University of Massachusetts Amherst: College of Engineering Announces 2024 Outstanding Alumni
The UMass Amherst College of Engineering has announced the 10 recipients of its 2024 Outstanding Alumni Awards (OAA) representing each of the college’s five departments.
Visionary leaders in their field, the six recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award have reached exceptional levels of professional and personal achievement. This award recognizes distinguished leadership, service, teaching, innovation, and other exemplary accomplishments that positively impact society and the engineering profession.
This year’s Distinguished Alumni Award honorees are:
- Ron Kraus ’94, mechanical engineering, awarded by biomedical engineering, Syner-G BioPharma Group
- Carrie Lavallee ’03, civil Engineering, MassDOT Highway
- Imona Omole ’04, chemical engineering, Verdant Energy, LLC
- Raquel Rivera ’92, mechanical engineering, Pratt & Whitney
- Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh ’00, chemical engineering, awarded by biomedical engineering, Kendall Innovations
- Jennifer Anne Watson ’95, ’97MS, electrical engineering, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Emerging leaders in the early stages of their careers, recipients of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award are generally no more than 10 years out from receiving their UMass Amherst engineering doctoral degree or no more than 15 years out from receiving their UMass Amherst engineering undergraduate degree. This award recognizes outstanding professional and personal achievements and highlights the recipient’s ambitions and potential to positively impact UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth, the nation and the world.
This year’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award honorees are:
- Casey Fontana ’19PhD, civil engineering, Invenergy
- Ashley Kaiser ’17, chemical engineering, 6K Inc.
- Brycen Luis Spencer ’09, mechanical engineering, Siemens Digital Industries Software
- Fadi Zoghzoghy ’10, electrical engineering, BridgeAthletic
Several recipients of this year’s awards remained in Massachusetts after graduating and have established themselves as engineering leaders within the Commonwealth: Kraus is the chief executive officer of Syner-G BioPharma Group, a leading provider of integrated pharmaceutical sciences and regulatory services based in Framingham; Lavallee is the deputy administrator and chief engineer at MassDOT Highway; Kaiser is a senior process engineer at 6K Inc., a materials manufacturing startup located in North Andover; Taghizadeh is the president of the Cambridge-based Kendall Innovations, a consultation firm that supports innovation in regenerative medicine, longevity and tissue engineering; and Watson serves as head of the Homeland Protection and Air Traffic Control Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
In addition, several of this year’s recipients maintain close ties to the College of Engineering. Rivera sits on the Industry Advisory Board for the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, while Fontana serves on the UMass Amherst Offshore Wind Industry Advisory Board. Fontana and Lavallee have both recently visited campus for presentations and alumni panels to share their perspective with current students.