The Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence is given annually to a WSU Vancouver faculty member whose research quality and quantity are exemplary, and whose work has had a positive influence on the broader community. It is the university’s highest research honor.
Bala Krishnamoorthy
Associate Professor and Program Leader, Mathematics
Bala Krishnamoorthy discovers ways people can use data strategically to make better decisions. His research interests include computational algebraic topology, geometric measure theory, integer optimization and basis reduction, computational models for surgical and biomedical applications, and computational biology. His research contributes directly to the goals that are part of WSU’s Drive to 25.
A proponent of interdisciplinary research, Krishnamoorthy has been working with orthopedic surgeons from Oregon Health & Science University, employing data analytics techniques to find insights in their data. One finding was that bone grafts from older donors may be just as strong as those from younger donors, vastly increasing the pool of potential donors. He has worked with collaborators in the field of criminal justice to apply topological data analysis to study police body camera video datasets.
Krishnamoorthy was instrumental in establishing the mathematics graduate program at WSU Vancouver and has taken the lead in recruiting students and creating opportunities for them. He posts all his lecture videos online with open access, and they are followed by students and researchers from all over the world.
He has received funding worth millions of dollars from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. A leader in his field, he has organized several conferences and special sessions at national and international meetings and is frequently invited to present seminars at other universities and national meetings. He has published widely and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Advances in Applied and Computational Mathematics.
Krishnamoorthy joined WSU Pullman in 2004 and transitioned to the Vancouver campus in 2014. He received his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Past award recipients
2017 – 2018
Cheryl Schultz, Biological Sciences
2016 – 2017
Candice Goucher, History
2015 – 2016
John Harrison, School of the Environment
2014 – 2015
Tahira Probst, Psychology
2013 – 2014
Thomas Tripp, Business
2012 – 2013
Jane Lanigan, Human Development
2011 – 2012
Christine Portfors, Neuroscience
2010 – 2011
Stephen Kucer, Education
2009 – 2010
WenZhan Song, Engineering
2008 – 2009
Joe Cote, Business
2007 – 2008
Tamara Holmund Nelson, Education
2006 – 2007
Amy Wharton, Sociology
2005 – 2006
Barry Hewlett, Anthropology
2004 – 2005
Clayton Mosher, Sociology
2003 – 2004
Michael Morgan, Psychology
2002 – 2003
John Bishop, Biology
2001 – 2002
Susan Finley, Education
2000 – 2001
Hakan Gurocak, Engineering
1999 – 2000
Sally Hacker, Biology
1998 – 1999
Ed Brook, Geology
1997 – 1998
Meridith Newman, Public Affairs
1996 – 1997
Sue Peabody, History
1995 – 1996
Charles ‘Cap’ Peck, Education
1994 – 1995
Carol Siegel, English
1993 – 1994
Jerry Goodstein, Business