College of Engineering Welcomes Three Talented New Faculty Members
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The UMass Amherst College of Engineering is pleased to announce the arrival of three highly accomplished new faculty members for the Spring Semester of 2025. Assistant Professor Alexandra Zagalskaya comes to the Chemical Engineering (ChE) Department after serving as a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Assistant Professor Isabel Scherl arrives at the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department after her stint as a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). And Lecturer Maitreyee Marathe begins work at the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department after earning her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM).
Zagalskaya has been functioning as a postdoctoral researcher within the Quantum Simulation Group at LLNL, and her research interests lie in the field of computational catalysis for energy and climate securities related to renewable-energy technologies. She is an expert in the implementation and application of theoretical and modeling approaches, particularly quantum-chemical methods, for understanding and predicting properties of functional materials and creating a sustainable future.
The backstory to Zagalskaya’s research is that electrochemical-energy conversion and storage are crucial for the advancement of future renewable-energy technologies. Enhancing energy efficiency requires optimizing the performance of electrochemical systems, especially at the interfaces where electrocatalytic reactions take place. However, predicting and controlling these interfaces is a “grand challenge,” as she says, due to their structural and chemical complexities.
“Through the integration of cutting-edge modeling techniques,” as Zagalskaya explains, “our research targets the development of advanced models to capture realistic behavior of the electrochemical interfaces and bridge the gap between theory and experimental observations for rational design of electrocatalytic systems.”
Zagalskaya adds that “In a broader context, our work contributes to sustainability goals, including zero hunger, clean energy, and climate action, with the goal of accelerating the transition from today's environmental challenges to a more sustainable future.”
Zagalskaya earned her Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and her M.S. at the National University of Science and Technology MISiS in Moscow.
Scherl’s past research has woven machine-learning methods with fluid dynamics. “Specifically,” as she explains, “my graduate research [at the University of Washington] focused on data-driven understanding, control, and optimization of cross-flow (also known as vertical-axis) turbine arrays. My postdoctoral research [at Caltech] focused on the use of data assimilation to augment turbulence modeling…My continued focus is on combining cutting-edge, data-driven methods with pressing challenges in unsteady fluid dynamics, often for renewable-energy systems.”
Scherl goes on to say that “With advances in computational power and measurement technologies, increasing volumes of data are being collected from fluid simulations and experiments. We must continue to update and improve the methods we use for analysis and interpretation to keep pace with these advances.”
In the future, as Scherl says, “My research group will harness data-driven methods to develop better models and improved control of unsteady fluid systems with a focus on unsteady aerodynamics and renewable-energy systems, particularly in experimental settings.”
Scherl obtained her Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University in Providence.
As Marathe explains the background for her research, “The number of power outages caused by extreme-weather events has doubled over the last two decades across the United States. This is expected to worsen due to climate change and the aging power-grid infrastructure.”
In response to this issue, Marathe says that “I work on developing energy access solutions for resource-constrained environments. Some of the environments and domains I have worked on include energy access for people experiencing homelessness in cities in Wisconsin, low-income households on prepaid metering in the United States, and off-grid households in rural India.”
Marathe goes on to say that “I use tools from mathematical optimization, circuit design, hardware prototyping, field deployment, and community engaged scholarship. My goal is to design context-aware, clean-energy solutions and energy management frameworks for underserved communities and resource-constrained systems through user-centered translational research.”
Marathe also has excellent teaching credentials. While earning her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UWM and serving as a teaching assistant (TA) there, she was recognized with the Gerald Holdridge TA Teaching Excellence Award “for contributions to formulation of the course in its current successful realization and development of remote lab-on-your-own teaching strategies during the pandemic semesters.” Before that, she obtained her B.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in Surathkal, India. (January 2025)