The UMass Amherst College of Engineering is proud to announce the recipients of its 2021 outstanding alumni awards. Awardees represent the college’s five departments, and include five Distinguished Alumni and five Outstanding Young Alumni.

This year’s honorees include:

Distinguished Alumni Award

Presented to visionary leaders who have reached exceptional levels of professional and personal achievement. The award recognizes distinguished leadership, service, teaching, innovation, and other exemplary accomplishments that positively impact society and the engineering profession. 

• Victor Bahl ’97 PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  Technical fellow, Microsoft
  Chief technology officer, Azure for Operators at Microsoft
  ​
• Jeffrey Elkins ’86, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  CEO & director at InterVene Inc.
   
• Robert W. Ivester ’91, ’93 MS, ’96 PhD, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  Acting MEP director and deputy director at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
   
• Edward H. Kalajian ’69 MS, ’71 PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Emeritus professor, Florida Institute of Technology
   
• Christine Seymour ’95 PhD, Chemical Engineering
  Director in regulatory chemistry and manufacturing controls at Pfizer Inc.

Outstanding Young Alumni Award

Presented to emerging leaders in the early stages of their careers. The award recognizes outstanding professional and personal achievements, and highlights the recipient’s ambitions and potential to positively impact UMass, the Commonwealth, the nation and the world.

• Kokui Francisca Adesokan ’09, Chemical Engineering
  Associate director and engineering manager at Pratt and Whitney
   
• Jacob Lauzier ’07, Electrical and Computer Engineering 
  Co-founder and CTO of MachineMetrics
   
• Christine Roy ’04, ’05 MS, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Senior consulting engineer, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
   
• Banafsheh Seyed-Aghazadeh ’15 PhD, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  Assistant professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
   
• Akshaya Shanmugam ’12 MS, ’15 PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  Senior clinical development engineer at Intuitive; Co-founder of Lumme Incorporated

These outstanding alumni bring great pride and distinction to UMass Amherst Engineering.

Read more about their accomplishments here.

There will be an evening of conversation with recipients on Thursday, April 29, 2021 at 6:00pm, with the theme of Impact of Mentorship for the Future of Engineering. The discussion will be facilitated by Dean Sanjay Raman. Full schedule and additional details on the registration page.

For more information on the college’s outstanding alumni awards, please contact MK Young, in the Engineering Office of Development.