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.

2024 Awardee:

The 2025 Awardee will be announced soon!

Graduate Dean's Award

The Graduate Dean's Award is given to a student who exemplifies the core values of research, creative activities and commitment to discovery by the Office of Graduate Studies.

2024 Awardee:

President's Outstanding Graduate Award

The President’s Outstanding Graduate Award recognizes one graduating student each year who demonstrates exemplary contributions to their field and to the university. The recipient for this award is selected from the pool of students who have been awarded one of the six Dean’s Awards.

2024 Awardee:

2024 CSTEM Awardees

The 2025 Awardees will be posted prior to the Celebration of Achievement on May 6.

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Faculty/Student Collaboration Award - Applied Physics

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. Justin Perron and Mireya Gonzales-Rivera.
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. Casey Mueller and Cameron St. Onge.
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. Betsy Read and Yutzil Zavala.
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. Kambiz Hamadani and Andre Dominguez.
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. Justin Morris and Shyam Sundhar Yathirajam.
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. Soudeh Khoubrouy and Francisco Gonzales.
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. Wayne Aitken and Jesse Stevenson.
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 Dulce Robles Martinez, 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 Isabel Serrano, B.S. in Biochemistry (expected graduation, Summer 2026).
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 Daniel Hernandez, B.S. in Computer Science & Information Systems.
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 Josue Navarrete, B.S. in Computer Science & Information Systems.
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 Maxwell King, B.S. in Mathematics, Minor in Computer Science.
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 Jeremy Benjamin, B.S. in Biotechnology.
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 Siaje Gideon, B.S. in Biological Sciences.
CSU Biotech

Crellin Pauling Student Teaching Award: Poorvi Datta, M.S. in Biological Sciences (Spring 2024 graduate).

President's Scholar Award: Reagan Walsh, B.S. in Biochemistry.
K. Brooks and Marion Reid Student Achivement Awards

Reid Discrete Mathematics Award: Thomas Cameron, B.S. in Mathematics (Spring 2024 graduate).

Reid Algebra/Analysis Award: Carmen Gutierrez, B.S. in Mathematics (Fall 2024 graduate).

Reid Graduate Student Award: Trevor Ryback, M.S. in Mathematics (Spring 2024 graduate).
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 Patricia Byrne, Department of Biological Sciences.
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 Jeffrey Morales, STEM Pathways Advisor.
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. Robert Iafe, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.
2024 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. Wayne Aitken, 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 Dr. Lenuta (Elena) Cires Gonzales, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.
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. Yanyan Li, Department of Computer Science & Information Systems.
Harry E. Brakebill Distinguished Professor Award

The President's highest award, The Harry E. Brakebill Distinguished Professor Award, recognizes one faculty member for excellence in teaching, research, creative scholarship, and service to the �� community. This award is presented during a ceremony hosted by the President's Office every January.

Awarded to Dr. Edward Price, Department of Applied Physics.

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