College Announces 2023 Outstanding Alumni

The College is proud to announce the recipients of its 2023 Outstanding Alumni Awards, including five Distinguished Alumni and five Outstanding Young Alumni.
Chemical Engineering Researchers Create Textile That Imitates the “On-body Greenhouse Effect” of Polar Bear Fur
Researchers affiliated with the ChE department have invented a fabric that ends an 80-year quest to make a warm synthetic textile modeled on polar bear fur.
Five College of Engineering Researchers Win Kudos in Health Tech Challenge
The prize-winners are launching startup companies with pioneering health technologies triggered by avant-garde research at UMass Amherst.
Omar Abdelrahman Receives Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence
The fellowship will support Abdelrahman’s design of a new course on the importance of communication in chemical engineering especially and engineering at large.
Evbarunegbe and Olisedeme-Akpu Win Prestigious Scholarships from the National Society of Black Engineers
The scholarships support NSBE’s mission to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel academically, professionally, and beyond.
Emily Diep and Jessica Schiffman Publish Overview of “Electrospinning Living Bacteria” in ACS Applied Bio Materials
Their paper examines applications for “electrospinning living bacteria” that can be used in biotechnologies for advances in healthcare, agriculture, and energy.
Jessica Schiffman Receives NSF Grant for the Sustainable Manufacture of Polymer Membranes for Water Purification
Schiffman will use NSF grant funds to produce polymer membranes through a sustainable manufacturing process that for the first time is free from toxic solvents.
Friederike Jentoft Works with Technion in Israel to Develop Greener Catalysis Processes
NSF-BSF grant supports research into revolutionary catalysts that can play a key function in a sustainable chemical industry that minimizes carbon emissions.
Four College of Engineering Teams Win UMass ADVANCE Seed Grants
The teams will receive seed grants and abundant logistical aid from the ADVANCE program to help them apply for external support based on their funded research.
Nianqiang Wu and Qiangfei Xia Make Annual List of World’s Most Highly Cited Researchers
List of “Highly Cited Researchers” places Wu and Xia among global researchers “who have demonstrated exceptional influence through their published papers.”
Wei Fan Works on Research Team Developing Pioneering Catalysts for Producing Carbon-neutral Biofuels
The research of Fan and colleagues on how zeolite crystals form “is critical for learning how to make the materials of the future for combating climate change.”