Honoring Recent Award Recipients: May 2026
Northeastern University faculty continue to garner distinguished awards recognizing their impact across multiple fields. We are excited to introduce the latest group of award-winning Northeastern University scholars and the honors they have earned.
Dr. Juliana Spahr, Frederick A. Rice Professor of English in Mill’s College at Northeastern University, has won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her work, Ars Poeticas, “a collection in which the poet takes stock of her personal disillusionment, which she uses to interrogate her relationship to her art form, community and politics,” wrote the Pulitzer committee. Dr. Spahr is a distinguished writer and educator whose work explores American literature and its relationship with social movements. The New Yorker described her 2015 poetry collection, That Winter the Wolf Came, as one of the best books of that year.
For more about Dr. Spahr’s prestigious accolade, you may read Northeastern Global News’s coverage here.
Dr. Nikolai Slavov, COE Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering in the College of Engineering, has won the Biemann Medal from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry for his significant contributions to the field. The Biemann Medal is conferred annually and includes a $5000 cash prize for recipients. Dr. Slavov’s research interests include single-cell proteomics, immunology, cancer drug resistance, translational regulation, and quantitative systems. Dr. Slavov also leads the Slavov Laboratory which seeks to understand the rules governing emergent systems-level behavior and the use of those rules to engineer biological systems.
Eileen McGivney, Assistant Professor of Art + Design in the College of Arts, Media and Design, received the Best Presentation Award at the IEEE VR — Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces in March 2026. IEEE VR is the premier international venue for research in virtual reality and 3D user interfaces, making this recognition a meaningful distinction for Dr. McGivney’s work at the intersection of design and immersive technology.
Dr. Kris Manjapra, Stearns Trustee Professor of History and Global Studies in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, has been named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. A competitive honor, each Guggenheim fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest levels. Dr. Manjapra’s research explores the intersection of global history and the critical study of race and colonialism. Dr. Manjapra is the founder of the Black History in Action association and leads the Arts and Humanities Social Action Lab at Northeastern.
For more about Dr. Manjapra’s Guggenheim Fellowship, you may read our Northeastern Global News article here.
Dr. Mary Jo Ondrechen, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the College of Science, has been named a 2026 Fellow of the Protein Society by The Protein Society. This honor recognizes scholars who have distinguished themselves with achievements in protein research and have made exceptional contributions in leadership, teaching, and service to the field. Dr. Ondrechen’s research interests include enzyme catalysis, the invention of methods to predict the biochemical function of proteins, and improving enzymatic RNA synthesis. In 2021, Dr. Ondrechen was also the recipient of a Fulbright Faculty Research Fellowship.
Dr. Phil Brown, University Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Health Sciences in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National PFAS Conference and National PFAS Contamination Coalition. Dr. Brown has published extensively on environmental and medical sociology, environmental health, and social movement studies. Dr. Brown leads the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute which provides interdisciplinary doctoral training in environmental sociology to both life and social scientists. He is also the founder of the Catskills Institute, a research organization dedicated to archiving the Jewish Catskills era
J. Andrew Orr-Skirvin, Clinical Professor of Pharmacy and Health Systems Sciences in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences, has been named a Fellow of the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA) . Dr. Orr-Skirvin is one of nine pharmacists honored with a HOPA fellowship this year. Dr. Orr-Skirvin’s research focuses on supportive care for cancer patients, which includes pain management and treatment of nausea, neutropenic fever, long-term complications, and providing growth factor support. Dr. Orr-Skirvin has published extensively on oncology pharmacy, geriatric oncology, supportive cancer care, and medication safety.
Margaret A. Burnham, University Distinguished Professor of Law in the School of Law, has been honored with the Great Friend of Justice Award by the Massachusetts Bar Foundation. Professor Burnham co-directs the Center for Law, Equity and Race and founded the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, which examines racial violence and historical injustices in the criminal justice system. Professor Burnham’s work focuses on civil and human rights, comparative constitutional rights, and international law. In 2021, Professor Burnham was selected by President Joe Biden to serve as a member of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board.
For more on Professor Burnham’s accolade, you may read the School of Law’s coverage here.
Dr. Bethany Edmunds, Associate Dean of Computing Programs and Teaching Professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences, has won the 2026 SIGCSE Award for Broadening Participation in Computing Education from Special Interest Groups Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), which belongs to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Dr. Edmunds is one of four recipients of ACM SIGCSE awards this year. Dr. Edmunds’s research focuses on generalized reinforcement learning for mobile robotics. She is passionate about creating STEM opportunities for people of all backgrounds and abilities.
Dr. Laurel Gabard-Durnam, Assistant Professor of Psychology in the College of Science, has won the Distinguished Early Career Contribution Award from the International Congress of Infant Studies for her work in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Dr. Gabard-Durnam’s research explores how different environments and neuroplasticity interact to shape brain and behavior development, particularly the developmental mechanisms driving healthy, resilient, or maladaptive outcomes. Dr. Gabard-Durnam leads the Plasticity in Neurodevelopment (PINE) Lab, which examines how different experiences interact with growing, changing brains to influence how individuals think and behave from infancy through adolescence.
Dr. Jerome F. Hajjar, University Distinguished Professor and CDM Smith professor in the College of Engineering, has been named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers for his fundamental contributions to civil engineering education and design practice through research in steel and composite structures. Dr. Hajjar specializes in civil and environmental engineering with a focus on sustainable materials, structural stability, and earthquake engineering. Dr. Hajjar maintains various professional affiliations related to his work including with the American Concrete Institute and the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering. For more on Dr. Hajjar’s accolade, you may read the College of Engineering’s coverage here.
Dr. Yuan Yuan, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, and his research team’s paper Fully Integrated 1064 nm Transmitters With Widely Tunable GaAs Lasers and >100-GHz Thin-Film LiNbO₃ Modulators has been recognized by the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) as a top global breakthrough of 2026. The OFC is the world’s premier conference on optical communications and photonics and selects just 24 papers worldwide annually for this honor. Dr. Yuan is a member of the Institute for NanoSystems Innovation where he specializes in AI, next generation computing hardware, biomedical devices, and quantum photonics.
For more on Dr. Yuan’s achievement, you may read the College of Engineering’s coverage here.
Additional information on upcoming awards opportunities can be found via the Honorific Awards Initiative Teams link.
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