CSTEM Student & Faculty Awards

2025 Celebration of Achievement

Annually, the College honors the accomplishments and outstanding contributions of the students, faculty and staff of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics.

Tuesday, May 6th | USU Ballroom | 4:30 - 7:30 PM

2025 Dean's Outstanding Graduate Award

The Dean’s Outstanding Graduate Award in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics is given to a graduating student who exemplifies the core values of research, creative activities and commitment to discovery. The student has not only demonstrated academic excellence, but has also shown a strong record of service to the college, the university and the surrounding community.

2025 Awardee: Maya Qaddourah, B.S. in Biochemistry, Summa Cum Laude

2025 CSTEM Awardees

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Faculty/Student Collaboration Award - Applied Physics/Electrical Engineering

The Outstanding Faculty-Student Collaboration Award honors a tenure-track faculty member and a student from the Department of Applied Physics for achievement in the area of collaboration on a project related to research and/or teaching. CSTEM prides itself on active student research and the teacher-scholar model. This award will showcase how closely our faculty work together with our students on innovative projects, while helping our students learn and grow from the experience.

Awarded to Dr. Reza Kamali and Jesus Hernandez.
Faculty/Student Collaboration Award - Biological Sciences

The Outstanding Faculty-Student Collaboration Award honors a tenure-track faculty member and a student from the Department of Biological Sciences for achievement in the area of collaboration on a project related to research and/or teaching. CSTEM prides itself on active student research and the teacher-scholar model. This award will showcase how closely our faculty work together with our students on innovative projects, while helping our students learn and grow from the experience.

Awarded to Dr. Elinne Becket and Josue Navarrete
Faculty/Student Collaboration Award - Biotechnology

The Outstanding Faculty-Student Collaboration Award honors a tenure-track faculty member and a student from the Biotechnology Program for achievement in the area of collaboration on a project related to research and/or teaching. CSTEM prides itself on active student research and the teacher-scholar model. This award will showcase how closely our faculty work together with our students on innovative projects, while helping our students learn and grow from the experience.

Awarded to Dr. Carlos Luna Lopez and Casandra Nguyen.
Faculty/Student Collaboration Award - Chemistry & Biochemistry

The Outstanding Faculty-Student Collaboration Award honors a tenure-track faculty member and a student from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry for achievement in the area of collaboration on a project related to research and/or teaching. CSTEM prides itself on active student research and the teacher-scholar model. This award will showcase how closely our faculty work together with our students on innovative projects, while helping our students learn and grow from the experience.

Awarded to Dr. Ezequiel Vidal and Kyler Magnuson.
Faculty/Student Collaboration Award - Computer Science & Information Systems

The Outstanding Faculty-Student Collaboration Award honors a tenure-track faculty member and a student from the Department of Computer Science & Information Systems for achievement in the area of collaboration on a project related to research and/or teaching. CSTEM prides itself on active student research and the teacher-scholar model. This award will showcase how closely our faculty work together with our students on innovative projects, while helping our students learn and grow from the experience.

Awarded to Dr. Nahid Majd and Andres Hinojosa.
Faculty/Student Collaboration Award - Engineering

The Outstanding Faculty-Student Collaboration Award honors a tenure-track faculty member and a student from the Engineering Program for achievement in the area of collaboration on a project related to research and/or teaching. CSTEM prides itself on active student research and the teacher-scholar model. This award will showcase how closely our faculty work together with our students on innovative projects, while helping our students learn and grow from the experience.

Awarded to Dr. Kenneth Ballou and Philip Avdey.
Faculty/Student Collaboration Award - Mathematics

The Outstanding Faculty-Student Collaboration Award honors a tenure-track faculty member and a student from the Department of Mathematics for achievement in the area of collaboration on a project related to research and/or teaching. CSTEM prides itself on active student research and the teacher-scholar model. This award will showcase how closely our faculty work together with our students on innovative projects, while helping our students learn and grow from the experience.

Awarded to Dr. Hanson Smith and Dylan Scofield.
Minerva Award for Oustanding Graduate Teaching

The College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Student Teaching Award acknowledges outstanding student teaching achievement by a �� student in the College of Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics-related settings, courses and programs. This award is designed to recognize and promote effective teaching practices, to celebrate the work of outstanding teaching assistants, and to inspire future STEM educators.

Awarded to Manuel Montano, M.S. in Biological Sciences.
Community Engaged Scholar
The Community Engaged Scholar Award honors a from the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics for achievement in collaboration with a community partner on a project related to research and/or their studies.

The Community Engaged Scholarship is a mutually beneficial collaboration between the university and a community partner. The purpose of the collaboration is to bring together the specialized knowledge of the student and the university with the specialized knowledge of the community partner to generate new knowledge that is applied to solve critical issues of interest to both. Scholarship means a process of inquiry that contributes to a body of knowledge and includes discovery of new knowledge, integrating existing knowledge in new ways, or coming up with new methods to address a problem.

The student and the community partner should both benefit from the project. The project should be related to the student’s area of study. This type of engagement is not primarily driven by a research question, though a research question may be of secondary interest in the activity.

Examples for this award include but are not limited to the following:
- - Service-learning
  - Community engaged research as part of university classes
  - Study abroad programs with community engagement components
  - Programs for youth in K-12
  - Providing educational enrichment programs
  - Creating materials to enhance public understanding
  - Self-direct, managed learning environments, such as museums, libraries, or gardens.
  - Providing technical assistance
  - Consulting Policy analysis
  - Diagnostic services
  - Human and animal patient care
  - Participating with boards or committees and other discipline-related service to community organizations.
Awarded to Haley Lorenz, B.S. in Mathematics
Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award

The College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (CSTEM) Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award acknowledges outstanding student research achievement by a California State University San Marcos student under the mentorship of CSTEM faculty. This award is designed to recognize and promote the high-impact practice of undergraduate research, to celebrate development and accomplishment as an independent student investigator, and to inspire future STEM researchers.

Awarded to Valeria Castellanos Rodriguez, B.S. in Biological Sciences
Molsoft Award - Computational Science (Biology and Chemistry)

This award is designed to give a student an advantage in their future studies. Molsoft hopes that providing this software licensing for free will make it easier for students to advance their projects and explorations outside of class.

The awardee will have incorporated computation into their undergraduate research projects or as part of advanced coursework in the department. Students who have demonstrated exceptional programming skills and using Mathematica are particularly noteworthy.

Awarded to Santana Rodriguez, B.S. in Chemistry.
Wolfram Award - Computational Science (Mathematics)

Continuing its long-standing commitment to education-related programs, Wolfram Research, the producer of Mathematica, has provided CSTEM with a generous annual award for an undergraduate student. This award will be given to an undergraduate student for achievements in computational science, broadly defined. It is intended that this award will give the student an advantage in their future studies. By providing Mathematica for free, Wolfram Research hopes to make it easier for students to advance their projects and explorations outside of class.

The awardee will have incorporated computation into their undergraduate research projects or as part of advanced coursework in the department. Students who have demonstrated exceptional programming skills and using Mathematica are particularly noteworthy.

Awarded to Noah Lowery, B.S. in Mathematics.
Oustanding Student Leader Award
The College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (CSTEM) Outstanding Student Leader Award acknowledges outstanding student leadership by a California State University San Marcos student within CSTEM. This award is designed to recognize and promote leadership that fosters engagement and builds community among CSTEM students and between CSTEM students and faculty. Criteria includes the following:
- - Exceptional leadership efforts across the year
  - Progressive independence in leadership activities
  - Demonstrated leadership in CSTEM events
  - Outstanding oral and/or written communication with student teams
  - Completed (or completing) at least two semesters in a leadership position within the college, such as a student organization that is part of the CSTEM Student Organization Council, leadership of the Student Organization Council, or ASI CSTEM representation.
  - Excellent academic performance of >3.0 GPA either overall or in the upper division major or graduate work (where applicable)
Awarded to James Rosas, B.S. in Biotechnology and Kurt Williams, B.S. in Electrical Engineering.
Inclusive Excellence & Diversity Award
The College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (CSTEM) Inclusive Excellence and Diversity Award acknowledges outstanding student leadership in advancing diversity in STEM as well as inclusive excellence, educational equity, and social justice within the college and on the California State University San Marcos (��) campus. This award is designed to recognize and promote a safe and welcoming teaching and learning environment and to celebrate development and accomplishment in student leaders who are passionate not just about their academics, but also about bringing more voices to their fields in STEM. The award program is open to any �� College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics undergraduate student who meets the following criteria where applicable:
- - Exceptional commitment to the promotion of diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and/or social justice
  - Demonstrated leadership in the enhancement, development, and sustainability of diverse, inclusive, and equitable spaces on campus, especially within CSTEM
  - Outstanding oral and/or written communication in the promotion of their DEI efforts
  - Clear and positive impact on the CSTEM community
  - Excellent academic performance of >3.0 GPA either overall or in the upper division major
Awarded to Yetunde Adebayo, B.S. in Biological Sciences, Minor in Sociology.
CSU Biotech

CSUBiotech Glenn Nagel Finalist 2025: Brooke Bouyavong, B.S. in Biochemistry, Spring 2025."Developing Chelate Compounds to Extract Heavy Metal Toxins"

CSUBiotech Glenn Nagel Finalist 2024: Olivia Blauer, B.S. in Chemistry, Spring 2024. "Mix-Valent Diiron Model Complexes for Active Sites in Redox-Active Metalloenzymes"
K. Brooks and Marion Reid Student Achivement Awards

Reid Discrete Mathematics Award: Renton McGregor, B.S. in Mathematics

Reid Algebra/Analysis Award: Mackenzie Cox, B.S. in Mathematics

Reid Graduate Student Award: Ian Tullis, M.S. in Mathematics
Outstanding Lecturer
The Outstanding Lecturer Award honors an adjunct faculty member in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics for achievement in the area of teaching, with emphasis on the last three years.
- - Performance as reflected on student evaluations
  - Innovative teaching techniques
  - Course and program development
  - Authorship of textbooks, software, and other similar instructional materials
  - Direction of individual student work
  - Grants directly related to teaching or curriculum development
  - Honors or awards for teaching
Awarded to Sandie Hanson, Department of Mathematics.
Outstanding Staff

The College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Outstanding Staff Award acknowledges outstanding staff achievement by an Administrative or Technical staff member in the College of Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics. This award is designed to recognize and promote effective practices, innovation, and teamwork.

Awarded to Laurie Schmelzer, Director of Student Services & Programming, CSTEM Dean's Office.
Faculty Outreach Award
The Outstanding Faculty Outreach Award honors a faculty member in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics for achievement in the area of student and community outreach.
- - Activities and events in the community, feeder schools and junior colleges
  - Participation in committees or groups for student outreach and recruitment
  - Grants directly related to outreach and recruitment
Awarded to Dr. Hanson Smith, Department of Mathematics.
Harvey Neufeldt Faculty Hero Award

The Harvey Neufeldt �� Hero Faculty Award will recognize a faculty member (tenure-track or lecturer faculty members, including teaching and/or non-teaching assignments (counselors, coaches, and librarians) selected for their contribution toward the achievement of the university’s mission and demonstrated service to the campus community. The recipient of this award may be selected on the basis of a career of achievement or for extraordinary service toward a single event.

Awarded to Dr. Denise Garcia, Department of Biological Sciences.
2025 Gonfaloniere

Each year, the colleges select a faculty member to lead their degree candidates in the procession at the College’s Commencement Ceremony. These faculty are called the “gonfalonieres”, because they carry the college’s gonfalon, a banner that hangs down from a crosspiece and bears that college’s name and symbol. The gonfaloniere was a prestigious post in Italian medieval and Renaissance communities.

The CSTEM Gonfaloniere, chosen by his/her faculty peers, will have compiled a record of outstanding achievement at the University and is worthy of special recognition. Previous gonfalonieres for CSTEM were: K. Brooks Reid (2012), Richard N. Bray (2013), Victor Rocha (2014), Robert Sheath (2015), Linda Holt (2016), Charles De Leone (2017), George Vourlitis (2018), Jacqueline Trischman (2019), Katherine Kantardjieff (2020) and after a COVID break, Michael Schmidt (2022), and Brian Norris (2023).

Awarded to Dr. David Barsky, Department of Mathematics.
President's Outstanding Lecturer Award

The President's Faculty Award for Outstanding Lecturer honors outstanding contributions to student learning by our lecturer faculty. This award is presented during a ceremony hosted by the President's Office every January.

Awarded to Karen Kinnison, Department of Mathematics.
President's Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching Innovation & Excellence

The President's Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching Innovation and Excellence recognizes a faculty member who has introduced new and innovative teaching techniques or otherwise exhibited excellence in teaching that produces a significant positive impact on student education. This award is presented during a ceremony hosted by the President's Office every January.

Awarded to Dr. Karno Ng, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
President's Outstanding Faculty Award for Scholarship & Creative Activity

The President's Outstanding Faculty Award for Scholarship & Creative Activity seeks to recognize and reward faculty whose scholarship and/or creative activity contributes significantly to their fields. This award is presented during a ceremony hosted by the President's Office every January.

Awarded to Dr. Nahid Majd, Department of Computer Science & Information Systems.
�� Kerri Mowen Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award

The Kerri Mowen Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Faculty Mentor Award honors individuals who, during their time at California State University San Marcos, have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in increasing the participation of undergraduate students in research and creative activities above and beyond the classroom. The award recognizes faculty (including lecturers) who have mentored and guided a considerable number of students in research or creative activities, and/or faculty who have impacted the environment of the department, college, or university to significantly increase the number and diversity of students engaged in research and creative activities. The awardees were announced during the Office of Graduate Studies Student Poster Showcase on December 3, 2024.

Awarded to Dr. Dennis Kolosov, Department of Biological Sciences and Dr. Nahid Majd, Department of Computer Science & Information Systems.

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