2020 CAS Distinguished Research Award (CASDRA)
Each year the pool of candidates for the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Award (CASDRA) consists of those faculty members who are nominated for the Alumni Association for Distinguished Research or Creative Achievement (AADRACA) and who are not selected for an AADRACA that year.
Engaged Scholarship: Elena Delavega, Social Work
Elena Delavega, PhD, MSW is Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Memphis, where
she teaches Social Welfare Policy, Evaluative Research, and Poverty. Consistent with
the values and goals of the profession of social work, her research aims to enhance
human well-being, opportunity, and capacity, and to foster civil and human rights
for all people.
Delavaga's research is complex and multifaceted and consists of three broad areas, grounded in the promotion of social justice: 1) Understanding Poverty; 2) Social and Economic Exclusion; and 3) Promoting Social and Economic Development. Dr. Delavega was a policy Fellow of the Hooks Institute for Social Change in 2014, serves on the board of JustCity, Inc., an organization dedicated to bringing justice to those accused of crimes in Shelby County, and was appointed Associate Director of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis in 2015.
She is dedicated to researching, teaching, and promoting civil rights and social justice. She is the author of the Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet, updated yearly. She is the author of the 2018 Memphis Poverty Report: Memphis Since MLK.
Visit Dr. Delavaga's faculty profile for more information on her research and interests.
Natural & Mathematical Sciences: Lan Wang, Computer Science
Dr. Wang joined the Department in Fall 2004 after finishing her PhD at UCLA. She was promoted
to Associate Professor in 2010 and to Full Professor in 2016. Her research focuses
on improving the scalability, reliability, and security of the Internet. She has received
three major research grants from NSF and several grants from the university. Most
recently, she is on a team that received a $7.9 million grant from the NSF Future
Internet Architecture program for their "Named Data Networking" project.
At the University of Memphis, Dr. Wang has taught a variety of courses including Networking and Information Assurance, Advanced Computer Networks, Wireless and Mobile Computing, Models of Computation, Web Services and the Internet, and Data Structures.
As an active member of the research community, she has served as the Co-Chair of the 4th Workshop on Secure Network Protocols and a program committee member of 27 conferences and workshops. She is also interested in promoting female participation in computer science, co-organizing a "Networking Networking Women" panel at ACM SIGCOMM 2008.
Dr. Wang is an IEEE Senior Member. She received the 2010 Early Career Research Award from the College of Arts and Sciences and the 2019 Alumni Association Distinguished Research in Science, Engineering & Mathematics from the University of Memphis.
Visit Dr. Wang's faculty profile for more information on her research and interests.