It is my pleasure to announce the 2026 Society of Engineering Science Medalists and Fellows. The honorees will be recognized at the Banquet during the 2026 SES Annual Meeting to be held at Purdue University in West Lafayette on Oct 11-14, 2026.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to congratulate the awardees and thank all the nominators and letter providers for taking the time to support members of our community.
Sincerely,
Sinan Keten
2025 President, Society of Engineering Science
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2026 SES Medalists and Fellows
A.C. Eringen Medal: .
Vijay Kumar (University of Pennsylvania):
“For pioneering contributions to robotics, including foundational advances in cooperative manipulation, multi-robot formation control, autonomous swarms, and agile aerial vehicles, translating rigorous theory into transformative engineering applications in autonomy, field robotics, and industry-shaping innovations”
Y. Huang Engineering Science Medal: .
Dimitris C. Lagoudas (Texas A&M)
“For theoretical and computational developments in the field of smart and multifunctional materials, especially shape memory alloys (SMAs), with significant contributions to the design, modeling, and implementation of SMAs as actuators in morphing adaptive structures.”
William Prager Medal: .
Samuel Forest (Mines Paris PSL CNRS, France)
“For making the mechanics of generalized continua amenable to engineering applications involving size and microstructure effects in the plasticity and failure of crystalline and composite materials and structures.”
G.I Taylor Medal: .
No awardee this year
J.R. Rice Medal: .
Xuanhe Zhao (MIT)
“For pioneering advances in soft materials and interfaces that bridge mechanics, electronics, and biology.”
Emmy Noether Medal: .
Haleh Ardebili (University of Houston)
“For pioneering contributions to the development of solid electrolytes for stretchable batteries and the promotion of science to the general public.”
H. Gao Young Investigator Medal: :
Shelly Zhang (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
“For exceptional contributions to integrating topology optimization, mechanics, and fabrication strategies to design novel materials and structures with extreme nonlinearity and superior programmability, enabling advances in soft robotics, biomedical devices, thermal management, and resilient infrastructure.”
Renee Zhao (Stanford University)
“For her outstanding contributions in studying fundamental mechanics and science of soft active materials and instability of rings and their innovative applications to origami robots, active metamaterials, deployable structures, and biomedical devices.”
SES Fellows: .
Nicholas Fang (University of Hong Kong)
Liping Liu (Rutgers University)
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