Professor of Mechanical Engineering Cengiz Ozkan from the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering was awarded the William B. Johnson International Founders Award, the highest award given to an academician by the Engineers’ Council. Ozkan received the award in person at the 67th Annual Honors and Awards Banquet on February 26, 2022, a black tie event attended by more than 500 individuals from academia and industry. Ozkan is the 28th person in history to receive this distinguished award.  

The award was established by the Engineers’ Council to honor William B. Johnson, one of the founders of the Council, and to reflect on his lifetime contributions to engineering accomplishments and leadership.

Ozkan's award citation reads as follows: "For exceptional leadership in professional societies with international distinction, for pioneering and groundbreaking contributions to energy and nanoelectronics research, and for innovative contributions to engineering education and mentoring."

Since the founding of the Engineers’ Council in 1955, the annual Honors and Awards Banquet has recognized outstanding contributions by individuals in the fields of engineering, education, and special fields of work and public service, in both academia and industry.

Ozkan’s research areas include nanomaterials processing for energy storage including Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors towards vehicle electrification and smart grids, 2D materials for nanoelectronics, and sustainable materials for mitigating environmental pollution. He demonstrated the use of beach sand, fungi-biomass, waste glass and plastic bottles as green sustainable materials for energy storage applications. Ozkan has been a member of several prestigious centers including the DARPA and SRC funded STARnet Center for Spintronic Materials, Interfaces and Novel Architectures, the FCRP Center on Functional Engineered Nanoarchitectonics, and the NSF funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Polymers. Ozkan has over 700 technical publications including journal articles, proceedings, abstracts, edited books, book chapters and invention disclosures, and over 40 US and foreign patents granted. He is a Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), a Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS), and had been elected a Global Meeting Chair for the Fall 2021 Meeting of the MRS in Boston, MA.

For more information about Ozkan’s research, visit his lab website.