2027 Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Scholars announced

The Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment has announced the 17 researchers in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering awarded for fiscal year 2027.

Established in 2024, the Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment’s purpose is to advance research in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering through three strategic priorities: 

1. Encourage researchers to collaborate within and beyond the college
2. Increase competitiveness towards attracting new research investments
3. Strengthen research impact of both the researcher and the college

Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment awards are issued by the dean of the Pigman College of Engineering after input from the college executive committee and a rigorous review process conducted by the Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Advisory Committee. The advisory committee includes research-active faculty from departments across the college. 

In it's third year, the Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment solicitation attracted an exceptionally strong pool of applicants.

"We congratulate the following fiscal year 2027 recipients and thank all applicants for their commitment to the Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment’s purpose," said Kelly Pennell, Ph.D., director of engineering research endowments. 

Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Eminent Scholar

Senior faculty researchers (renewable for no more than 5 years)

• Jeffrey Todd Hastings, associate dean for research and graduate studies and professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, supporting the project titled, “Expanding the Pigman College of Engineering’s Research in Quantum Sensing." (2nd year renewal)

Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Scholars

Promising junior and mid-level faculty (renewable for no more than 5 years)

• Dan Fries, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, supporting the project titled, "Plasma Treatment of Biological Interfaces." (2nd year renewal)
• Martha Grady, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, supporting the project titled, “Building Tougher Additively Manufactured Metals with Laser Shock Peening.” (3rd year renewal)
• Michael Quinlan Hovish, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, supporting the project titled, "Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Processing of Natural and Polymeric Materials." (2nd year renewal)
• Hyun-Tae Hwang, associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Paducah Campus, supporting the project titled, “Fabrication of a hydrogen generator prototype using new approach.” (2nd year renewal)
• Abdullah-Al-Zubaer Imran, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, supporting the project titled, "ConduitGen: Physics-guided Generative AI for Geologically Realistic Cave Conduit Generation." (2nd year renewal)
• Thomas Tie Luo, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, supporting the project titled, “Explainable Self-Supervised AI for Low-Label Scientific Domains.”
• Ali Moradi, assistant professor in the Department of Mining Engineering, supporting the project titled, “Intelligent Surface Mining - Integration of Cyber-Physical System and Metaverse.” (3rd year renewal)
• Alexandra Paterson, assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Departments of Chemical and Materials Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, supporting the project titled, “Stable Plastic Mixed-Conductor Electronics.” (3rd year renewal)
• Christine Trinkle, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, supporting the project titled, “Advanced Artificial Lung Research.” (3rd year renewal)
• Stephen Ware, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, supporting the project titled, “Large-Scale Evaluation of AI Collaborative Storytelling via the First Interactive Narrative Challenge (INCH).” 
• Samantha Zambuto, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, supporting the project titled, “Reproductive Tissue Engineering.” (3rd year renewal)
• Jonathan Zuidema, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, supporting the project titled, “Biomaterials for Nervous System Repair.” (3rd year renewal)

Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellows 

• Paula Alarcon-Espejo, postdoctoral researcher in the Departments of Chemical and Materials Engineering, supporting the project titled, "Translating Science to Technology: Fully 3D-Printed Organic Microelectrode Arrays for Neural Recording."
• Peiwen Zhang, postdoctoral researcher in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, supporting the project titled, " Portable Time-Resolved Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (TR-LSCI) for Blood Flow Mapping in Reconstructive Skin Flaps.”

Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Graduate Fellows

• Nishat Nayla, doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science, supporting the project titled, " AI-Driven Multimodal Platform for Longitudinal Breast Cancer Risk Prediction.”
• Amir Sakhaei, doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, supporting the project titled, "AI-Enabled Portable Diagnostics for Decentralized Environmental Pathogen Surveillance." 

The Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment will grow in the coming years to over $550,000 per year. In addition to researcher support, the Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment provides opportunities to support Research Challenge Trust Fund (RCTF)-compliant cost-sharing for externally funded programs targeted at high-consequence, high-impact research that has potential to stimulate socioeconomic benefits including job creation, higher standards of living and expansion of the knowledge-based economy. The endowment also allows for research infrastructure support, like equipment, materials and supplies and other University-permittable research related expenses.

The Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment is a part of the RCTF’s Endowment Match Program, which creates research support and opportunities at Kentucky universities. The RCTF is administered by the Council on Postsecondary Education and is designed to advance the economic success of Kentucky and its citizens through education and research.