Hariri Institute Recognizes Key Individuals at Annual Community Recognition Awards
On Friday, September 12, Hariri Institute recognized Katherine D’Angelo, Nancy Clinton, Kristen Dionne, Pujan Paudel, and Asad Malik at its annual Community Recognition Awards ceremony.
The Community Recognition Awards highlights the people who make the Hariri Institute’s mission of catalyzing cross-disciplinary collaborations among researchers possible. These individuals exemplify the heart of the Institute — going above and beyond in their roles to ensure excellent service, create a positive work environment, and build community.
Distinguished Service Award
Winner: Katherine D’Angelo
As the highest honor bestowed by the Institute, the Distinguished Service Award recognizes an individual who has made extraordinary contributions in leadership, innovation, collaboration, service, and advancing the Institute’s mission. Reserved for those who leave an indelible mark on the Institute and the broader community, this recipient embodies the highest of ideals and serves as a model for future generations of leaders and doers.
This year’s award recipient was Katherine D’Angelo, Assistant Director of Programs and Events at the Hariri Institute. D’Angelo’s remarkable organization skills, experience, and attention to detail has enhanced the Institute’s programs and events for over eight years. Under D’Angelo’s leadership, the Hariri Institute has been able to provide its ten centers and initiatives with the platform to share their research with the University and beyond. In addition, D’Angelo serves as a supportive mentor to other staff members, providing them with opportunities to grow through projects and training.
“Katherine always has the Institute’s mission in mind while doing her work, and her interest in the research and goals of Hariri’s faculty is steadfast and admirable,” said Emily Johnson, Associate Director of Research Administration at the Hariri Institute. “She continuously builds and maintains genuine relationships with Hariri’s stakeholders and has successfully melded her corporate background into the higher ed work environment…Katherine deserves the recognition for this award given her tenure, commitment, and presence as a pillar in the Hariri community. We are lucky to have her and she should be celebrated.”
Finalist: Nancy Clinton
The Hariri Institute also recognized Nancy Clinton as a finalist for this award. As Managing Director of the MOC Alliance, Clinton has led by example through supportive leadership, an unwavering dedication to innovation, and a deep commitment to internal and external stakeholders.
“Nancy is an amazing representative of the MOC, Hariri, and BU to all of the external departments, institutions, and companies she works with often,” said Tara Moran, Senior Administrative Coordinator at the MOC Alliance and Red Hat Collaboratory. “She has done great work leading the MOC through this period of rapid growth and has innovated the business side of the project in major ways. She’s also a great manager and mentor to the rest of the admin staff up here!”
Team Player Award
Winner: Kristen Dionne
The Team Player Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated exceptional teamwork and collaboration. The ideal recipient is an individual who has worked effectively with colleagues and external departments. They have also championed the demonstration of skills that led to successful team interactions.
Kristen Dionne, Senior Administrative Assistant at the Hariri Institute, was this year’s recipient. Whether it’s setting up conference rooms, ordering catering, or facilitating collaboration among Hariri Institute’s internal departments, Dionne approaches every task with a team-oriented approach and a confidence that motivates all around her.
“Kristen is the ultimate team player! Kristen is always ready and available to help whenever needed,” said Ken Rudolph, Marketing Communications Specialist at the Boston Women’s Workforce Council and the MOC Alliance. “She is always available to help us set up and clean up for any seminar or event we host, and even dedicates her time and service to assisting us at any large-scale events. Kristen is always around and available to help anyone at the institute with any of their needs, from room reservations, to event planning, to help with catering. Everything that happens at the institute is possible because of Kristen!”
Innovation Award
Winner: Asad Malik
Recipients of the Innovation Award have shown a dedication to innovation, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and bringing together diverse perspectives to solve complex problems in any area of their work/field. Through their work, they have exemplified the Institute’s commitment to fostering a culture of creativity.
This year’s recipient was Asad Malik, Senior Software Engineer at the Software, Application, and Innovation Lab (SAIL). This past year, Asad’s creativity and critical thinking skills helped secure a $250K grant from the Sloan Foundation.
“Asad played a pivotal role in securing grant funding from the Sloan Foundation to advance SAIL’s work on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technologies,” said William Tomlinson, Director of SAIL. “Asad not only helped conceive a major portion of the scope of the project but also co-authored critical portions of the proposal. His vision focused on how large language models (LLMs) could be tailored for diverse research applications and how RAG architectures could be made more accessible by abstracting complex engineering for a broader user base. Thanks to Asad’s innovative ideas, the project is now entering implementation, with AI-powered tools being adopted by several groups across BU. His contributions are no longer conceptual; they’re being felt by the wider research community. This work is setting a new bar for how AI technologies are used in higher education. The strength and ambition of this initiative would not exist without Asad’s technical insight, collaborative spirit and deep commitment to innovation.”
Student Excellence Award
Winner: Pujan Paudel
The Student Excellence Award recognizes an outstanding student who has made significant contributions to their areas within the Institute. This award is presented to students who have demonstrated a strong work ethic, exceptional skills, dedication to learning and development, and a commitment to excellence in their work.
This year’s recipient was Pujan Paudel, PhD candidate at BU Sec Lab. Paudel’s supervisor, Gianluca Stringhini, Associate Professor (ECE), nominated Paudel for his passion, effectiveness, and mentorship to other students.
“Pujan is not only an outstanding PhD student, he also truly cares about the BU community and acts as a great mentor and a multiplier for every student he interacts with,” said Stringhini. “He epitomizes the Hariri Institute’s mission: while his work is computational in nature, he applies it to solve societal problems and has published work with faculty across BU (from sociology, the Pardee School, economics, communication). He was instrumental in the success of the Climate Misinformation RFP in 2022-2023, and has mentored undergraduate students from COM, CDS, and ECE.”
The Community Recognition Awards was part of the Hariri Institute’s annual Welcome Back Event, which was co-hosted with the Center for Information and Systems Engineering and the Division of Systems Engineering at the College of Engineering. For more information and pictures from these events, please follow Hariri Institute on social media.
