On January 14, 2025, President Biden honored nearly 400 early-career scientists and engineers with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest U.S. government recognition for early-stage researchers.
Among the awardees is Dr. Damena Agonafer, an Ethiopian-American associate professor and Clark Faculty Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland.
Dr. Agonafer’s research focuses on the intersection of thermal-fluid sciences, interfacial transport phenomena, and renewable energy. He develops novel materials and systems for thermal management in power and microelectronic systems, as well as for thermochemical and electrochemical energy storage applications. His work aims to achieve transformational changes in technologies by tuning and controlling solid-liquid-vapor interactions at micro- and nano-length scales.
Throughout his career, Dr. Agonafer has received several prestigious awards, including the Google Research Award, Sloan Research Fellowship Award, Cisco Research Award, NSF CAREER Award, ASME Early Career Award, and ASME K-16 Outstanding Early Faculty Career in Thermal Management Award. In 2021, he was selected as one of 85 early-career engineers in the U.S. to attend the National Academy of Engineering’s 26th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium.
Dr. Agonafer earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan fellowship, Graduate Engineering Minority Fellowship, and NSF Center of Advanced Materials for Purification of Water with Systems (WaterCAMPWS). He also holds a Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington.
His contributions to the field of thermal-fluid sciences and renewable energy have been widely recognized, and his work continues to impact the development of efficient thermal management systems in various applications, including high-powered electronics, battery thermal management, and data center cooling.
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January 14, 2025
Today, President Biden awarded nearly 400 scientists and engineers the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.
Established by President Clinton in 1996, PECASE recognizes scientists and engineers who show exceptional potential for leadership early in their research careers. The award recognizes innovative and far-reaching developments in science and technology, expands awareness of careers in science and engineering, recognizes the scientific missions of participating agencies, enhances connections between research and impacts on society, and highlights the importance of science and technology for our nation’s future.
From Day One of his Administration, President Biden has recognized the important role that science and technology plays in creating a better society. He made historic progress, increasing federally funded research and development and deploying past research and development at an unprecedented scale through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act.
This year’s awardees are employed or funded by 14 participating agencies within the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency, the intelligence community, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution.
The newest PECASE recipients include:
Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Tingyi Gu
- Nathaniel Kinsey
- Robert Macfarlane
- Nick Parziale
- Justin Wilkerson
Army Research Office
- Mohit Bansal
- Jerome Fox
- M. Ehsan Hoque
- Norman Yao
- Lauren Zarzar
- Bo Zhen
Department of Defense
- Brian Bojko
- Christena Cadieux
- Joseph Cannon
- Rachel Carter
- Matthew Casto
- Kevin Cox
- Soheil Feizi
- Daniel Gillaugh
- Ashutosh Giri
- Nicholas Glavin
- Ari Goodman
- Grace Gu
- David Illig
- Shelton H. Jacinto
- Ryan Johnson
- Jeffrey Lloyd
- Brittany Lynn
- Jesus Mares
- Bryan McCranor
- Sophia Merrifield
- Andrew Metcalf
- Sina Najmaei
- Mahesh Neupane
- Zachariah Page
- Mary Parker
- Casey Pirnstill
- Ritu Raman
- Keersten Ricks
- Lisa Rueschhoff
- Dorsa Sadigh
- Leslie Schoop
- Ashwin Shahani
- Isaac Sledge
- Alison Smith
- Ngwe Thawdar
- Benjamin Trump
- Preston Webster
- Marissa Weichman
- Qi (Rose) Yu
- Liuyan Zhao
Department of Energy
- Oluwatomi (Tomi) Akindele
- Ahmad Al Rashdan
- Daniel Amador-Noguez
- Kavin Ammigan
- William Balliet
- Jennifer Bauer
- Peter Bosler
- Raul Briceno
- Susannah Burrows
- Holly Carlton
- Katerina Chatziioannou
- Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena
- Melissa Cregger
- Zohreh Davoudi
- Christine Duval
- Joanne Emerson
- Netta Engelhardt
- Nathaniel Ferraro
- Kevin Field
- Laura Fields
- Arianna Gleason
- Rajamani Gounder
- Emily Graham
- Amber Guckes
- Kelli Humbird
- Katherine Isaacs
- Andrew Jayich
- Andrea Jokisaari
- Vedika Khemani
- Ahmet Kusoglu
- Katya Le Blanc
- Aeriel Leonard
- James Letts
- Alexander Lindsay
- Amy Lovell
- Cara (Carolyn) Lubner
- Joseph Lukens
- Xiao Luo
- Gary Moore
- Diana Qiu
- Ruben Rellan-Alvarez
- Daniel Ruiz
- Lorenzo Sironi
- Douglas Stanford
- James Stegen
- Cheng Sun
- Nhan Tran
- Petros Tzeferacos
- Bjorn Vaagensmith
- Gwendolyn Voskuilen
- Bei Wang Phillips
- Stefan Wild
- Christina Wildfire
- Caroline Winters
- Ryan Wollaeger
Department of Transportation
- Rafic Helou
- Laura Mero
- Brett Torrence
Department of Education
- Elizabeth Bettini
- Eunsoo Cho
- Shaun Dougherty
- Kristin Gagnier
- Maithilee Kunda
- Allison Master
- Melanie Pellecchia
- Jenny Root
- Elizabeth Setren
- Elizabeth Tighe
Environmental Protection Agency
- Andrea Clements
- Kate Mulvaney
- Katherine Ratliff
- Anne Weaver
National Institutes of Health
- Benedict Anchang
- Brooke Ann Slavens
- Jessica Ancker
- Kavita Arora
- Ambika Bajpayee
- Azeez Butali
- Diego Bohorquez
- Jayeeta Basu
- Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein
- Marni Boppart
- Matthew Bush
- Paloma Beamer
- Sylvester Black
- Donald Chi
- Erin Calipari
- Luke Chang
- You Chen
- Paul DeCaen
- Anthony Fehr
- Alexander Gusev
- Kymberly Gowdy
- Xiaosi Gu
- Ayana Jordan
- Sadhana Jackson
- Steven Josefowicz
- Ekta Khurana
- Kristine Kuhn
- Roselinde Kaiser
- Samira Kiani
- Yogendra Kanthi
- Elizabeth Leslie
- Antonina Mitrofanova
- Catherine McDonald
- Catherine Musselman
- Elizabeth Mayeda
- Shahin Nasr
- Ijeoma Opara
- Kassandra Ori-McKenney
- Justin Parent
- Kristen Pleil
- Mercedes Paredes
- Kanaka Rajan
- William Renninger
- Azizi Seixas
- Diane Santa Maria
- Jesse Schank
- Lindsay Schwarz
- Nirali Shah
- Sonja Scholz
- Andy Tan
- Anne Takesian
- Casey Taylor
- Hugo Tejeda
- Jacqueline Torres
- Dionna Williams
- Marc Wein
- Zeba Wunderlich
- Steven Yeh
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Matthew Biggerstaff
- Rachel Burke
- Sascha Ellington
- Leora Feldstein
- Lee Greenawald
- Rebecca Guerin
- Holly Hughes
- Justin Lee
- Ruth Link-Gelles
- Robert McClung
- Samuel Shepard
- Mark Tenforde
- Zachary Weiner
- Kate Russell Woodworth
- Kun Zhang
- Marissa Zwald
Intelligence Community
- John Beieler
- Karen Grutter
- David Isaacson
- Andrew Medak
NASA
- Natasha Batalha
- Elizabeth Blaber
- James Burns
- Egle Cekanaviciute
- Nacer Chahat
- Ellyn Enderlin
- David Estrada
- Burcu Gurkan
- Elliott Hawkes
- John Hwang
- James Keane
- Kaitlin Kratter
- Lyndsey McMillon-Brown
- Debbie Senesky
- Helene Seroussi
- Timothy Smith
- Mitchell Spearrin
- Michelle Thompson
- Mary Beth Wilhelm
National Institute of Standards and Technology
- Kyle Anderson
- Megan Cleveland
- Ann Debay
- Stephen Eckel
- Alexander Grutter
- David Hoogerheide
- Adam Kaufman
- Nikolai Klimov
- Samantha Maragh
- Angela Robinson
- Jeffrey Shainline
- Justyna Zwolak
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Jason Dunion
- Ryan Freedman
- Andrew Hein
- Nadir Jeevanjee
- Lauren Rogers
- Laura Slivinski
- Elizabeth Thompson
- Tiffany Viehman
National Science Foundation
- Damena Agonafer
- William Anderegg
- Matthew Anderson
- Amirhossein Arzani
- Elizabeth (Libby) Barnes
- Catherine Berdanier
- Marie Berry
- Gurtina Besla
- Antia Botana
- Katherine Bouman
- Barry Bradlyn
- Emily Breza
- Liheng Cai
- Agostino Capponi
- Michael Carbin
- Coleen Carrigan
- Laura Chomiuk
- Steven Crossley
- Ismaila Dabo
- Hannah Dailey
- Amy Dapper
- Christina Delimitrou
- Ying Diao
- Franklin Dollar
- Remy Dou
- Alison Dunn
- Eno Ebong
- Jean Fan
- Brittany Fasy
- Mark Finlayson
- Robert Gilliard, Jr.
- Nuno Gomes Loureiro
- Osvaldo Gutierrez
- James Hambleton
- Paul Harnik
- Kelsey Hatzell
- Josiah Hester
- Naruki Hiranuma
- Guosong Hong
- Nicholas Hutzler
- Mihaela Ifrim
- Daniel Jacobs
- Karin Jensen
- Guillermo Juan Araya
- Zak Kassas
- Aleksandra Korolova
- Danai Koutra
- Oluwasanmi Koyejo
- Heather Kulik
- Duygu Kuzum
- Gibum Kwon
- Matthew Lakin
- Claire Le Goues
- Saniya LeBlanc
- Walter Lee
- Frank Leibfarth
- Sergey Levine
- Wen Li
- Noa Lincoln
- Elise Lockwood
- Margarita Lopez-Uribe
- Fantasy Lozada
- Allyson Mackey
- Raffaella Margutti
- Eileen Martin
- Joel Mejia
- Sonya Neal
- Maital Neta
- Sharon Neufeldt
- Tran Nguyen
- Lauren O’Connell
- Grace O’Connell
- Gavin Price
- David Purpura
- Sally Pusede
- Aaditya Ramdas
- Amanda Randles
- Parisa Rashidi
- Diego Riveros-Iregui
- Ellen Roche
- Tania Roy
- Olga Russakovsky
- Amir Safavi-Naeini
- Michelle Sander
- Soumik Sarkar
- Dipali Sashital
- Laura Schaposnik
- Ashley Shade
- Zengyi Shao
- Aomawa Shields
- Barbara Smith
- Kevin Solomon
- Edgar Solomonik
- Bhuvana Srinivasan
- Kate Starbird
- Julia Stoyanovich
- Ryan Stutsman
- Vanessa Svihla
- Amanda Thomas
- Zhiting Tian
- Steven Townsend
- Ya Wang
- Jill Wegrzyn
- Andrew Wetzel
- Bobby Wilson
- Melanie Wood
- Mary Wootters
- Rachel Wu
- Jie Yin
- Chiu-Tien (Tien -Tien) Yu
- Arash Zaghi
Office of Naval Research
- Elaheh Ahmadi
- Tamara Broderick
- Chelsea Finn
- Xiaodan Gu
- Mikhail Kats
- Jarad Mason
Smithsonian Institute
- Cecilia Garraffo
- Michael Johnson
- Andrea Quattrini
- Sabrina Sholts
Agriculture Research Service
- Amanda Ashworth
- William Hart-Cooper
- Amanda Hulse-Kemp
- Sheri Spiegal
Forest Service
- Kathryn Baer
- Sean Cahoon
- Lauren Pile Knapp
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
- Tashara Leak
- Emily Miller-Cushon
- Margaret Worthington
United States Geological Survey
- Katherine Allstadt
- Alison Appling
- Johanna Blake
- Hannah Dietterich
- Richard Erickson
- Katherine French
- Amy Gartman
- Harrison Gray
- Alexandra Hatem
- Benjamin Mirus
- Erin Wirth Moriarty
- William Yeck
- Jacob Zwart
Department of Veterans Affairs
- Lewei Lin
- Abidemi Ajiboye
- Amy Bohnert
- Umamaheswar Duvvuri
- Scott Hummel
- Paul King
- Justine Lee
- Miranda Lim
- Steve Majerus
- Christopher Miller
- Amanda Raines
- Eric Tkaczyk
- Jason Vassy
- Aliza Wingo
