Endowed Chairs, Professorships, and Faculty Fellowships
Endowed Chairs and Professorships
Daniel J. Riccio Jr. Dean of Engineering
As part of his transformative $50 million investment, Daniel J. Riccio Jr. endowed the deanship in the engineering college.
Sanjay Raman
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Expertise in microelectronics, RF/microwave/mm-wave circuits & antennas, analog/mixed-signal ICs, RF MEMS, 3D/HI, and integrated wireless communications & sensor microsystems.
Additional Riccio Endowed Faculty Positions will be announced in near future, including a chair in biomedical engineering and professorships for the recruitment and/or retention of eight distinguished faculty members.
Armstrong Professional Development Professorship
To encourage the development of young faculty who demonstrate substantial achievement and great promise in teaching and their area of research.
Established by John and Elizabeth Armstrong, longtime donors and devoted friends of UMass Amherst.
Jun Yao
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Working at the boundary between electronics and biosystems.. Learning and borrowing from biological designs to construct electronic sensors, devices, and integrated systems that are more biomimetic and efficient. And harnessing these developed electronics in turn to create a better interface to biosystems for improved detection, diagnosis, and communication.
Previously held by:
- Colin Gleason, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Shelly Peyton, Chemical Engineering
- Erin Baker, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
- David McLaughlin, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Armstrong/Siadat Endowed Professorship in Materials Science & Engineering
To establish and support research programs in the field of materials science and engineering.
Established through gifts from John and Elizabeth Armstrong, and Barry and Afsaneh Siadat.
Jessica Schiffman
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Research expertise of the Schiffman Lab is to use green engineering to design next-generation materials that improve human health and the environment. By also specializing in understanding how bacteria interact with different chemistries and surfaces, we can design materials that kill bacteria, repel them, or encourage them to live.
Previously held by: Nianqiang (Nick) Wu, Department of Chemical Engineering
William W. Boyer Professorship
To help retain outstanding faculty in civil and environmental engineering who have made significant contributions to the academic reputation of the Riccio College of Engineering and to the performance of its students.
Established by Edward Gray '73 with deep appreciation for Professor Boyer's instruction and guidance. William W. Boyer was a central figure in the early development of the UMass Amherst Transportation Program in the 1950s and 1960s.
Michael Knodler
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Affairs, Riccio College of Engineering
Director, University of Massachusetts Transportation Center
Research expertise in transportation safety, operations, design, and education.
Dev and Linda Gupta Professorship
To support new areas of inquiry and encourage risk-taking and entrepreneurial pursuits in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Qiangfei Xia
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research interests include beyond-CMOS devices, integrated systems, and enabling technologies, with applications in machine intelligence, reconfigurable RF systems, and hardware security.
Previously held by: Guangyu Xu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ronnie & Eugene M. Isenberg Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Engineering
To enhance teaching and research between the fields of engineering and business.
Sundar Krishnamurty
Vice Provost for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Creativity
Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Research expertise in medical device design; engineering design; design optimization and additive manufacturing
Krishnamurty is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and was inducted into the 2024 Class of Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). He serves on the Economic Development Leadership Team and holds the position of Lead Faculty for the NSF I-Corps Hub Northeast Region program.
Previously held by: Michael F. Malone, Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering.
Marieb Endowed Professor of Nursing and Engineering Innovation
A distinguished joint faculty position—between the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing and the Riccio College of Engineering— to bridge clinical nursing and engineering to tackle real-world healthcare challenges; closely tied to the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation.
Established with a gift from The Elaine Nicpon Marieb Charitable Foundation.
Emily Patterson
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Professor, Nursing
Patterson's research focuses on the application of human factors engineering to improve patient safety in healthcare. Her direction is to improve the usefulness, workflow, efficiency, usability, and accuracy of clinical documentation in electronic health records by care providers in hospitals and outpatient clinics.
Paros Chair of Atmospheric Research and Hazard Mitigation
To develop an Atmospheric Science program at UMass Amherst and to lead the Paros Center for Atmospheric Research (PCAR) in collaboration with faculty members from the Riccio College of Engineering and the College of Natural Sciences.
Established with a gift from Jerome (1960) and Linda Paros.
Christopher Davis
Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor, Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences; College of Natural Sciences
Davis has extensive experience in research in the atmospheric sciences—including hurricanes and other tropical cyclones, thunderstorm systems, and storms in mountainous terrain—and is working to understand and predict the behavior of the atmosphere related to high-impact weather. His research involves a combination of numerical modeling and observational work, including field experiments.
Paros Professor of Geophysical Sensing Systems
Supports an outstanding faculty member in geophysical sensing systems—systems that monitor and analyze the physical properties and processes of the earth, its atmosphere, and surrounding space environment.
Established with a gift from Jerome (1960) and Linda Paros.
Michael Zink
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Co-Director, Paros Center for Atmospheric Research (PCAR)
Research expertise in the fields of sensor and distribution networks for high bandwidth data, with research interests that include wide-area multimedia distribution for wired and wireless environments, cyber physical systems, cloud computing, and future internet architecture.
Endowed Chair in Renewable Energy
To attract a preeminent scholar in the field to provide leadership in positioning both the university and the Commonwealth to take advantage of opportunities in emerging areas of renewable energy. Established by the state Department of Energy Resources (DOER).
Matthew Lackner
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Director, Wind Energy Center
Director, ELEVATE
Research expertise in the area of offshore wind energy, with a particular focus on the aerodynamics and structural control of floating offshore wind turbines.
Previously held by: Krish Thiagarajan Sharman, Emeritus Chair in Renewable Energy, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Endowed Faculty Fellowships
Marvin and Eva Schlanger Faculty Fellow in Chemical Engineering
Helps fuel research discoveries and ensures that the next generation of students will continue to benefit from exceptional teaching and mentorship provided by rising star faculty.
Lauren Andrews
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Research expertise in the area of synthetic biology and the development of programmable microbes and microbial communities using computational and high-throughput experimental approaches.
Edward S. Price Faculty Fellow in Chemical Engineering
To recruit new faculty or retain outstanding current faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Ashish Kulkarni
Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Kulkarni’s lab conducts research aimed at making immunotherapy effective for as many cancer patients as possible. As he explains it, immunotherapy is a unique cancer treatment that harnesses the body’s own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
Gary R. Lapidus Faculty Fellow
Supports a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering for a renewable five-year term, providing resources for summer stipends, other research and teaching expenses, and professional travel.
Sarah Perry
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Research utilizes self-assembly, molecular design, and microfluidic technologies to generate biologically relevant microenvironments for the study and application of biomacromolecules.
Previously held by: Jessica Schiffman, Department of Chemical Engineering