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Doctoral Alumna Wins SUNY Chancellor Distinguished Ph.D. Dissertation Award

Jiameng Lai

March 12, 2026

By Katya Hrichak

Jiameng Lai, Ph.D. ’25, has been selected as one of two first-place winners for this year’s SUNY Chancellor Distinguished Ph.D. Dissertation Award.

Created to recognize outstanding doctoral candidates in the SUNY system, the awards were granted to two first place winners, two finalists, and four honorable mentions.

Lai, who received her doctorate in soil and crop sciences, was selected for her dissertation, titled, “Understanding terrestrial carbon and water exchanges through carbonyl sulfide (OCS) and carbon-13 isotope.”

“My research at Cornell explored the complex interactions between the terrestrial carbon-water-energy nexus, human activities, agricultural practice, and climate change at multiple scales,” said Lai. “Through a unified modeling framework that constrains large-scale terrestrial carbon-water fluxes using both tracers, my research enhances our predictive understanding of carbon-water interactions.”

Winners were awarded $5,000 to support their professional development.

As the first Cornell student to be selected as a first place winner for this award, Lai sees the recognition as affirmation of her years of dedicated work.

“Conducting research is challenging and exhausting, but the moment when the work receives attention and recognition makes every effort worthwhile,” she said. “This award gives me the courage to pursue even more ambitious work as a postdoc. My current work builds directly on my dissertation, so this recognition affirms both my past contributions and my vision for where this research can go—making me more confident in tackling the challenging questions ahead.”

The State University of New York’s doctoral-granting campuses eligible for this award include University at Albany, Binghamton University, University at Buffalo, Downstate Health Sciences University, SUNY ESF, SUNY College of Optometry, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Stony Brook University, and Upstate Medical, as well as statutory campuses within Alfred University and Cornell University.