Ragan Honored as One of America’s Top Hispanic Engineers with HENAAC Award

UCI Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Regina Ragan

Regina Ragan, a leading expert on design and fabrication of nanomaterials, will be given the 2023 HENAAC Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement in Academia. The HENAAC awards honor the achievements of America’s top engineers and scientists in the Hispanic community every year.

Ragan is a UCI professor of materials science and engineering and was selected for the award by the deans of engineering from University of Southern California and Cal State University Los Angeles due to her technological innovations in environmental sensors and diagnostic devices and her contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion.

“I am very honored to be considered to be among the top engineers in the Hispanic community,” said Ragan. “I want to share my love of science and engineering with the next generation as it can transform a person’s life and the world around them.”  

Ragan is co-principaI investigator and education director for the UCI Center for Complex and Active Materials, a National Science Foundation-funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center where multidisciplinary investigators are researching and developing new materials with unique functionalities and superior performance. Ragan leads the center’s efforts to engage, recruit and train the next generation of scientists and engineers with career development and engagement activities spanning kindergarten to post graduate level.

Ragan’s research interests focus on exploiting the unique properties of materials when confined to nanoscale dimensions.

Ragan’s laboratory is pursuing both fundamental understanding of self-assembly for molecular scale control of features using methods compatible with high throughput manufacturing and translation of these systems into photocatalysts, medical diagnostic devices, and environmental sensors.

The award will be given to Ragan at the 35th Anniversary Great Minds in STEM Conference, which is scheduled for Oct. 11-14, 2023, at the Pasadena Convention Center.

- Natalie Tso

Share

  • X