Sualyneth
Galarza

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.

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.

Min Zeng

2019-2020

Spring 2019

For his excellence as a TA

For his G.R.A.S.S. presentation

Spring 2019

 Spring 2020 & Spring 2019 

Adrian Lorenzana

Brandon Barajas

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.

Matthew Lebovich

Guinevere Tillinghast