CEE’s Christian D. Guzman to Receive STAR Award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers

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The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) will present Assistant Professor Christian Guzman of the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department with its esteemed SHPE Technical Achievement and Recognition (STAR) Award during that organization’s annual conference in Philadelphia on October 29 through November 1. According to the national SHPE organization, “These prestigious awards honor outstanding professionals and students for their dedication, commitment, and selfless efforts to advance Hispanics in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers.”

Specifically, Guzman is being honored with the Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award for his exceptional work with the UMass Amherst student chapter of SHPE.

As Guzman explains about his overall viewpoint, “I have a special interest in pursuing scholarship with a socio-hydrological perspective that benefits the local community, nation, and the world, including marginalized and underserved communities.” Part of that important work is serving as the faculty advisor for the student SHPE organization on campus.

SHPE is a national organization that “aims to change lives by empowering members of the Hispanic/Latinx community to realize their fullest potential and impact the world through STEM awareness, access, support, and development.”

Our UMass student chapter says that it “aims to do just that with our local community by providing internship opportunities to our members, network opportunities with alumni, connections at top-end companies, and creating a familia that will stick together even after graduation. We also reach out to the surrounding communities to introduce emerging Hispanic/Latinx K-12 students to the endless possibilities they can find in STEM!” Learn more and consider donating to the UMass Amherst student chapter of SHPE on their MinuteFund page.

Guzman says his research “focuses on the soil and water resources at various scales within watersheds that contribute food, energy, water, and societal needs. Along with collaborators from a variety of disciplines, I am interested in soil-surface dynamics, surface-water-quality degradation, and socio-hydrological development.” 

Guzman’s lab team, past and present, has featured a wide diversity of students from many backgrounds and cultures, including Hispanic/Latinx researchers and a former president and vice-president of the UMass chapter of SHPE. See Personal Academic Webpage.

Guzman earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University and his B.S. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Florida. He also conducted research as a USDA NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow at Washington State University. At each of these institutions, he has connected with the local SHPE chapter as a student participant or mentor. 

Guzman says that central to success of the UMass SHPE chapter has been the support of Engineering Engagement Specialist Steve Fernandez, Assistant Director of Diversity Ndifreke “Freke” Ette, Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Paula Rees, and Riccio College of Engineering Dean Sanjay Raman, as well as the dedication of the students and e-board members. 

In the past year, funded by the Office of Faculty Development's (OFD) Mutual Mentoring Grant, Guzman additionally worked with several faculty members to strengthen opportunities and partnerships to mentor student groups on campus through “MentorSHPES: Mentoring Societies of Hispanic Professional Engineers and Scientists.” This project borrows a naming convention based on a program from the National SHPE Organization but aims at faculty-student mentorship and interdisciplinary connections. The group has drawn from the experiences of CEE Department Head Sergio Breña, Juan Jiménez of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, Martín Medina Elizalde, Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, and Christian Rojas, Resource Economics.

In the context of his graduate work, Guzman has collaborated with Cornell’s​ Soil and Water Lab at the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, with which he conducted field-research campaigns, soil sampling, hydrological modeling, and erosion-risk mapping in Ethiopia, Colombia, and Ithaca, New York. Guzman has also been involved in several projects at Washington State, including characterizing stable water isotopes in semi-arid catchments of the Inland Pacific Northwest.

Guzman has also been the principal investigator on several key projects, including: two studies on “Water Quality in DCR Reservoirs” (2024-2026 and 2022-2024) supported by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR); “Water Quality Modeling Support” (2023-2024) funded by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection; “Assessing Social Vulnerability and Understanding the Flood Risk Factors in Massachusetts” (2021-2022) supported by the UMass Amherst Institute of Diversity Sciences; and “Understanding Changing Natural and Human-altered Watersheds in the Inland Pacific Northwest Through Isotope Hydrology and Urban-ecological Resiliency” (2020-2023) funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (October 2025)