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Three UB engineering researchers elected IEEE fellows

UBNOW STAFF

Published February 9, 2021

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UB faculty members Amit Goyal, Thomas Thundat and Junsong Yuan have been elected fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a professional organization dedicated to advancing technology and fostering technological innovation for the benefit of humanity.

The designation, which went into effect Jan. 1, is conferred upon scientists with an outstanding record of accomplishments in IEEE fields of interest.

The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of 1% of the total voting membership. IEEE fellowship is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.

headshot of Amit Goyal.

Amit Goyal

Goyal, an internationally recognized materials scientist and SUNY Distinguished Professor and SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, was recognized “for contributions to high-temperature superconducting materials.” He also serves as director of UB’s RENEW Institute and has an adjunct appointment in the Department of Physics.

His election as an IEEE fellow was announced last month in UBNow.

Thundat, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the RENEW Institute, was recognized “for contributions to multi-modal microelectromechanical systems for chemical and biological sensors.”

headshot of Thomas Thundat.

Thomas Thundat

His research is currently focused on developing new concepts in nanomechanical sensing, energy conversion, electrical energy transmission using single wire, and novel concepts for charge separation and storage.

A UB faculty member since 2017, Thundat is the author of more than 450 publications in refereed journals and 45 book chapters; he holds 43 patents. In addition to IEES, he is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the Electrochemical Society (ECS), the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society for Optical and Photonics Engineers (SPIE), the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Among his many honors and awards, several recognize his achievements in research and development, including three R&D 100 awards, and two Oak Ridge National Laboratory Inventor of the Year awards. He is also a Battelle Distinguished Inventor.

In addition to his UB appointment, Thundat is an honorary Distinguished Professor  at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and Centenary Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

headshot of Junsong Yuan.

Junsong Yuan

Yuan, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and director of the Visual Computing Lab, was recognized “for contributions to human behavior understanding and video analytics.”

His research interests include computer vision, pattern recognition, video analytics, and large-scale visual search and mining. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Adobe, Snap and Microsoft, among others.

A UB faculty member since 2018, Yuan was elected a fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition in 2018. He served as senior area editor of the Journal of Visual Communications and Image Representation and associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology. 

Additional honors and awards include the best poster award from the International Conference on Computer Vision 5th Workshop on Observing and Understanding Hands in Action in 2019, best paper award at the International Conference on Advanced Robotics in 2017 and a best paper award from the IEEE Transactions on Multimedia in 2016.