SAN DIEGO (TIP): Two Indian American Professors are among four faculty members from the University of California San Diegowho have been named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

Piya Pal, professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Padmini Rangamani, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering—both at the Jacobs School of Engineering are the recipients of the highest honor bestowed by the United States government to scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers.

“Our efforts to attract, retain and grow nationally recognized, top-quality, diverse faculty at UC San Diego are paying dividends to our students as well as our community,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Through leadership in their respective fields, dedication to accessible public education, and commitment to community engagement, these four early-career faculty members demonstrate UC San Diego’s vision to be a leading student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented public research university.”

Pal was recognized for her fundamental contributions to signal processing by designing innovative geometries and developing new optimization techniques that overcome bottlenecks of traditional array designs, and for enhancing fundamental performance limits of sparse inference problems. She was nominated by the Department of Defense.

Rangamani was recognized for her exceptional research accomplishments in the advancement of Theoretical Biophysics in physical biology and medicine, and for fundamental contributions to the physical understanding of lipid bilayers. She was nominated by the Department of Defense.