Samet and Lin Receive Distinguished Career Awards from Washington Academy of Sciences

Distinguished University Professors Hanan Samet (left) and Ming Lin (right) have each received a Distinguished Career Award from the Washington Academy of Sciences.

Since 1940, the academy has recognized scientists in the Washington, D.C., region for their scientific achievements and leadership. The Distinguished Career Award is the organization’s highest honor, acknowledging scientists and scholars who have a significant impact on their respective fields of study.

Samet was cited by the academy for his “pioneering contributions to developing multidimensional spatial data structures and indexing for applications in graphics, GIS, vision, and databases.” His research and scholarship includes the development NewsStand and TwitterStand, which enable accessing a database of news articles and tweets using a map query interface.

Lin was cited by the academy for her “seminal contributions to computer graphics, virtual reality, robotics, and intelligent systems.” Her work has extensive applications in medical simulations, cancer screening, urban computing, as well as supporting city-scale planning, human-centric computing, intelligent transportation and traffic management.

Samet and Lin will join the rest of this year’s honorees on Sept. 10 at the Washington Academy of Sciences’ annual awards ceremony, which will be held online this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.