Dr. Nishanta “Nishi” Rajakaruna, a Cal Poly biological sciences professor, has won the 2026 Charles Edwin Bessey Teaching Award from the Botanical Society of America. The prestigious award recognizes individuals whose “work has improved the quality of botanical education at a regional, national, or international level.” Rajakaruna has served in faculty positions at three institutions: the College of the Atlantic (2004–2008; 2010–2016), San José State University (2008–2010), and California Polytechnic State University (2017–present. During his career, he taught more than 3,500 students across 19 courses, supervised dozens of undergraduate senior projects and master’s theses, and co-authored over 110 conference presentations where a student was the presenting author.

Dr. Bajaj uses sensing and feedback to create novel microsystems-based sensors; the CAREER Award supports generalizing these methods to broader fields of engineering.

Three students from Lehigh University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering have received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, one of the nation's most competitive honors for emerging STEM researchers. Their success highlights the impact of a course designed to strengthen scientific communication, proposal writing, and fellowship preparation.