Lawrence G. Haggerty Faculty Award for Excellence in Research

About the Award

The Lawrence G. Haggerty Faculty Award for Excellence in Research recognizes scholarly distinction at Marquette University. The award is Marquette's highest honor for research and scholarship.

In 1998, Haggerty Enterprises, Inc., announced the endowed award, established to honor Lawrence Haggerty. Throughout his career and until his death in 1994, Lawrence Haggerty generously supported Marquette through various initiatives, including his sponsorship of the Reverend John P. Raynor, S.J., Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence. Thus, it is a fitting tribute that the Lawrence G. Haggerty Faculty Award for Excellence in Research complements, in the name of scholarship, Lawrence Haggerty’s all-encompassing belief in excellence. 

Current Recipient

Dr. Ayman EL-Refaie, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Ayman EL-Refaie is a world-renowned expert in the areas of electrical machines, drives and power conversion. With over 20 years of research experience, he has 48 issued U.S. patents, 69 highly cited journal publications and 135 conference publications with several others pending.

He has served and is serving as principal investigator on several multi-million-dollar research grants with an established track record in developing innovative technologies that have impacted the use of renewable energy, sustainability and electrification of transportation.

Dr. EL-Refaie award pic

EL-Refaie is currently a pioneer in developing low-cost electric drivetrains for hybrid and electric vehicles. He recently received a $6.25 million Department of Energy grant to pursue this work. This project will lead to novel high-performance electric drivetrains that eliminate rare-earth material. These materials are currently relied upon in traction motors, and they pose significant sustainability risk due to the geopolitical challenges surrounding them as 95% of these materials come from overseas.

He is also leading pioneering effort to develop high specific power electric drivetrains for aerospace applications enabled by additive manufacturing; he has recently received a $6.8 million ARPA-E (part of the DOE) grant to pursue this work. This project achieves two to three times improvement in specific motor power, which will be a key enabler for hybrid and electric propulsion for the future of aviation.

“I am very honored and humbled to receive such a prestigious award,” EL-Rafaie said. “I am very grateful to Mr. Lawrence G. Haggerty for his generous donation to establish this award. I am also very grateful for the university, college and department for their support and recognition. I consider this more of a team award recognizing the efforts of our research team especially my graduate students who conduct the main bulk of the research work.”

 

Dr. Gholamhossein Hamedani, Professor of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

Dr. Gholamhossein Hamedani conducts research in the area known as probability distribution theory, within the broad field of mathematical probability and statistics. When modeling lifetime data, classical distributions such as normal (otherwise known as Gaussian or bell curve), have been successfully applied and widely used in areas of engineering, medical sciences, economics and finance. However, the classical distributions fail to always provide the best fit which has led to the development of more generalized versions of distributions.

Hamedani has spent his career working toward extending the classical distributions, as well as developing characterizations of these distributions to build a more complete understanding of the underlying statistical model. His current research work is focused on the “characterization of distributions.” The term characterize in this mathematical sense implies a description of the properties that make the distribution unique, i.e., one of a kind.

Dr. Hamedani Award picThis work has resulted in three research monographs: “Characterization of Recently Introduced Univariate Continuous Distributions I, II and III.” He is currently working on “Research Monograph IV.”

“To fully appreciate the meaning and the proper application of a continuous univariate distribution, one should be equipped to go through two scientific steps,” said Dr. Samad Hedayat, distinguished professor in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Chicago. “First step: One should know the true meaning of the distribution by various available means of characterizations. Second step: One should know the underlying phenomenon for which the distribution is to be meaningfully approximated. These outstanding volumes prepared by Professor G.G. Hamedani are providing timely and most comprehensive mathematical/statistical tools for the first step in applying and utilizing continuous univariate distributions.”

 

Past Recipients

To view past recipients of the award, view the University Honors page.

Nominations 

The nomination form for 2024-2025 will be available soon.