The Polymer Science and Engineering Department mourns the loss of Frank Erwin Karasz, Silvio O. Conte Professor Emeritus of Polymer Science and Engineering, who died in Amherst on June 21, 2026. A pioneering polymer scientist and influential member of the PSE community for nearly six decades, Karasz helped shape the department during its formative years and made lasting contributions to polymer science through his research, scholarship, collaborations, and mentorship. He remained an active and familiar presence in PSE long after his formal retirement in 2004. Read more about the life and
Tara Huang was recently recognized with a Women in Chemical Engineering (WIC) Travel Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). She also received a Research and Travel Grant from the UMass Graduate Student Government. The awards supported Huang’s participation in the most recent AIChE Annual Meeting, held in Boston, where she presented research on rapid fabrication of heteroatom-doped porous carbon fibers.
Reika Katsumata, recently received the Young Scientist’s Award as part of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). The prize recognizes young Japanese researchers, and is considered one of the most prestigious awards in science and technology in Japan.
Congratulations to Reika Katsumata for the CNS Internal Service Award.
Some words from Reika, "I am honored to receive the CNS Internal Service Award in my role as Graduate Program Director. Much of this work happens behind the scenes, but I focused on “Do less, do well” : streamlining the recruitment process to reduce the burden on faculty, students, and staff while maintaining the high quality of incoming students. I believe the strength of these efforts is reflected in the outstanding first-year students you can see across the department. This would not have been possible without the
Congratulations to Bradley Mish for his 1st place finish in the UMass Dash & Dine 5K event, Saturday, April 25th.
Mish represented Polymer Science & Engineering in the race. His time was an extremely respectable 15:31 minutes and an overall rank of 1st out of over 1200 runners.
Congratulations to Todd Emrick for the Provost Professor honorific.
The Provost Professor honor recognizes exceptional achievement in both research or creative activity and teaching. Each year, the Provost Professor Selection Committee selects from a highly competitive group of nominees representing the best of the UMass Amherst faculty. The Provost Professor title is designated for tenure-system faculty who hold the rank of professor and do not hold a named or distinguished professorships.
The article titled, "Hemisilicone (PM2E) Elastomers: Assessing Prepolymer SyntheticStrategies" was published April 21st, 2026 in ACS, Macromolecules. This paper was co-authored by *Shota Fujii, *Shiqi Liu, *Pei Bian, *Tom McCarthy.
Mr. Fujii writes: "Hemisilicone (−(SiMe2–O–SiMe2–CH2CH2)ₙ–(PM2E)) emerges as a compelling alternative to conventional PDMS for advanced elastomer applications. This study introduces a controlled anionic ring-opening polymerization (AROP) strategy that enables precise regulation of both α- and ω-chain end functionalities via in situ–generated lithium silanolate
The article titled, "Hemisilicone Elastomers Containing Tactical Defects" was published April 16th, 2026 in ACS, Applied Materials and Interfaces. This paper was co-authored by Shiqi Liu, and Thomas McCarthy*.
Ms. Liu writes: "Taking advantage of the controlled synthesis of hemisilicone (PM2E) polymer, we developed a versatile defect-free structurally uniform polymer network platform, and established a root-cause analysis framework linking rheology and rubber elasticity to network defects. The study offers a clearer and more experimentally grounded way to understand how specific network
Congratulations to Cristina Thomas ’92 PhD, the 2026 Chemical Engineering recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award!
Thomas is a chemical engineering leader with more than 35 years of experience in research and development across the oil, chemical, and advanced materials industries. Over her career, she has led large-scale innovation initiatives at organizations including IBM and 3M, driving the development and commercialization of new materials and technologies.
She and her husband Scott have been steadfast supporters of UMass Amherst for many years, including establishing an endowed fund to