Four Faculty Members Win the 2025 Outstanding Research Award

Four faculty members were awarded the university’s top honor for research and mentorship this year, applauding the significant and consequential contributions they have made to their respective fields. The Outstanding Research Award recognizes faculty who lead in their areas of expertise, commit to mentoring their fellow NC State faculty and advance an intellectual, multidisciplinary research community.

By winning the Outstanding Research Award, these four faculty members have been automatically inducted into the university’s Research Leadership Academy, an organization committed to upholding NC State’s distinctive research culture. 

Collectively, these four award winners have brought in tens of millions of dollars in research funding, published hundreds of widely cited papers, presented at dozens of conferences worldwide and patented several novel inventions. They have also served as dedicated mentors to their students as well as their fellow faculty members and other researchers.

This year’s Outstanding Research Award winners are:

• Felix N. Castellano, a Goodnight Innovation Distinguished Chair and professor in the Department of Chemistry. Castellano earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1996 and he served as faculty and director of the Center for Photochemical Sciences at Bowling Green State University before joining NC State. His research explores areas such as metal-organic chromophore photophysics, photochemical upconversion and solar fuels photocatalysis, and he has been recognized as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and an AAAS Fellow. He also serves as the inaugural editor-in-chief of Chemical Physics Reviews.
• Bill Rand, a McLauchlan Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Analytics at the Poole College of Management. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Michigan in 2005. Rand serves as the executive director of the Business Analytics and AI Initiative, and his research focuses on leveraging computational modeling techniques such as agent-based modeling, machine learning, network analysis and natural language processing to improve data-driven decision-making. With these methods, he analyzes complex systems such as social media dynamics and the diffusion of information, with applications in areas like consumer behavior, organizational science and health/science misinformation.
• Melanie Simpson, a professor and head of the Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry and director of research for the Integrative Sciences Initiative at NC State. Simpson earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysics at the University of Minnesota. For the Integrative Sciences Initiative, she oversees interdisciplinary research, particularly in the areas of molecular biomimicry and metabolic processes in health and disease. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of cancer progression and the development of novel diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for prostate cancer. As a fellow and co-PI of the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate in North Carolina, she provides leadership in building a culture of inclusive support for early career faculty and doctoral students to succeed in faculty careers in the sciences and engineering.
• Ross Sozzani, a professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and the Synthetic and Systems Biology cluster of the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program. Sozzani earned a Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology from the University of Pavia in Italy. As the director of the Plant Improvement Platform for the NC Plant Science Initiative, her research employs interdisciplinary approaches that integrate genomics, computational modeling and bioimaging to unravel the mechanisms underlying plant growth and adaptation. She is leading an NSF AccelNet project, aimed at accelerating the integration of engineering, life science and agricultural research to prepare the next generation of U.S. researchers for multiteam international collaborations.

“It fills me with pride and genuine excitement to acknowledge this exceptional group of distinguished award recipients for the 2025 Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award and our new members of the Research Leadership Academy!” said Heike Sederoff, the chair of the Research Leadership Academy. “Among all our brilliant and dedicated faculty, this group of exceptional scholars and mentors embodies the promise of further strengthening the successful path of NC State’s endeavors.”

The Outstanding Research Award is given annually by the Office of Research and Innovation and the Alumni Association. The Research Leadership Academy, founded in 2016, is a faculty advisory group to the Vice Chancellor for Research.