The university celebrated a longtime Ohio State professor and researcher with its highest — and newest — academic honor.
Liang-Shih Fan, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is the first recipient of the Pierre Agostini Prize. During his 48 year career at Ohio State, Fan’s research focuses on creating cleaner, more efficient ways to produce energy, fuels and chemicals while reducing pollution.
The prize is Ohio State’s most prestigious honor for scholarly and artistic achievement. According to the university, it is awarded annually to a faculty member whose research or creative work is recognized by peers as so groundbreaking and influential that it deserves to be called “world-class” and would typically be recognized through national or international awards. It is named for Pierre Agostini, an Ohio State professor emeritus of physics who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023.
“Professor Fan’s innovative and consequential research makes him a worthy winner of the inaugural Agostini Prize,” Carter said. “Ohio State is committed to research that helps solve the world’s greatest challenges, and Professor Fan’s science and engineering technology meets at the intersection of energy demand and sound environmental stewardship.”
As the Agostini Prize winner, Fan received a medallion and $50,000, split evenly into a cash award and a research budget.
Fan told trustees that the honor is proof to him that “only the sky is the limit” for Ohio State researchers.
