Division of Research & Innovation
University of Memphis Honors Research Excellence at 2026 Research Celebration
Faculty achievements in funding, innovation, and scholarly impact highlight the strength of UofM’s research enterprise
The University of Memphis celebrated the depth and impact of its research community
at the 2026 Research Celebration, held March 30 at the FedEx Institute of Technology.
The annual event recognized faculty across disciplines for their outstanding contributions
to externally funded research, scholarly achievement, and innovation.
A highlight of the celebration was the recognition of the Class of 2026 PI Millionaires—faculty who secured $1 million or more in cumulative research funding during FY25. This year’s honorees—Balaji Krishnan, Bernie Daigle, Eric Bailey, Melanie Burgess, Rouzbeh Nazari, Claudio Meier, Janey Camp, Radesh Palakurthi, and Emily Puckett—join an elite group of 152 University of Memphis researchers who have reached this milestone. Their success reflects the University’s continued commitment to advancing high-impact, externally funded research and underscores the caliber of scholarship across campus.
The event also recognized First-Time Principal Investigators, celebrating faculty who secured external funding as lead investigators for the first time—an important milestone in building independent research programs. This year’s cohort includes Rebecca Adams, Davia Downey, Joseph Hafer, Philip Kohlmeier, Krystal Laryea, Samuel Mensah, Gretchen Peterson, Debra Burns, Rebecca Howard, Yangbin Park, Leonard Schranze, Ruoxu Wang, Lara Condon, Olayinka Mohorn-Mintah, Vipin Agarwal, Janey Camp, Yuan Gao, Robert Hewitt, Rouzbeh Nazari, Manob Saikia, Shelby Peel, Whitney Hardy, Han Yu, Rui Qi, Sheri Howard, Linda Jarmulowicz, Thierry Morlet, Fanta Gutema, John Jefferies, Maryam Karimi, Xichen Mou, and Fedoria Rugless.
Two distinguished faculty members received special recognition for national and international honors. Dr. Duane McKenna, William Hill Professor of Biology, was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), recognizing his groundbreaking contributions to understanding insect biodiversity and the evolutionary and genomic relationships among insects, plants, and microorganisms. Dr. Xiaolei Huang, assistant professor in Computer Science, was honored with a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his work on trustworthy AI in healthcare and was also named a 2025 UMRF Research Professor.
Additional recognitions included faculty who received major research awards in the previous year, recipients of CoRS (Communities of Research Scholars) grants, and High-Impact Scholars recognized for excellence in citation metrics, including Scopus H-Index and Google Scholar highly cited author designations.
Together, these recognitions highlight the University of Memphis’s continued momentum in research growth, interdisciplinary collaboration, and national prominence. The 2026 Research Celebration not only honored individual achievement but also reinforced the University’s commitment to fostering a vibrant, impactful research ecosystem.
Full list of honorees can be found in the Research Celebration program below.