Dr. Whitney Blocher McTigue received her PhD from UMass in 2020 from Prof. Sarah Perry’s lab. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher under Prof. Charles E. Sing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is the recipient for the Department’s inaugural (for year 2020) Ph.D. Best Dissertation Award. Whitney’s thesis, titled “Encapsulation and Stabilization of Biomacromolecules,” focused on using oppositely charged polyelectrolytes as a means of sequestering and thermally stabilizing biomacromolecules such as proteins, viruses, and enzymes. She used complex coacervates, a liquid-liquid phase separation phenomenon that utilizes electrostatics via oppositely charged polymers, to encapsulate various biological cargo and tested the stability of these complexes at varying temperatures. Whitney generated ground rules to help determine parameters that would best encapsulate biomacromolecules and reduce the number of experiments required for optimal results. Her work is a steppingstone toward temperature stable vaccines and other therapeutics. The award consists of a commemorative plaque, an honorarium, and an invitation to give a Chemical Engineering Departmental Seminar within two years of the award announcement.
2019 Dissertation Award
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Dr. Sualyneth Galarza received her PhD from UMass in 2019, after working in Prof. Shelly Peyton’s lab. She is currently an Applications Engineer at MilliporeSigma in the Single Use and Integrated Systems Division, and is one of two recipients of the Department’s inaugural (for year 2019) Ph.D. Best Dissertation Award. Her thesis work at UMass resulted in the development of a novel hydrogel that mimics the physical and chemical properties of human brain tissue. She used this brain-mimicking hydrogel to study how a specific brain cell (astrocytes) becomes “activated” during brain diseases. This is the first hydrogel of its kind, and her work launched a totally new research area for Prof. Peyton’s group. Sualyneth Galarza’s dissertation was entitled, “Dynamic activation of primary astrocytes in a Human Brain Extracellular Matrix Hydrogel.” The award consists of a commemorative plaque, an honorarium, and an invitation to give a Chemical Engineering Departmental Seminar within two years of the award announcement. |
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Ashish Kumar |
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Dr. Ashish Kumar, a recent Ph.D. graduate of Prof. Maroudas’ group and alumnus of the Department (Ph.D., 2019) is one of two recipients of the Department's inaugural (for year 2019) Ph.D. Dissertation Award. Ashish’s dissertation was entitled “Modeling and Simulation of Driven Nanopatterning of Bulk-Material and Thin-Film Surfaces” and his research focused on predicting nanostructure patterns forming on surfaces of bulk metallic conductors and of thin coherently strained semiconductor thin films deposited epitaxially on semiconductor substrates; in the case of bulk metal surfaces, the nanostructure patterns consisted of ar-rays of single-layer nanowires or nanoscale island arrangements driven by applied electric fields, while, in the case of epitaxial thin films, the patterns were driven by strain due to lattice mismatch between the film and substrate materials and comprised ordered arrays of quantum dots and quantum dot clusters. After graduation, Ashish joined Intel’s Technology Division as a CAD Engineer for Logic Technology Development. The award consists of a commemorative plaque, an honorarium, and an invitation to give a Chemical Engineering Departmental Seminar within two years of the award announcement. |
College of Engineering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award
The purpose of this award is to recognize and reward a member of the College community for contributions to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) of the engineering profession both within and outside of the university.
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Sanket Sabnis | 2020 |
James M. Douglas Fellowship Award
The Douglas Fellowship was created in honor of the late Professor James Douglas with an anonymous gift made in recognition of his outstanding reputation for mentoring undergraduate students. The fellowship honors his legacy and supports innovative mentoring and teaching of undergraduate students by graduate students.
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Ayushi Patel | Spring 2021 |
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Min Zeng |
Spring 2021 |
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Kelsi Skeens Rehmann | Spring 2019 |
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Whitney Blocher McTigue | Fall 2018 |
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Abhinav Sharma | Fall 2018 |
Tilwick and Eldridge Awards
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Haley Keister | 2019 - 2020 | For her excellence as a TA |
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Ajibola Lawal | 2019 - 2020 | For his excellence as a TA |
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Juili Parab | 2019 - 2020 | For her excellence as a TA |
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Kelsi Skeens Rehmann | 2019 - 2020 | For her excellence as a TA |
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Shane Taylor | 2019-2020 | For his G.R.A.S.S. presentation |
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Shoshie Bloom | Spring 2019 | For her excellence as a TA |
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Xiangani Li | Spring 2019 | For his excellence as a TA |
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Brandon Dunham |
2019-2020 Spring 2019 |
For his excellence as a TA For his G.R.A.S.S. presentation |
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Whitney Blocher McTigue |
Spring 2019 |
For her G.R.A.S.S. presentation |
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Irene Kurtz | Fall 2018 | For her performance as a TA |
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Yuxi Wang | Fall 2019 | For her performance as a TA |
CBI Fellowship
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Brandon Barajas | 2020 - 2022 |
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Adrian Lorenzara | 2020 - 2022 |
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Weiyue Xin | Fall 2020 & Spring 2020 |
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Sarthak Saha | Spring 2020 |
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Carey Dougan |
Spring 2020 & Spring 2019 |
Spaulding Smith Fellows
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Adrian Lorenzana |
2019-2020 |
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Brandon Barajas |
2019 - 2020 |
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Emily Diep | 2018 - 2019 |
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Carey Dougan | 2018 - 2019 |
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Guinevere Tillinghast | 2018 - 2019 |
PPG Award
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Sarthak Saha | 2019-2020 | |
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Whitney Blocher McTigue |
Spring 2019 |
Whitney won the PPG Fellowship with her proposal " Motivation: Stabilizing vaccines and therapeutics outside the cold chain". The PPG Fellowship awards $16,500 towards her stipend. |
BTP
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Connor Giles | Fall 2020 |
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Matthew Lebovich |
Spring 2019 - Spring 2020 |
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Aritra Nath Kundu | Spring 2019 |
SMLS NRT
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Emily Diep | Fall 2020 - Summer 2021 |
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Guinevere Tillinghast |
Fall 2020 |
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Anthony Brouillard | Fall 2019 to Summer 2020 |
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Oscar Zabala Ferrera |
Dean's Fellows
2019-2020
Connor Giles, Lars Howell, Isaac Ogabiela
2018-2019
Inha Baek, Stephanie Call, Han Chen, Ajibola Lawal, Shubham Malviya,
Prerana Rathore and Sarthak Saha
Dr. Sualyneth Galarza received her PhD from UMass in 2019, after working in Prof. Shelly Peyton’s lab. She is currently an Applications Engineer at MilliporeSigma in the Single Use and Integrated Systems Division, and is one of two recipients of the Department’s inaugural (for year 2019) Ph.D. Best Dissertation Award. Her thesis work at UMass resulted in the development of a novel hydrogel that mimics the physical and chemical properties of human brain tissue. She used this brain-mimicking hydrogel to study how a specific brain cell (astrocytes) becomes “activated” during brain diseases. This is the first hydrogel of its kind, and her work launched a totally new research area for Prof. Peyton’s group. Sualyneth Galarza’s dissertation was entitled, “Dynamic activation of primary astrocytes in a Human Brain Extracellular Matrix Hydrogel.” The award consists of a commemorative plaque, an honorarium, and an invitation to give a Chemical Engineering Departmental Seminar within two years of the award announcement. |