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Banner that reads, “Two engineering faculty receive 2023 Distinguished Achievement Awards”; below are Robin Murphy’s headshot with “Robin Murphy, Computer Science and Engineering” listed underneath and Kristi Shryock’s headshot with “Kristi Shryock, Multidisciplinary Engineering” listed underneath
Dr. Robin Murphy and Dr. Kristi Shryock received the 2023 Distinguished Achievement Award — Murphy for extension, outreach, continuing education and professional development and Shryock for teaching. | Image: Texas A&M Engineering
Two faculty members from the College of Engineering, Dr. Robin Murphy and Dr. Kristi Shryock, recently received the 2023 Distinguished Achievement Award. The honor is presented by The Association of Former Students at Texas A&M University and commends professionals who have exhibited the highest standards of excellence at Texas A&M.

Each year, The Association generously makes funds available to provide faculty and staff at Texas A&M with a number of awards recognizing achievement in teaching, research, individual student relationships, continuing education/extension, graduate mentoring, staff and administration. Receipt of an Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award is one of the highest university honors that can be bestowed upon a faculty or staff member.

Murphy and Shryock are among a group of 25 Texas A&M faculty members who were presented with the award this year. The honorees will be formally recognized during a ceremony on April 24 in the Memorial Student Center. 

Murphy, from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, received the Distinguished Achievement Award for extension, outreach, continuing education and professional development. She is the Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Her research in robotics — including artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction and heterogeneous teams of robots — has led to the creation of the rescue robots field and the human-robot interaction field. She has numerous awards, including the ACM Lawler Humanitarian Award for her lifesaving work using urban search and rescue robots in the recovery efforts of 31 disasters, such as 9/11, Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey and Ian, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident and the Surfside Building collapse. She has over 200 publications and books.

Shryock, from the Department of Multidisciplinary Engineering, received the Distinguished Achievement Award for teaching. She is the Raymond Foundation Endowed Associate Professor in Multidisciplinary Engineering, affiliated faculty in aerospace engineering and director of the Craig and Galen Brown Engineering Honors Program.

Her contributions to Texas A&M and the engineering education field have earned her international recognition, creating regular opportunities to speak at both national and international events. She is currently the principal or co-principal investigator on multiple grants focused on elevating students’ educational experience and has supervised numerous students on projects related to engineering education. She also received the Provost Academic Professional Track Faculty Teaching Excellent Award, The Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in College-Level Teaching in 2019 and the Instructional Faculty Teaching Award in 2015 and 2018 from the College of Engineering.

See the complete list of honorees on The Association of Former Students’ website.