne Thompson
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Dr. Anne Thompson is recognized for her exceptional productivity and impact in the early years of her research career. Since joining PSU’s faculty, she has secured more than $3.1 million in external funding and published 32 peer-reviewed articles, establishing herself as a leading voice in microbial ecology and environmental biology.
Among her most notable achievements is an $810,000 award from the Simons Foundation, a highly competitive grant recognizing transformative potential in fundamental science. Dr. Thompson was selected as one of only 17 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Distinguished Lecturers in her field, a testament to both her research excellence and her ability to communicate complex science to broader audiences. She also received the Sigma Xi Outstanding Researcher Award in 2024. Her work investigates microbial communities in aquatic environments, with implications for understanding ecosystem dynamics and environmental resilience.
RESEARCH FACULTY AWARD FOR NON-TENURE-TRACK FACULTY
Sirisha Kothuri
Senior Research Associate, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science
Dr. Sirisha Kothuri is recognized for her sustained contributions to transportation safety and pedestrian infrastructure research. Hired as a Research Associate in 2014 and promoted to Senior Research Associate in 2018, Dr. Kothuri has built an outstanding research record as a non-tenure-track faculty member, a path that demands exceptional self-direction and productivity.
Her research has directly shaped national practice: she co-authored a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) guidebook on pedestrian counting procedures and has led or contributed to multiple major National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine studies. In 2021, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) recognized her as their Professional Researcher of the Year, an honor reflecting her standing among the more than 1,200 national professionals who apply her research to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety. She is a current member of one standing committee of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), has been heavily involved with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Data Subcommittee, and currently serves as co-chair of the Active Transportation Data Working Group. Dr. Kothuri also actively mentors graduate and undergraduate students, including through PSU’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program.
FACULTY AWARD FOR PUBLIC IMPACT RESEARCH
Lisa K. Bates
Professor, Black Studies, School of Gender Race & Nation, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Dr. Lisa K. Bates is recognized for a career defined by rigorous, community-centered research on housing equity, displacement, and the right to remain in place. Her practice is not only academically distinguished but has materially shaped policy in Portland and beyond.
Dr. Bates’ work includes partnerships with local and state governments researching policies to address housing needs in changing cities. She also engages in community-based, participatory research methods that support historically underrepresented people to build knowledge and advocacy skills. Dr. Bates is known for developing a framework to measure and predict gentrification and displacement, and for her work on the design, implementation, and evaluation of Portland’s N/NE Preference Policy, a landmark program to address the legacy of displacement in historically Black neighborhoods. She is the Principal Investigator for Evicted in Oregon, a mixed-methods action research project, and was appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee on rental evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research has earned the Urban Affairs Association Gittell Award for Activist Scholarship (2019) and the Ed Sullivan Housing Advocate Award from Oregon’s Housing Land Advocates. The breadth of her impact, from peer-reviewed publications to legislative testimony to community workshops, makes her a model of public interest scholarship.
PUBLIC IMPACT PARTNER AWARD
USGS Oregon Water Science Center (ORWSC)
U.S. Geological Survey
The USGS Oregon Water Science Center (ORWSC) is recognized for nearly two decades of transformative partnership with Portland State University. The official USGS-PSU Partnership (UPP) began in 2007 and has grown into one of PSU’s most productive and impactful federal research collaborations.
Through five-year Cooperative Research Agreements (CRAs), the partnership has generated joint research on water supply, water quality, hydrologic hazards, and hydro-biological resources of critical importance to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. The collaboration has supported more than 40 students with paid research, internship, and training opportunities, contributed more than 460 credit hours of graduate coursework through tuition remissions, awarded nine seed grants totaling more than $400,000, and launched numerous faculty projects that have gone on to attract more than $1 million in extramural funding. Many of the students supported through the partnership have gone on to careers at the USGS Oregon Water Science Center or other water-resources agencies, underscoring the partnership's effectiveness in building the next generation of water scientists. PSU faculty across Environmental Science and Management, Geography, Geology, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and other departments have benefited from joint research opportunities, shared data, and direct collaboration with USGS scientists. The partnership is coordinated through PSU’s Institute for Natural Resources, with Alison Hopcroft serving as Partnership Manager.
RESEARCH ADMINISTRATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD
Karena Bayruns
Proposal Analyst, Team Lead, Sponsored Projects Administration, Research & Graduate Studies
Karena Bayruns is recognized for more than 15 years of outstanding service to PSU’s research community through her work in Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA). She currently works with all departments on campus and has built deep expertise with previous work supporting the full award lifecycle for faculty across PSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and College of Urban and Public Affairs, which includes many departments with complex, diverse sponsored research portfolios.
Beyond her technical mastery of compliance and proposal processes, Ms. Bayruns is known across campus for her generosity in sharing knowledge with colleagues and her calm, reassuring presence when researchers face high-stakes deadlines. Her nominator, Professor Ken Stedman, himself a Presidential Award recipient, noted that her institutional knowledge and commitment to the success of PSU’s research mission are so exceptional that she would be worthy of a Presidential Award in her own right. As Team Lead, Ms. Bayruns has also played a valuable role in training and supporting SPA staff, ensuring continuity and quality across the office.
GRADUATE MENTORING EXCELLENCE AWARD
Liu-Qin Yang
Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Dr. Liu-Qin Yang is recognized for her extraordinary commitment to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students at PSU for nearly two decades. She has served as primary advisor to 18 doctoral students and has mentored more than 50 undergraduates, many of whom have gone on to graduate programs and research careers.
Dr. Yang’s mentorship extends beyond individual advising: she directs PSU’s Occupational Health Psychology-Total Worker Health® Training Program, supported by an $862,788 grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through which she has positioned PSU as a global leader in occupational health sciences. She co-authors approximately 50% of her publications with current or former students, providing them with meaningful scholarly experiences alongside her rigorous research on workplace mistreatment and stress, employee well-being/engagement, and quantitative methodologies. A Fellow of both the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the American Psychological Association (APA), and a past president of the Society for Occupational Health Psychology (SOHP), Dr. Yang models professional engagement for her students at every level.
About the PSU Research Awards
The PSU Research Awards are presented annually by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies to recognize outstanding contributions to research, scholarship, mentorship, and community partnership. Awards are presented at the Research Awards Ceremony during Research Week. For more information, visit pdx.edu/research.
The 2026 Research Awards Ceremony will take place on Friday, May 8, from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m. in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom at Portland State University. The ceremony will also include the presentation of College and School Research Awards by the Deans. Media inquiries may be directed to the Office of Research and Graduate Studies.