Former PhD student David Najera-Flores, who graduated last year and is now at ATA Engineering, has been recognized for his outstanding contribution to the field of structural engineering. Najera-Flores was the lead author of the paper titled “A Probabilistic Reasoner Based on Bayes Risk for Damage Detection in Structural Systems,” which has been awarded the 2025 Model Validation and Uncertainty Quantification Best Paper Award by the Model Validation and Uncertainty Quantification Technical Division of the Society of Experimental Mechanics. The paper, written in collaboration with researchers at other institutions, Justin Jacobs, Dane Quinn, Anthony Garland, and Professor Michael Todd, presents a machine learning architecture that quantifies uncertainty and improves the prediction of whether operational data from a structure is indicative of a domain shift or damage. The award will be presented at the IMAC-XLIII Conference on Structural Dynamics, held in Orlando, Florida, in February 2025.