Celebrating Excellence: 2025 IEEE UFFC Awards Recipients

The IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society (UFFC-S) is proud to recognize the 2025 award recipients whose achievements exemplify technical excellence, sustained impact, leadership, and service across the Society’s fields of interest. This year’s honorees reflect the global, multidisciplinary strength of the UFFC community and its continued influence on science, engineering, and society.

The 2025 awards are presented across Society Awards, Technical Area Awards, and Publications Awards, honoring contributions that span foundational research, emerging technologies, education, mentorship, and scholarly excellence.

Society Awards

IEEE Achievement Award

Recipient: Susan Trolier-McKinstry
Affiliation: The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Citation:
For international contributions to the science, technology, education, and service of ferroelectric materials and devices and their community.

IEEE Distinguished Service Award

Recipient: Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb
Affiliation: Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Citation:
For outstanding leadership and commitment in the UFFC Society and the IEEE, with a strong emphasis on embedding professionalism, ethics, and diversity in the Society.

Technical Area Awards

Ultrasonics

IEEE UFFC Rayleigh Ultrasonics Award

Recipient: Pai-Chi Li
Affiliation: National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Citation:
For exceptional contributions to the development of adaptive ultrasound imaging, photoacoustic molecular imaging, and shear wave elasticity imaging.

IEEE Carl Hellmuth Hertz Ultrasonics Award

Recipient: Alfred Yu
Affiliation: University of Waterloo, Canada
Citation:
For extensive contributions to ultrasound imaging technology and therapeutic ultrasound.

IEEE Ultrasonics Early Career Investigator Award

Recipient: Yansong Yang
Citation:
For pioneering contributions to ultra-wide-spectrum piezoelectric MEMS devices, with demonstrated impact across both academia and industry.

Ferroelectrics

IEEE Ferroelectrics Recognition Award

Recipient: Long-Qing Chen
Affiliation: The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Citation:
For pioneering contributions to the development of the phase-field method and its transformative applications to ferroelectric materials.

IEEE UFFC Ferroelectrics Young Investigator Award

Recipient: Julian Walker
Citation:
For contributions to the synthesis and understanding of electromechanical properties in ionic molecular and metal-oxide ferroelectrics, and for extensive collaboration with the international ferroelectrics community.

IEEE Robert E. Newnham Ferroelectrics Award

Recipient: Andrei Kholkine
Affiliation: University of Aveiro, Portugal
Citation:
For a seminal lifetime contribution to ferroelectric research, mentorship, and sustained service to the global scientific community.

Frequency Control

IEEE Walter G. Cady Award

Recipient: Matteo Rinaldi
Affiliation: Northeastern University, USA
Citation:
For the development of high-frequency piezoelectric microacoustic resonators enabling advances in frequency control and sensing applications.

IEEE I. I. Rabi Award

Recipient: Patrizia Tavella
Affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Italy
Citation:
For excellence in leadership in the coordination and realization of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and for advances in the statistical foundations of precise timekeeping.

IEEE C. B. Sawyer Memorial Award

Recipient: Michael Tobar
Affiliation: University of Western Australia, Australia
Citation:
For the development and characterization of low-noise, high-Q resonators and sensors, and their application to testing fundamental physics.

Publications Awards

IEEE UFFC Outstanding Paper Award

(Best paper published in IEEE Transactions on UFFC in 2024)

Paper: Piezoelectric Microacoustic Metamaterial Filters
Authors: Onurcan Kaya, Xuanyi Zhao, Cristian Cassella
Publication: IEEE Transactions on UFFC, Vol. 71, No. 9, pp. 1063–1073, September 2024

This paper is recognized for its originality and technical rigor in advancing piezoelectric microacoustic metamaterial filter design.

IEEE UFFC Multidisciplinary Trailblazer Paper Award

Paper: GHz Ultrasound and Electrode Chip-Scale Arrays Stimulate and Influence Morphology of Human Neural Cells
Authors: Priya S. Balasubramanian, Amit Lal
Publication: IEEE Transactions on UFFC, Vol. 69, No. 6, pp. 1898–1909, June 2022

This work exemplifies multidisciplinary excellence by bridging ultrasonics, microfabrication, and neuroscience.

IEEE UFFC Test of Time Award

Paper: 3-D Imaging Using Row-Column-Addressed Arrays with Integrated Apodization (Two-part series)
Authors: Thomas L. Christiansen, Morten F. Rasmussen, Jan P. Bagge, Lars N. Moesner, Jorgen A. Jensen, Erik V. Thomsen
Publication: IEEE Transactions on UFFC, Vol. 62, No. 5, pp. 947–971, May 2015

This seminal work is honored for its sustained influence on 3-D ultrasound imaging system design and methodology.

IEEE UFFC Editorial Excellence Awards

• Guy Cloutier, University of Montreal, Canada

• Jeremy J. Dahl, Stanford University, USA

• Damien Garcia, INSA Lyon, France

These awards recognize sustained, dedicated service by Associate Editors who uphold the quality and integrity of IEEE Transactions on UFFC.

IEEE UFFC Outstanding Reviewer Awards

• Nicholas Bottenus, University of Colorado Boulder, USA

• Brooks Lindsey, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

• Aiguo Han, Virginia Tech, USA

These honorees are recognized for their exceptional commitment to rigorous, thoughtful peer review, a cornerstone of scholarly excellence.