UCLA Computer Science Professor and Vice Chair of Graduate Studies Miryung Kim is celebrating a milestone in her academic mentorship. Two of her former advisees, Muhammad Ali Gulzar (now an assistant professor at Virginia Tech) and Qian Zhang (now an assistant professor at UC Riverside) have been awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards this year.
The NSF CAREER Award is a significant milestone for tenure-track faculty in the US, and this honor highlights the exceptional track record of Professor Kim’s graduate student mentorship.
To date, eight former PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from her research group have transitioned into tenure-track faculty positions, and of the eight, five (Gulzar and Zhang, as well as Associate Professor Baishakhi Ray, Columbia University; Associate Professor Na Meng, Virginia Tech; and Assistant Professor Tianyi Zhang, Purdue University) have also received NSF CAREER Awards.
“I am blessed to have collaborated with such wonderful young scientists during their formative years,” Professor Kim noted. Kim previously received the ACM SIGSOFT Influential Educator Award for her mentoring achievements, with an emphasis on research excellence, diversity, and inclusion.