2025 Hall of Fame Inductees

Arezoo Ardekani, professor and associate head of Faculty Affairs of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, is renowned for pioneering contributions to fluid dynamics and biofluid mechanics. She earned her master’s degree and doctorate from UCI and was awarded the prestigious Shapiro Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT. After her postdoctoral work, she joined the University of Notre Dame and was appointed the Rev. John Cardinal O’Hara Assistant Professor in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. Since moving to Purdue in 2024, Ardekani has developed innovative computational models and experimental techniques that have led to discoveries in biopharmaceutical research and sustainable engineering, addressing key global challenges in health and environmental sustainability.

Ardekani has been recognized with many prestigious awards throughout her career. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2016, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for her “research aimed to fundamentally understand, model and control bacterial biofilm formation through imaginative computations and elegant experiments,” as well as for her dedication to increasing minority participation in STEM research. She received an NSF CAREER Award in 2012, followed by several other accolades, including the Society of Rheology’s Arthur B. Metzner Early Career Award (2020), the Society of Engineering Science Young Investigator Medal (2020), the Sigma Xi Mid-career Research Award (2020), the National Academy of Engineering Grainger Grants for Advancement of Interdisciplinary Research (2021) and the American Physical Society Outstanding Referee Award (2023). 

At Purdue, she was recognized with the College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award for Graduate Student Mentorship in 2020 and the Award of Excellence in Early Career Research in 2019. Her early accomplishments include receiving the Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future Award in both 2009 and 2010, the Society of Women Engineers Fellowship and the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Award in 2007.

Ardekani’s leadership in research and professional service is evident through her extensive involvement in editorial boards, advisory committees and diversity initiatives. She is an associate editor of Physical Review Fluids and ASME Applied Mechanics Review and an Editorial Advisory Board Member of the International Journal of Multiphase Flow and the Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics. Her contributions also include organizing key conferences, such as co-chairing the 75th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in 2022 and serving on prestigious award committees like the APS Stanley Corrsin and SOR Metzner award committees.

Ken Grier is executive project director of Energy Solutions at Fluor Corporation. A licensed civil engineer, Grier has served in various roles at Fluor, ranging from engineering to procurement/contracts management, sales and project management, for over three decades.

Grier graduated from UCI with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, focusing on structures, in 1991. Right after college, he was hired as a structural engineer by Fluor, a large global engineering, procurement and construction company. Fluor funded his graduate studeis, allowing him to attend evening classes to earn a master's degree in structural engineering with an emphasis in seismic engineering in 1994. Although he lives primarily in Mission Viejo, Grier has lived in Philadelphia, Houston, Calgary, Vancouver, Milan, Abu Dhabi, Manila and is currently based in Copenhagen. He has also traveled extensively for work, both domestically and internationally, leading large, complex projects in advanced manufacturing, energy and energy transition.

Grier enjoys mentoring new engineers through Fluor’s Mentor Circle programs. Early in his career, he began visiting elementary, middle and high schools during National Engineers Week, sharing his passion and encouraging students to pursue careers in STEM. He has continued this work for over 30 years, inspiring thousands of students and appreciating their energy, creativity and curiosity.

In 2019, Grier was invited to become Fluor’s Global University Sponsor Program (GUSP) executive for UCI. In this role, he worked with the Samueli School of Engineering to identify programs, scholarships and other funding opportunities to support. In 2023, he took on the responsibility of overseeing Fluor’s worldwide GUSP program, which includes over 25 universities and their respective executive sponsors. He accepted this role on the condition that he would maintain his connection with UCI. Grier then became active in the UCI Engineering Alumni Society, where he developed the Professional Development Workshop, Battle of the Deans Trivia Challenge and Wine Tasting events to raise funds for scholarships. He has also been heavily involved with the Dean’s Leadership Council.

Grier has been married to Shelley, whom he met in high school when they were juniors, for 34 years. They have three children: Andrew (24), Justice (18) and Ryan (11). He is deeply grateful to his parents, teachers and mentors for the guidance, motivation and support they’ve provided. Focused on giving back, Grier is committed to helping others grow both personally and professionally, so they, too, can have the same opportunities he did.

Shelly Peyton is a professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University in 2002 and went on to obtain her master’s degree and doctorate in chemical engineering from UCI in 2007. She was then an NIH Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow in the Biological Engineering Department at MIT before starting her academic appointment at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2011. She moved to Tufts University in 2024. 

At Tufts, Peyton leads an interdisciplinary group of engineers and molecular cell biologists seeking to create and apply novel biomaterials platforms toward new solutions to grand challenges in human health. Her lab's unique approach is using their engineering expertise to build simplified models of human tissue with synthetic biomaterials. They use these systems to understand 1) the physical relationship between metastatic breast cancer cells and the tissues to which they spread, 2) the role of the extracellular matrix and its dynamics in drug resistance, and 3) how to create bioinspired, mechanically dynamic and activatable biomaterials. 

Among other honors, Peyton was a 2013 Pew Biomedical Scholar, received a New Innovator Award from the NIH, and was awarded an NSF CAREER grant. She is a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Peyton is passionate about graduate student training and diversifying the academy. She was awarded an Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Engineering at UMass in 2018, has led an REU Site, co-directed a Biotechnology NIH T32 training program, and was lead principal investigator of a PREP program at UMass, which hosts students from historically excluded groups for a one-year research-intensive program to help prepare them for graduate school. She also runs an NSF-funded program called Engineering the Cell, which brings female high school students to her lab for five weeks every summer. 

Outside of her work, Peyton is an avid cyclist, enjoys board games, travel and is a retired ultimate frisbee player.