Awards & Honors

Research Awards & Honors Highlights

Dr. Chris Filstrup, Applied Limnologist, was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Limnology and Oceanography as an associate editor.

Graduate student Lien Tran in NRRI’s Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology Lab was awarded a National Science Foundation-Society of Freshwater Science Fellowship.

Dr. Katya Kovalenko, Quantitative Ecologist and Data Scientist was awarded a Springer Nature Editor of Distinction Award for 2025 for her contributions to the journal Hydrobiologia.

Katya Kovalenko, Holly Wellard Kelly, Sergey Ilyushkin, Justine Neville and Glenn Guntenspergen won the 2025 UMN Data Viz Championship this year with a graphical abstract published in the Science for the Total Environment: “Examining inequality in aquatic ecosystem services: Evidence from large-scale monitoring programs.”

Dr. Sunil Tripathy, Senior Research Scientist, was the recipient of the 2024 Young Scientist award from the Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration’s (SME) Industrial Minerals & Aggregates Division. The award recognizes significant scientific professionalism of young people working in the industrial minerals or aggregates industry.

Dr. Naba Kalita, Biomaterial Research Scientist, joined the editorial board of the journal “Discover Sustainability,” part of the Springer Nature group.

NRRI Awards

The following staff and teams were recognized for our Outstanding Staff Awards, presented at our annual All Staff meeting, in FY25.

  • Outstanding Service Award: Bob Hell, Holly Wellard-Kelly, Andrej Pilipovic, Bailey Rohde
  • Research Award: Abigail Latanich, Brennan Pederson, Bailey Rohde, Brett Spigarelli
  • Safety Award: Joe Cannella, Devin Edge
  • Partnership Award: Matt Mlinar, Brett Spigarelli, Matt Young
  • Team Awards: 
    • NRRI Employee Engagement Team: David Haugen, Holly Wellard Kelly, Katya Kovalenko, Leah Schleppenbach, Brett Spigarelli 
    • US Steel Project Team
      • PI - Brett Spigarelli 
      • Research Team - Kyle Bartholomew, Paul Mack, David Haugen
      • Project Support - Kevin Kangas, Matt Mlinar, Jeff Kinkel, Pat Casey, Julie Mutchler
      • Technicians - Matt Anthony, Quiana Busching, Joe Cannella, Dan Carrigan, Greg Gargano, Eric Johnson, Ron Kelner, Tyler Mendonsa, Donnie Reiser, Bailey Rohde, Ben Stubbs, Mike Swanson, Steve Zaitz 
      • Maintenance - Kevin Jamsa, Tony Masching, Mike Bates
      • Finance - Julie Christopherson
      • Administrative - Robin Oberton