CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Illinois International named Taeghwan Hyeon (Seoul National University), Sharifa Sultana (Illinois), Colby Silvert (University of Maryland), Illinois graduate student Mehrdad Mohammadi, and Illinois undergraduate student David Mock as the recipients of the 2025 International Achievement Awards.
These awards recognize outstanding alumni, faculty, and students whose exceptional work, service, and/or scholarship made significant, global impact.
The recipients will be honored at a private awards ceremony on April 24.
Madhuri and Jagdish N. Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement
Taeghwan Hyeon, director of the Center for Nanoparticle Research in the Institute for Basic Science at Seoul National University (SNU), received the Madhuri and Jagdish N. Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement.
Established in 2000 with a generous gift from longtime Illinois donors Jagdish and Madhuri Sheth, this award recognizes international alumni who are highly distinguished in their profession, have made outstanding contributions to government, humanity, science, art, or human welfare, and exemplify the strength of their education at Illinois.
Hyeon is a trailblazer in the field of nanoscience, notably in the synthesis, assembly, and biomedical applications of uniformly sized nanoparticles.
“He is perhaps most famous for his generalized, but simple, synthetic method of making extremely uniform nanometer-sized particles through the so-called ‘heat-up process,’” said Kenneth S. Suslick, the Marvin T. Schmidt Research Professor of Chemistry at Illinois and Hyeon’s nominator and mentor. “He is truly one of the founding fathers of inorganic nanomaterials research.”
Hyeon is a distinguished professor in the School of Chemical and Biological Engineering at SNU, the university’s highest professional position; a member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea and the Korean Academy of Science and Technology; and became a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in the U.S.
To date, he has published more than 450 papers in prominent international journals served as the first Korean associate editor of the world’s leading chemistry publication, the Journal of the American Chemical Society from 2010 to 2020, and now serves as the associate editor of ACS Nano, one of the leading journals in nanoscience.
In 2011, he was selected as one of the “Top 100 Chemists” of the decade by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and for the last five years he was chosen as “Highly Cited Researcher” in chemistry and materials science areas by Clarivate Analytics from 2014 to 2024.
He was chosen as one of the 2020 Clarivate Citation Laureates whose contributions are known to be on par with Nobel Prize recipients.
Hyeon was born in Dalseong County, Daegu, South Korea. He earned his B.A. in 1987 from SNU, his M.S. in 1989 from SNU, and his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Illinois in 1996.
Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement
Sharifa Sultana, an assistant professor in The Grainger College of Engineering Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at Illinois, is the recipient of the Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement.
Established by Illinois’ provost in 2001 and endowed by Jagdish and Madhuri Sheth in 2006, this award recognizes an Illinois faculty member for exemplary accomplishments in teaching, research, and public service in the international arena.
Sultana graduated with a B.S. in electrical and electronic engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2013. She earned an M.S. in 2020 from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in 2023 from Cornell University.
Her specialty is in human-computer interaction with a goal-oriented mindset to design, build, and deploy computing technologies to help improve the lives of underserved communities. Her novel computer science methods have helped meet the challenges of marginalized Global South communities with limited resources head on.
She goes beyond simply identifying the problems seen in these communities by establishing a deep and ongoing engagement with marginalized Global South countries, notably using a co-designed approach to ethnography (the recording and analysis of a culture or society).
Over the last seven years, her computing applications in Bangladesh and Canada helped address critical identification, human rights, and challenges toward recognizing their identities, rights, and audial.
“Professor Sultana has worked tirelessly over the years with Bangladeshi policymakers, NGOs, and the US-based and Bangladeshi tech-industries, to improve the lives of marginalized communities of the Global South,” said Nancy M. Amato, Abel Bliss professor and director of The Grainger College of Engineering Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. “Her focus on poor women from rural communities in the Global South, in particular, is tremendously important. Her work has been has been recognized for its contributions to responsible computing and AI by the computing research community.”
Charles C. Stewart International Young Humanitarian Award
Colby Silvert, an assistant professor of agricultural and extension education in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland, is the recipient of the Charles C. Stewart International Young Humanitarian Award.
Established in 2005, and endowed by Charles C. Stewart in 2007, this award recognizes the accomplishments of an Illinois graduate whose dedicated international service exemplifies the highest ideals of selflessness and dedication to the welfare of communities outside of the United States.
Silvert has devoted his career and research to community-based international extension, specifically with the goals of reversing entrenched socioeconomic and gender inequality structures and facilitating inclusive income generation opportunities for family and small-scale farmers located in low-income regions.
He partners with extension and agricultural educators, farmers, value chain actors, community leaders, and research institutes in Maryland and throughout the world to tackle issues that include building capacities in program design and evaluation, commercialization of specialty crop and smallholder farming systems, inclusive and gender transformative change approaches, and urban and residential landscape conservation.
Silvert’s ongoing research focuses include the roles of social capital to strengthen farmer-to-farmer extension. This work builds awareness about how to leverage social ties and networks within diverse farmer communities that may encourage shifts in attitudes, decision-making and gender equality to reduce barriers and help marginalized farmers mobilize together to access opportunities such as new markets, formation of cooperatives, or farming innovations.
He also has current international partnerships in research, teaching and extension with the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, in Brazil. These connections stem back to an internship facilitated through Illinois and then a 2015 Fulbright grant, based in Viçosa, which was focused on family coffee farmers’ access to specialty markets.
One of his most recent collaborations there focuses on developing an urban food bank that will be supplied by regional family farmers to address food insecurity in Viçosa.
Silvert earned a B.S. in Crop Sciences from Illinois in 2014. In 2020 he earned an M.S. in Agricultural Education and Communication from the University of Florida. Three years later, he earned his Ph.D. in the same program from Florida.
“Silvert is an inspiring example of a young humanitarian devoting his career towards the welfare of agriculturalists around the world,” said Lauren Karplus, assistant director for international programs in the College of Agricultural, Consumer, & Environmental Sciences (ACES). “By leveraging the experiences gained at Illinois, he is also inspiring the next generation of internationally focused humanitarians.”
Illinois International Graduate Achievement Award
Mehrdad Mohammadi, a Ph.D. candidate in statistics in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois, received the Illinois International Graduate Achievement Award.
He is recognized for his innovative and sustained international research and service abroad and on campus that fostered significant, societal impact.
Mohammadi holds dual master’s degrees in mathematics and statistics from Illinois (2023), an M.A. in Economics from Pennsylvania State University (2020), an M.S. in Economics from the University of Bologna, Italy (2018), and a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from the Petroleum University of Technology, Iran (2015).
His research focuses on the application of statistical reinforcement learning and machine learning to medical sciences.
Outside of his academic pursuits, Mohammadi has demonstrated commitment to international cultural and art initiatives. He was a founding member of the SALAAM MENA Cultural Center, one of the first Middle East and North Africa cultural centers within an academic institution in the U.S.
He founded and served as the president of the Statistics Doctoral Student Association, a prosperous ground to foster interaction, collaboration and engagement among graduate students at the Department of Statistics. He also serves on the advisory council to the Illinois Chancellor on Middle East Affairs.
He has also been part of the Iranian Heritage Foundation (IHF) board in cultural and art activities and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, organized international and cultural celebrations and art events that united participants from Illinois students, faculty, staff, Champaign County families, and various ethnic backgrounds.
He created practical resources such as a comprehensive Persian-language guidebook for new students on campus. Furthermore, he initiated the archiving of the histories of Iranians on campus dating back to 1907, culminating in the creation of a booklet titled "Iranian Illini Since 1907," which encapsulates a portion of this historical account.
“An exceptional ability to initiate and execute impactful projects”, said Emad Tajkhorshid, J. W. Hastings Endowed Professor of Biochemistry, director of NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Visualization, and Mohammadi’s nominator. “He has made invaluable contributions to (Illinois) and its cultural communities, enriching our community through tireless efforts, leadership, and unwavering dedication.”
Illinois International Undergraduate Achievement Award
David Mock, a dual-degree undergraduate student in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics-Policy, International Trade and Development Concentration and the Department of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, received the Illinois International Undergraduate Achievement Award.
This award recognizes an Illinois undergraduate student (U.S. citizen or international) for a significant service or contribution resulting from their participation in an international study course, program, or project.
Mock's contributions to globalizing campus include volunteering with the study abroad office, serving as an undergraduate teaching assistant in the freshman experience course, and volunteering as an English conversation partner for international students.
His studies, research, and career experiences have centered on the advancement of sustainable farming practices, expanding international markets, and building global pathways for American farmers to connect.
Despite a young academic career, Mock has won numerous nationally competitive scholarships and internships and has committed himself to learning about foreign and domestic U.S. agricultural policy in the interest of someday representing U.S. agricultural trade interests in a foreign service career.
Mock is also a Foreign Language & Area Studies Fellowship participant under the Illinois Global Institute, and in 2024 he participated in the Nancy Pelosi Foreign Affairs Internship in Washington, D.C., where he worked for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources to conduct comprehensive policy analysis and contribute to strategic communication efforts.
Above all, Mock remains committed to his rural and agricultural roots.
Notably, through an internship at a local grain elevator, he experienced first-hand the significance of global supply chains and markets. He has also served as treasurer for the National Agricultural Marketing Association (NAMA), overseeing the financial planning, procurement, and investment of chapter funds.
Additional Information:
The International Achievement Awards celebrate all levels of international work and scholarship at Illinois and allow the university to recognize its distinguished international alumni, faculty, and students for their global achievements.
To learn more about these funds or to help support Illinois International’s mission to foster greater global engagement at Illinois by contributing a tax-deductible donation, please visit the Illinois International giving page.
Correction: An earlier version of this story wrongly identified The Grainger College of Engineering Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. Illinois International regrets this error.