A president emeritus, two deans and 12 professors from University of South Florida
will be recognized for their professional accomplishments at the annual meeting of
the Academy of Science, Engineering & Medicine of Florida on Friday, November 7, 2025 in Orlando, Florida. Distinguished University Professor
Yogi Goswami, Ph.D., will begin his term as president of ASEM-FL on the same day.
The USF faculty honorees are Distinguished University Professor Robert Frisina, PhD;
Professor of Medical Engineering Richard Heller, PhD; and Professor of Mechanical
Engineering Ashok Kumar, PhD. The new deans of USF’s Colleges of Engineering and Public
Health, Levi Thompson, PhD, and Sten Vermund, MD, PhD, will be inducted into the ASEM-FL
as national academy members, along with ten faculty members who are Fellows of the
National Academy of Inventors.
Professor Robert Frisina, who chairs the Department of Medical Engineering and directs the Global Center for
Hearing & Speech Research, will be honored for high-impact contributions in bioengineering
related to novel devices and drugs for sensory and nervous system disorders. He leads
the longest running NIH-funded research program on Age-Related Hearing Loss in the
U.S. and one of the largest studies on ARHL in the world. Frisina is a Fellow of IEEE,
the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Institute for Medical & Biological
Engineering, the Acoustical Society of America and the American Academy of Otolaryngology.
He is also a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors.
Professor Richard Heller will be recognized for distinguished contributions to medical engineering, particularly
for advancing gene electrotransfer for therapeutic applications. For more than 30
years, his research has focused on evaluating the use of pulse electric fields to
manipulate biological cells and tissues, in particular, developing in vivo delivery
procedures for non-viral gene transfer for enhancing immunotherapy for cancer treatment.
Heller is a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, National
Academy of Inventors, IEEE, the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering,
and Society for In vitro Biology. He has over 167 publications and holds 42 U.S. patents,
17 of which have been licensed to four companies.
Professor Ashok Kumar, who serves as the director of the Nanotechnology Research and Education Center and
affiliated faculty member of the Clean Energy Research Center, will be honored for
pioneering research in the broad field of thin film technology of multifunctional
materials for nanomanufacturing applications and for untiring service to the broader
materials community. He holds ten patents and has published three textbooks, edited
seven proceeding books, three invited review articles, twelve book chapters including
225 peer reviewed articles, and presented approximately 315 papers in regional and
national conferences including 55 invited talks. Kumar is a Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Metals, American Society
of Mechanical Engineering, Society of Manufacturing Engineering, American Institute
for Medical and Biological Engineering and National Academy of Inventors.
Dean Levi Thompson, who joined USF in August after serving as dean of the University of Delaware College
of Engineering from 2018 to 2024, will be inducted into ASEM-FL in recognition of
his membership in the National Academy of Engineering. His scholarly research on nanostructured
materials for catalytic and energy storage applications is described in more than
150 publications and has generated 14 patents, several of which have been licensed.
He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and recipient of awards
including the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, McBride Distinguished Lectureship,
Union Carbide Innovation Recognition Award and Michiganian of the Year Award for his
research, entrepreneurship and teaching.
Dean Sten Vermund, who joined USF in January, will be inducted into ASEM-FL reflecting his membership
in the U.S. National Academy of Medicine since 2012. Prior to joining USF Health,
Dr. Vermund served as dean of the Yale School of Public Health and as Anna M.R. Lauder
Professor of Public Health at Yale University, as well as president of the Global
Virus Network. His USF College of Public Health deanship accompanies his faculty position
as Distinguished University Health Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics, Senior
Associate Vice President in USF Health, Director of the Cancer Control Prevention
and Epidemiology Program at Tampa General Hospital and ongoing leadership role in
the GVN as its Chief Medical Officer.
The National Academy of Inventors Fellows being inducted into the ASEM-FL are:
- Venkat Bhethanabotla, Ph.D., Professor and Director of Materials Science & Engineering, College of Engineering
- Robert Byrne, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor, College of Marine Science
- Jianfeng Cai, Ph.D., Preeminent and Distinguished Professor, Chemistry Department
- Michael Fountain, Ph.D., MBA, Founding Director, USF Center for Entrepreneurship (retired)
- Robert Gallo, M.D., James P. Cullison Professor of Medicine and Founding Director of the USF Health Institute for Translational Virology and Innovation
- Judy Genshaft, Ph.D., President Emeritus, University of South Florida
- Mark Jaroszeski, Ph.D., Professor of Medical Engineering
- Stephen Liggett, M.D., Vice Dean for Research and Distinguished University Health Professor, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
- Dean Martin, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Chemistry Department
- Samuel Wickline, M.D., Research Professor of Medicine and former Director of the USF Health Heart Institute, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine