UH Engineering Professor Wins Prestigious John and Rebecca Moores Professorship

Zhu Han, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston, is having a good year.

He’s been awarded a 2018 John and Rebecca Moores Professorship, a University-level honor awarded annually to UH faculty members who have made outstanding contributions in research, teaching and service. Each Moores Professor receives a $10,000 annual stipend, and the professorship is renewable every five years.

Han, who started in 2008 as an assistant professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, considers the award an honor and a significant reward. He compared his career in academia to climbing a mountain.
“In the beginning it feels difficult and daunting,” he said. “But when you reach the top, it’s beautiful and an achievement.”

This isn’t the only reward Han found at the top of the academia mountain. He is also part of a multi-university team that received a $7.5 million Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant to use Mean Field Game Theory to analyze social behavior and predict outcomes. He brings his research interests in game theory, wireless networking, security and big data to the team, and will get $1.2 million of the award.