Obama honors UNM engineer

A UNM professor will be honored in the White House for her accomplishments in the field of engineering.

President Obama announced Monday that Dr. Yasamin Mostofi, UNM assis­tant pro­fes­sor of elec­tri­cal and com­puter engi­neer­ing, has been awarded the Pres­i­den­tial Early Career Award for Sci­en­tists and Engi­neers.

“The PECASE is the high­est honor bestowed by the United States gov­ern­ment on science and engi­neer­ing pro­fes­sion­als in the early stages of their inde­pen­dent research careers,” according to a White House press release.

Mostofi’s research involves wireless communications and mobile systems for a digital world.

“Dr. Mostofi’s research on mobile multi-agent sys­tems that are cog­nizant of the dynam­ics of the wire­less envi­ron­ment rep­re­sents an inno­v­a­tive and excit­ing

inves­tiga­tion likely to impact future tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment in sig­nif­i­cant ways,” Catalin Roman, dean of the UNM School of Engineering, told UNM Today. “This award rec­og­nizes both her impor­tant achieve­ments to date and the promise they hold for the future. We are delighted to have a mem­ber of our own com­mu­nity being hon­ored by our President.”

Mostofi said her research is highly relevant.

“Due to the com­plex nature of multi-agent sys­tems, the best solu­tions are not the prod­uct of research in one sin­gle area any­more,” she said. “Instead, new multi-disciplinary approaches are needed.”

Researchers are nom­i­nated for the award by 16 different fed­eral depart­ments and agen­cies. The White House Office of Sci­ence and Tech­nol­ogy Pol­icy selects the final­ists for approval by the President. Mostofi is one of 94 awardees this year.

“It is inspir­ing to see the inno­v­a­tive work being done by these sci­en­tists and engineers as they ramp up their careers — careers that I know will be not only per­son­ally reward­ing, but also invalu­able to the nation,” Pres­i­dent Obama said in a press release. “That so many of them are also devot­ing time to men­tor­ing and other forms of community ser­vice speaks vol­umes about their poten­tial for lead­er­ship, not only as sci­en­tists but as model citizens.”

Mostofi received her Ph.D. in wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tions from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity in 2004 and was a post­doc­toral scholar at the Cal­i­for­nia Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy before coming to UNM.

“Dr. Mostofi exem­pli­fies excel­lence in research at UNM,” UNM Interim Provost Chaouki Abdal­lah told UNM Today. “In the short time since her join­ing UNM, she has built a world-class research group. She is an exam­ple of the cal­iber of fac­ulty that UNM has been able to attract and hope to retain.”

Mostofi and the other PECASE awardees will receive their awards at the White House later this year.