Chen, Sup, and Irwin Promoted to Full Professors

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Yu Chen, Frank Sup, David Irwin

Provost Tricia Serio, the chief academic officer for UMass Amherst, has approved the promotion of three faculty members from the College of Engineering to full professor with tenure. The three faculty members being promoted are Yu Chen of the Biomedical Engineering Department (BME), Frank Sup of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department (MIE), and David Irwin of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE).

Frank Sup is co-director of the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation as well as the director of the Mechatronics and Robotics Research Laboratory. His research focuses on developing human-centered mechatronic technologies for augmenting human performance and exploring the design and control space for enabling robots to fluently interact physically with humans.

Sup has received the Paul Winske Access Award from the Stavros Center for Independent Living for exceptional service to persons with disabilities as well as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics Best Paper Award. He earned his PhD from Vanderbilt University in 2009, his MS from Vanderbilt University in 2006, and his BS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2001.

David Irwin leads the Sustainable Computing Lab, which focuses on improving the efficiency of large-scale computer systems, particularly data center, cloud, and edge platforms, as well as improving the efficiency of large-scale cyber-physical systems, including electricity, building, and transportation systems.

Irwin has received a 2013 NSF CAREER Award, a 2018 Barbara H. and Joseph I. Goldstein Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, and Google Faculty Research Awards in 2016 and 2019. He earned his PhD from Duke University in 2007, his MS from Duke University in 2005, and his BS from Vanderbilt University in 2001.

Yu Chen’s research focuses on optical imaging methods for biomedical applications. He is currently the PI on a National Institutes of Health grant to develop an optical coherence tomography device for the preassessment of kidneys and their viability as potential transplant organs. He has received two U.S. patents and an NSF CAREER Award. In 2017, he co-published the book Neurophotonics and Brain Mapping with Babak Kateb (Taylor & Francis Books).

In addition to serving as professor and associate department head of BME, Chen is an adjunct in ECE, an adjunct in chemical engineering, and an adjunct associate professor of radiology at the UMass Chan Medical School. He earned his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, his MSE from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, and his BS from Peking University in 1997. He completed his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.