Eight students chosen for Isenberg Awards
Eight outstanding graduate students have been chosen to receive Eugene M. Isenberg Awards for the 2009-10 academic year.
The program was established in 1994 by Isenberg, an alumnus of the School of Management and the CEO of Nabors Industries, Inc., to support and inspire graduate students who demonstrated both academic merit and a commitment to the integration of science, engineering and management. The Isenberg Awards are given for amounts of up to $10,000.
“We are grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Isenberg for their ongoing commitment to this program,” says Michael Malone, the Ronnie & Eugene Isenberg Distinguished Professor and dean of Engineering. “Their leadership and insight into the value of integrative work offers a unique opportunity to our students.”
The 2009-10 Isenberg Scholars are: Tejaswini S. Kale, doctoral candidate in Chemistry; Ereni Markos, doctoral candidate in Marketing; Mohamed Marwan A. Mattar, doctoral candidate in Computer Science; Anthony J. McCaffrey, doctoral candidate in Psychology; Sandhya Mohan, MBA candidate in Business Administration; Supratim Mukherjee, doctoral candidate in Microbiology; and Tracy Heckler Panzarella, doctoral candidate in Chemical Engineering.
“The scholarship will provide me with an avenue to help develop my entrepreneurial skills,” says Mukherjee, “which I can implement in the broader application of my Ph.D. research and beyond.”
Applicants for the Isenberg Awards must be full-time UMass Amherst graduate students who are from the College of Engineering, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the Isenberg School of Management or any degree program that has its foundation in engineering or physical, chemical or biological science. Applicants must have successfully completed a minimum of one semester of graduate study with a grade point average of 3.5 or better and a commitment to the integration of management with science or technology. This interest can include teaching, research and coursework.
“I decided to come to UMass for my graduate studies since the Chemistry Department here promotes high quality interdisciplinary research,” says Kale. “My project deals with developing materials for organic solar cells. I believe that this has a tremendous relevance in times that we are facing today and hope to generate useful technology from my research.”
The awards are an initiative of the Isenberg Program for the Integration of Management, Engineering and Science, which encourages and informs students and faculty who are interested in nurturing new ideas, inventions and discoveries to create innovations that solve problems, change the way people work or live and create new economic value.
“The diversity of academic interests and backgrounds of this year’s awardees underscores the importance of this program to the students, the campus and society,” says Søren Bisgaard, the Eugene M. Isenberg Professor in Integrative Studies in the Isenberg School of Management. “We look forward to the recipients’ future contributions within and beyond their primary fields of study.”
Isenberg initiatives offer participants the opportunity to complement their knowledge of a particular discipline with experiences and skills that will support innovation development. Scientists, engineers, artists, social scientists, educators and others seeking to apply technology in new ways gain information about business and management related to entrepreneurship. Those coming from business backgrounds learn how to apply that knowledge to entrepreneurship and technology development.
May 29, 2009.
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