Endowed Chairs, Professorships, and Faculty Fellowships

Endowed Chairs and Professorships

Armstrong Professional Development Professorship

To encourage the development of young faculty who demonstrate substantial achievement and great promise in teaching and their area of research.

Established by John and Elizabeth Armstrong, longtime donors and devoted friends of UMass Amherst.

Colin Gleason
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research expertise in translating process based hydrology and geochemistry to global scales through extensive Arctic fieldwork, satellite data processing, and geomorphically informed modelling and data assimilation.

Previously held by: Shelly Peyton, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering; Erin Baker, Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; David McLaughlin, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Armstrong/Siadat Endowed Professorship in Materials Science & Engineering

To establish and support research programs in the field of materials science and engineering.

Established through gifts from John and Elizabeth Armstrong, and Barry and Afsaneh Siadat. 

Nianqiang (Nick) Wu
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Research expertise in nanostructured materials science.

Wu studies biosensing and photodynamic therapy (precision medicine); photocatalysts and photoelectrochemical cells for environmental and energy sustainability; and electrochemical energy storage.

William W. Boyer Professorship

To help retain outstanding faculty in civil and environmental engineering who have made significant contributions to the academic reputation of the Riccio College of Engineering and to the performance of its students. 

Established by Edward Gray '73 with deep appreciation for Professor Boyer's instruction and guidance. William W. Boyer was a central figure in the early development of the UMass Amherst Transportation Program in the 1950s and 1960s.

Michael Knodler
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Affairs, Riccio College of Engineering
Director, University of Massachusetts Transportation Center

Research expertise in transportation safety, operations, design, and education.

Dev and Linda Gupta Professorship

To support new areas of inquiry and encourage risk-taking and entrepreneurial pursuits in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Qiangfei Xia
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research interests include beyond-CMOS devices, integrated systems, and enabling technologies, with applications in machine intelligence, reconfigurable RF systems, and hardware security.

Previously held by: Guangyu Xu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Ronnie & Eugene M. Isenberg Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Engineering

To enhance teaching and research between the fields of engineering and business.

Sundar Krishnamurty
Professor and Head, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Research expertise in medical device design; engineering design; design optimization and additive manufacturing

Krishnamurty directs the Center for e-Design, an NSF-supported Industry/University Cooperative Research Center focused on intelligent e-design and product realization. Krishnamurty is also the associate director of the Center for Personalized Health Monitoring, which accelerates the development and commercialization of low-cost, multi-function, wearable, wireless sensor systems for personalized health care and biometric monitoring.

Previously held by: Michael F. Malone, Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering.

Paros Professor of Geophysical Sensing Systems

Supports an outstanding faculty member in geophysical sensing systems—systems that monitor and analyze the physical properties and processes of the earth, its atmosphere, and surrounding space environment. 

Established with a gift from Jerome (1960) and Linda Paros.

Michael Zink
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Co-Director, Paros Center for Atmospheric Research (PCAR)

Research expertise in the fields of sensor and distribution networks for high bandwidth data, with research interests that include wide-area multimedia distribution for wired and wireless environments, cyber physical systems, cloud computing, and future internet architecture.

Endowed Chair in Renewable Energy

To attract a preeminent scholar in the field to provide leadership in positioning both the university and the Commonwealth to take advantage of opportunities in emerging areas of renewable energy. Established by the state Department of Energy Resources (DOER).

Matthew Lackner
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Director, Wind Energy Center
Director, ELEVATE

Research expertise in the area of offshore wind energy, with a particular focus on the aerodynamics and structural control of floating offshore wind turbines.

Previously held by: Krish Thiagarajan Sharman, Emeritus Chair in Renewable Energy, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Endowed Faculty Fellowships

Marvin and Eva Schlanger Faculty Fellow in Chemical Engineering

Helps fuel research discoveries and ensures that the next generation of students will continue to benefit from exceptional teaching and mentorship provided by rising star faculty.

Lauren Andrews
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

Research expertise in the area of synthetic biology and the development of programmable microbes and microbial communities using computational and high-throughput experimental approaches.

Edward S. Price Faculty Fellow in Chemical Engineering

To recruit new faculty or retain outstanding current faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Ashish Kulkarni
Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

Kulkarni’s lab conducts research aimed at making immunotherapy effective for as many cancer patients as possible. As he explains it, immunotherapy is a unique cancer treatment that harnesses the body’s own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. 

Gary R. Lapidus Faculty Fellow

Supports a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering for a renewable five-year term, providing resources for summer stipends, other research and teaching expenses, and professional travel.

Jessica Schiffman
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

Research focuses on synthesizing materials using green chemistry and bioinspiration; and establishing, understanding, and controlling microbial interactions with materials. She is currently developing “living materials” that feature viable microorganisms and wearable electronic textiles.