Cornell Faculty Shine as Six Earn Prestigious White House Early Career Honors

The White House has honored six faculty members from Cornell – Andrew Hein, Tashara M. Leak, and Zhiting Tian from the Ithaca campus, alongside Steven Josefowicz, Ekta Khurana, and Kristen Pleil from Weill Cornell Medicine – with the 2025 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The announcement of these awards was made on Jan. 14.

This honor stands as the highest accolade given by the federal government to scientific and engineering professionals at the onset of their independent research careers, showcasing outstanding potential for leadership.

This year’s Cornell awardees (listed in alphabetical order):

Hein, an assistant professor specializing in computational biology at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, investigates the methods through which organisms gather, disseminate, interpret, and react to information, and explores how these reactions shape behavioral evolution and ecosystem dynamics. The Hein Lab employs data-centric computational models and theories closely associated with data derived from laboratory and field studies. A further interest of the lab is enhancing contemporary methods from AI to revolutionize the acquisition of behavioral and ecological data.

Josefowicz, an associate professor in pathology and laboratory medicine, and an affiliate of both the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center and the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health at Weill Cornell Medicine, analyzes the regulation of large genomes in complex organisms at the epigenetic level to guide development and swift responses to environmental changes, along with how erroneous regulation results in disease. A primary objective of the Josefowicz Lab is to apply mechanistic insights into epigenetic regulation and functional histone genetic tools to comprehend epigenetic processes in immune cell development and functionality.

Khurana, an associate professor of physiology and biophysics, serves as the WorldQuant Foundation Research Scholar, is part of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, and co-leads the cancer genetics and epigenetics initiative at the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. Khurana’s laboratory is crafting novel strategies that amalgamate genomics, computational biology, and systems biology to comprehend how variations in individual genomes affect human health. She and her collaborators recently identified and characterized a fairly common subtype of hormone therapy-resistant prostate cancer that resembles stem cells.

Leak, an associate professor in nutritional sciences at the College of Human Ecology (CHE) and associate dean for CHE in New York City, creates culturally relevant programs, collaborating with community partners, that strive to enhance the dietary habits, health, and well-being of adolescents in urban settings. Her research influences public health strategies and policies. Leak is a co-director of the Action Research Collaborative, based in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, with two of her projects including the Advanced Cooking Education initiative and Black Girls for Wellness.

Pleil, an associate professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine, studies how sex and stress hormones in mice influence brain regulation of alcohol and illegal substance consumption, along with other behaviors related to stress and neuropsychiatric disorders. In a recent investigation, Pleil and her team revealed that the hormone estrogen encourages binge drinking of alcohol among females, leading them to consume significant amounts, particularly during the initial 30 minutes after it is presented.

Tian, an associate professor at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, specializes in nanoscale thermal transport and energy conversion. As the head of the ZT Research Group, Tian is renowned for her pioneering research into polymer-based thermal diodes, hybrid organic-inorganic material thermal conductivity, and advanced thermal management for semiconductors. Her work tackles crucial issues concerning national security, quantum computing, and space exploration, with extensive ramifications for energy efficiency, electronics, and global sustainability.