Adapted from UBNow

The Chancellor’s Awards acknowledge and provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and the ongoing pursuit of excellence in six categories: Faculty Service, Librarianship, Professional Service, Scholarship and Creative Activities, Teaching, and Adjunct Teaching.

Shambhu Upadhyaya, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Tooba Khilji, director of administration, in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chong Cheng, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Tamara Kofke, associate professor of teaching in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Cecilia Martínez León, associate professor of teaching in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, have received SUNY Chancellor’s Awards.

A total of 24 University at Buffalo faculty and staff received 2026 Chancellor’s Awards. 

Upadhyaya received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service, recognizing consistently superior service contributions of full-time teaching faculty.

Upadhyaya has expertise in cybersecurity, behavioral biometrics authentication and fault tolerant computing. Current research projects involve insider threat assessment, continuous authentication and deception to deal with advanced persistent threats.

His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Rome Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Security Agency, IBM, Intel Corporation and the Harris Corporation.

“Dr. Upadhyaya’s research deeply informs and strengthens his service contributions,” says Dean Kemper Lewis. “His research outcomes have shaped curriculum development, student research training, and industry partnerships, ensuring that UB’s educational programs remain aligned with cutting-edge advances in cybersecurity.”

Under his leadership as director of the UB Center of Excellence in Information Systems Assurance Research and Education (CEISARE), the center has achieved and continuously maintained dual designation by the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense and Research, Lewis notes.

In the community, Upadhyaya has conducted extensive outreach, including developing summer cybersecurity programs for high school students and forging collaborations with community colleges and local industries to expand access to cybersecurity education.

This marks the second time that Upadhyaya has received a SUNY Chancellor’s Award. In 2019, he received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

Other accolades include being named an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow in 2021 and receiving the IEEE Region 1 Technological Innovation in Academic Award, and the Sustained Achievement Award — UB Exceptional Scholars Award.

Khilji received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service, honoring professional staff performance excellence within and beyond their position.

Khilji has proven to be an indispensable staff member for the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and its more than 55 faculty and 2,400 students. Department chair David Doermann wrote of Khilji in his letter of support: “Her record of achievement exemplifies the highest standards of service, both within her position and far beyond it.”

This includes the tremendous job Khilji did in stabilizing the department upon assuming the role of director of administration in 2021. At that time, the department faced several challenges, chronic staff turnover being one of them.

“Within twelve months,” Doermann writes, “she stabilized operations by recruiting and retaining a high-performing team of seven administrative professionals, redesigning workflows, and implementing governance practices that restored transparency and efficiency.”

He credits Khilji for creating “a foundation for long-term success” for the department.

Khilji introduced a new instructional budget monitoring system that improved forecasting and accountability and streamlined approval processes. “She is not only a problem-solver but a visionary leader who anticipates challenges and crafts innovative solutions,” according to Doermann.

Khilji also serves as a strategic partner in departmental planning, often bringing data-driven insights to decisions about staffing, budgeting and space use, and is a member of the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In 2023, she received the school’s Outstanding Leadership Award in recognition of her impact across the school.

In his letter of support, SUNY Distinguished Professor Siwei Lyu wrote that Khilji’s adoption of digital tools has “greatly improved our department’s productivity and allowed us to focus more on our core academic and research objectives.”

Khilji previously held administrative roles in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Department of Media Study in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Cheng received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, recognizing the work of those who engage actively in scholarly and creative pursuits beyond their teaching responsibilities. 

 Cheng is a polymer scientist and professor of chemical and biological engineering who researches the design, synthesis and applications of novel polymer materials for therapeutic delivery. The goal is to develop biodegradable and safe polymeric scaffolds to deliver drugs and genes for the treatment of cancers and other diseases.

“Dr. Cheng’s transformational research has yielded well-defined polymers and polymer-based nanomaterials,” Dean Kemper Lewis wrote in his nominating letter. “This has significantly changed how scientists conceptualize structure-property relationships in macromolecular systems.”

Lewis adds that Cheng’s integrative scholarship reaches across chemistry, engineering and medicine.

“This has yielded new functional systems addressing global challenges in health and sustainability,” he says. “Dr. Cheng also has an excellent publication record.”

Cheng has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles, with which he has achieved an h-index of 47, and more than 5,900 citations. He was awarded SEAS Senior Researcher of the Year in 2020.

Outside of the classroom, Cheng has made many contributions to UB, including serving on the SEAS Promotion Committee and as the graduate internship coordinator for the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He also serves on the departmental staff of SeaChina, which provides graduate recruitment enhancement activities for SEAS.

In the field, Cheng is nationally recognized for his competence and achievement in biomaterials research. Currently, he serves as a standing member of the Biomaterials and Biointerfaces study section of the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Scientific Review.

Kofke received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, honoring those who consistently demonstrate superb teaching at the undergraduate, graduate or professional level.

Since Kofke joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in 2003, she has made a significant impact on the student community.

“Dr. Kofke’s teaching instills rigor in students, while providing them with full support to improve learning outcomes,” Dean Kemper Lewis wrote in his nominating letter. “She personally grades every report, typically spending 30 minutes per submission, and allows for revision and resubmission so that students learn through iteration.”

Along with her role of associate professor of teaching, where she teaches laboratory courses at the junior and senior levels, Kofke currently serves on the department’s Undergraduate Committee. In this role, she led the development of the department’s four-semester undergraduate laboratory course sequence.

“This is a program that is both rigorous and transformative, preparing students for professional practice, graduate school and lifelong success,” Lewis says. “Dr. Kofke exemplifies SUNY’s expectations for teaching and student mentorship.”

He notes that Kofke is also a dedicated scholar of education. For example, she studied LabView programming, created new exercises for students, and integrated process safety instructions after participating in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers/Center for Chemical Process Safety Faculty Workshop.

Outside the classroom Kofke serves on the department’s Pre College Outreach Committee, in which she’s helped organize and lead hands-on activities at local high schools. She also has represented the department at the annual Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS) conference to raise awareness of chemical engineering among science teachers. 

She was awarded the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ Teaching Faculty of the Year in 2019 and was named Teacher of the Year four times by the student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering/

Prior to her academic career, Kofke worked as a senior research engineer for the Occidental Chemical Corp. Technology Center in Grand Island, where she conducted pilot plant studies in the development of new ethane-based processes. She also designed lab-scale experiments investigating by-product minimization, catalyst selection and product separation. 

Martínez León also received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Martínez León is known for her individualized mentorship and care with students — in preparing future engineers to lead process improvement and organizational change.

“Dr. Martínez León’s personalized coaching, iterative feedback and structured peer reflection work to create a sense of belonging and accountability with students,” Dean Kemper Lewis wrote in his nominating letter. “This is especially important within the online learning environment.”

In her research, Martínez León studies managerial and technical aspects of new product development, as well as methodologies for sustaining and improving existent processes to achieve performance excellence.

Prior to working in academia, she worked for the automotive and electronics industries. During this time, Martínez León became a master black belt in Lean Six Sigma, a powerful methodology that aids in optimizing processes, reducing waste, and enhancing efficiency by providing a comprehensive approach to process improvement. She identified how continuous improvement tools could be articulated for promoting team learning, collaboration, solution ownership, overall solution quality and sustainability.

She tapped into this expertise to develop courses at UB, including Six Sigma Quality, Principles of Engineering Management, and Capstone Project Guidance, which all received consistently strong course evaluations and student comments.

Beyond the classroom, Martínez León serves as chair of the UB Faculty Senate Teaching and Learning Committee and directs the SEAS Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE). She previously served as interim faculty director of Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE), where she supported initiatives that foster student success and belonging across STEM disciplines.

Her teaching has been recognized through numerous honors, including the 2026 UB Teaching Innovation Award, the 2026 IISE Operational Excellence (OPEX) Division Teaching Award, the 2025 SEAS Best Teaching Faculty of the Year Award, and the 2024 Society of Engineering Management Teaching Award.