About the Award

The University of Washington Tacoma Distinguished Research Award was initiated in 2004. Given annually, the purpose of this award is to recognize a faculty member who has achieved a record of notable scholarship or creative activity, who has generated new knowledge or creativity that impacts their intellectual discipline, and who has contributed to the intellectual climate of the UW Tacoma campus and its communities. All University of Washington Tacoma faculty members are eligible.

2025 Recipient

Martine De Cock, Ph.D. 
Professor, School of Engineering & Technology

Dr. De Cock has 25 years of experience in artificial intelligence (AI) research. Her work at UWT has focused on applied machine learning, with applications in healthcare data analytics and cybersecurity. Dr. De Cock has made key contributions to the newly emerging field at the intersection of AI and cryptography, investigating privacy-preserving machine learning. Her breadth of work includes over 190 peer reviewed publications in international conferences and top AI journals. Dr. De Cock also has a patent on “Cryptographically Secure Machine Learning,” has been awarded funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), and has won prizes at renowned international conferences.

2024-2025 Committee

  • Angela Kitali, Assistant Professor and Committee Chair, School of Engineering &Technology
  • Anna Lovasz, Assistant Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
  • Juan Wu, Assistant Professor, Milgard School of Business
  • Anaid Yerena, Associate Professor, School of Urban Studies
  • Sae saem Yoon, Assistant Professor, School of Education 

Past recipients

  • 2024 - Angela Kitali, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering & Technology
  • 2023 - Xingyue (Luna) Zhang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Milgard School of Business
  • 2022 - Erin Casey, Professor, School of Social Work & Criminal Justice
  • 2021 - Haluk Demirkan, Professor, Milgard School of Business
  • 2020 - Edward Kolodziej, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering (Seattle) and the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences (Tacoma)
  • 2019 - Ka Yee Yeung, Associate Professor, School of Engineering & Technology
  • 2018 – Eric Madfis, Associate Professor, Social Work & Criminal Justice
  • 2017 - Marian Harris, Professor, Social Work & Criminal Justice
  • 2016 - Carolyn West, Associate Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
    • Video: Writing the Books You Want to Read
  • 2015 - Peter Horak, Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
    • Video: The World of Mathematics
  • 2014 - Yonn Dierwechter, Associate Professor, Urban Studies
    • Presentation: Rain without thunder: City-regions and the global search for a sustainable order
  • 2013 - Mike Allen, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
    • Presentation: I've Got Friends in Low Places: The Intellectual Life of an Anti-Intellectual
  • 2012 - Divya McMillin, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
    • Presentation: Producing Place: Media and Soft Power
  • 2011 - Rich Furman, Social Work
    • The professor and the blank page: Writing, rituals and our relationship to the written word
  • 2010 - Michael Honey, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
    • Presentation: All Labor Has Dignity
  • 2009 - Claudia Gorbman, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
    • Presentation: Listening to Movies
  • 2008 - Joe Sharkey, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
    • Presentation: Don't Think; Look! Language Does Things it Can't Do
  • 2007 - Anthony D'Costa, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
    • Presentation: WYSIWYG/D: Doing Research at UWT
  • 2006 - Marcy Stein, Education
  • 2005 - John Banks, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
  • 2004 - Charles Emlet, Social Work
    • Presentation: Aging and HIV/AIDS: Lessons Learned... Moving Forward