CoE Chooses Wu, Kumpel, and Chen for Its Outstanding Faculty Awards

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The College of Engineering (CoE) has selected Nick Wu, Emily Kumpel, and Wen Chen as the winners of the 2024 Outstanding Faculty Awards. These selections were made through the work of a college-level faculty selection committee.

Professor Nianqiang “Nick” Wu of the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) has been selected for the 2024 Outstanding Senior Faculty Award. Dr. Wu has been a faculty member of the College of Engineering since 2020, when he was named the Armstrong-Siadat Endowed Professor in Materials Science and Engineering.

Dr. Wu’s research is dedicated to the fundamental understanding of charge and energy transfer in electrochemical and optoelectronic materials and devices. Applications targeted by the Wu group include solar fuel generation, electrochemical energy storage, biosensing for environmental and medical purposes, drug delivery, and photodynamic therapy. Since 2020, Dr. Wu has attracted over $7.9M in external grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the United States Department of Agriculture to fund his group’s research at UMass. Dr. Wu is an internationally renowned researcher, who has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher™ since 2018, an honor bestowed to only 1 in a 1000 scientists and social scientists. He achieved Fellow status with the Electrochemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2017 and was named Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2022.

Dr. Wu offers elective courses around his specialty knowledge to UMass undergraduate and graduate students. He serves his profession in numerous capacities, among them journal editor, reviewer of journal articles and proposals to federal funding agencies, and symposium organizer for the Electrochemical Society and American Chemical Society.

Assistant Professor Wen Chen of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) has been selected as the co-recipient of the 2024 Barbara H. and Joseph J. Goldstein Outstanding Junior Faculty Award . Dr. Chen has established a vibrant research program in advanced materials and manufacturing engineering research, pioneering unique additive manufacturing techniques that rapidly develop compositionally complex alloys that exhibit remarkable strength and fracture properties. He has secured over $2.9M in external funding to support his research from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Army Research Lab, NASA, Department of Defense (DoD) and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (DOT). His research has been published in top journals, including Nature, Science Advances, Materials Today, and Additive Manufacturing, and he has five patents based on his research. 

Dr. Chen is an innovative and effective teacher, and has developed a new course in additive manufacturing. He is an outstanding mentor for graduate and undergraduate students and a valued committee member. Professor Chen has also been active in his outreach and DEI activities, as highlighted by his participation in our Summer ENGineering Institute for High School Students (SENGI) program and the annual Women in Engineering Career event organized by the COE Diversity Program Office.

Assistant Professor Emily Kumpel of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) has been selected as the co-recipient of the 2024 Barbara H. and Joseph J. Goldstein Outstanding Junior Faculty Award . Dr. Kumpel is a world leader in the study of diagnosing and remediating water quality in distribution systems, particularly those in resource limited settings. Her work is highly impactful and innovative, and she has been credited with identifying emerging and significant public health threats through her work. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and state agencies. 

Dr. Kumpel is an innovative educator who has won the College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award as well as the CEE Department Tighe Faculty Teaching Award, and she is a founding member of the CEE diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) committee. She lives her commitment to DEI through her research, mentoring, and teaching. She has represented the US National Academies as an invited convener, and is highly active in her profession by editing for the respected American Water Works Association (AWWA) Water Science journal and as a Committee Member guiding research and practice in water treatment and distribution systems for the International Water Association.