Penn State names five new Evan Pugh University Professors

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Five Penn State professors have been named Evan Pugh University Professors, an elite and prestigious distinction conferred by the University on only 84 faculty members since the establishment of the designation in 1960.

The five professors newly bestowed with the University’s highest faculty honor, effective July 1, are:

• W. Niel Brandt, Eberly Family Chair Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Eberly College of Science
• Long-Qing Chen, Hamer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
• Runze Li, Eberly Family Chair Professor of Statistics, Eberly College of Science
• Karen Thole, professor of mechanical engineering, College of Engineering
• Adri van Duin, distinguished professor of mechanical engineering, College of Engineering

The professorships are named for Penn State’s founding president, Evan Pugh, a renowned chemist and scholar who was at the helm of the University from 1859 to 1864.

"I am continually inspired by and proud of the extraordinary caliber and accomplishments of Penn State’s world-class faculty. Penn State’s Evan Pugh University Professors embody our commitment to excellence, innovation, creativity, discovery, scholarship and achievement at the highest level,” said Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi. “I am deeply grateful to these five faculty members for advancing their fields, mentoring their students, and strengthening our University. It is my honor to recognize them as Evan Pugh University Professors.”

The Evan Pugh University Professorships are awarded to faculty members who are nationally and internationally recognized leaders in their fields of research or creative activity; demonstrate significant leadership in raising the standards of the University with respect to teaching, research or creativity, and service; display excellent teaching skills with undergraduate and graduate students who go on to achieve distinction in their fields; and receive support from colleagues who also are leaders in their disciplines.

The Office of the Faculty Affairs oversees the program, as delegated by the Office of the President. An advisory committee of seven Penn State faculty members, including three Evan Pugh professors, reviews nominations for the honor and makes recommendations to the University president.

2026 Evan Pugh University Professors

W. Niel Brandt

W. Niel Brandt, Eberly Family Chair Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, is a world leader in high-energy astrophysics and cosmic surveys. Brandt’s research focuses on supermassive black holes and active galactic nuclei — how they grow over cosmic time, how they shape galaxy evolution through feedback, and how multiwavelength surveys can reveal the most obscured and extreme black-hole populations. Among his many contributions are foundational advances in deep extragalactic X-ray surveys and the catalogs, methods and community resources that enable precision studies of black-hole accretion and evolution across the universe.

Brandt is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Astronomical Society, and the American Physical Society. He received the American Astronomical Society’s Bruno Rossi Prize and Newton Lacy Pierce Prize, and he is a recipient of multiple NASA Group Achievement Awards.

Brandt joined Penn State in 1997. He earned a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Cambridge in 1996 and a bachelor of science degree with honors in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1992.

Long-Qing Chen

Long-Qing Chen, Hamer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost computational materials scientists. Chen is a pioneer in developing and applying the phase-field method, now the leading mesoscale computational approach for predicting the temporal and spatial evolution of materials microstructures, and his models have become standards that guide experimental discovery and materials design across functional materials, structural alloys, and energy and quantum materials. His work has driven broad scientific and technological impact, including phase-field models implemented in widely used open-source platforms, such as the MOOSE framework and the FerroX code, and commercial software modules licensed from Penn State; as well as predictive modeling that has informed industrial programs and collaborations with national laboratories and major companies.

Chen is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, a Foreign Member of Academia Europaea and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is a fellow of numerous organizations including the Materials Research Society; American Physical Society; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Minerals, Metals & Materials Society; ASM; and the American Ceramic Society.

Chen joined Penn State in 1992. He earned a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990, a master of science degree in materials science and engineering from Stony Brook University in 1985, and a bachelor of science in materials science and engineering from Zhejiang University in 1982.

Runze Li

Runze Li, Eberly Family Chair Professor of Statistics, is an internationally recognized leader in statistical theory and methodology, with landmark contributions to high-dimensional data analysis. His work has helped shape modern statistical and data-science practice, enabling rigorous inference and scalable methods for complex data in disciplines including public health, genetics, neuroscience, environmental science and the social sciences.

Li is a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received major international honors including the Institute of Mathematical Statistics’ Carver Medal, and he has served as co-editor of prestigious journals in the field, including the Annals of Statistics and the Journal of the American Statistical Association.

Li joined Penn State in 2000. He earned a doctorate in statistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000, a master of science degree in statistics from Academia Sinica in 1993, and a bachelor of science in mathematics from Beijing Normal University in 1990.

Karen A. Thole

Karen A. Thole, professor of mechanical engineering and inaugural director of Penn State’s National Security Institute beginning May 15, is an international leader in gas turbine technologies whose research has transformed how turbine cooling and aero-thermal performance are studied and improved. Thole’s work bridges fundamental heat transfer and fluid mechanics with industrial implementation, enabling innovative cooling designs that improve efficiency and durability in turbines that generate power and propel aircraft — advances that contribute to lowering carbon emissions. In 2011, she conceived and initiated the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START) Laboratory at Penn State, a one-of-a-kind, engine-relevant rotating turbine facility that has driven a paradigm shift in turbine experimentation and produced first-of-its-kind data, patents, and cooling designs integrated into operational turbines. Her research has also set widely used benchmarks for the field, including the “777 hole” standard cooling geometry, and she has pioneered the use of metal additive manufacturing and advanced diagnostics to accelerate development of next-generation low-carbon propulsion and power systems.

Thole is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Royal Aeronautical Society, and is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering. She received the ASME R. Tom Sawyer Award, the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award, the AIAA Thermophysics Award, the AIAA Air Breathing Propulsion Award, and the ASME George Westinghouse Gold Medal, along with national recognition for engineering education, mentoring, and broadening participation including the ASME Edwin F. Church Medal for Engineering Education, the Society of Women Engineers Distinguished Engineering Educator Award, and the ABET Claire L. Felbinger Diversity Award.

Thole joined Penn State in 2006 and served as head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering from 2006 to 2021. She served as the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering at the University of Michigan from 2024 to 2026. She earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 and both her master’s (1984) and bachelor’s (1982) degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Adri van Duin

Adri van Duin, distinguished professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Materials Computation Center, is a world leader in atomistic-scale simulations of reactive materials and chemical processes. He is the co-inventor and main developer of the ReaxFF reactive force-field method, which enables fully dynamical atomistic-scale simulations for complex materials, molecules and their interfaces, with industrial applications from energy and aerospace to electronics, catalysis, and advanced manufacturing.

Van Duin has published more than 600 refereed papers and his work has been cited more than 50,000 times, reflecting the broad adoption and lasting influence of ReaxFF in academia, national laboratories and industry. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and has received major Penn State honors including the Faculty Scholar Medal.

Van Duin joined Penn State in 2008. He earned a doctorate in chemistry from Delft University of Technology in 1996 and a doctorandus degree in chemistry from the University of Amsterdam in 1991.