News & Profiles

Class Notes

Jessica (Stelmok) Sabourin '05 and Daniel Sabourin are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Catarina Emerson. She was born on October 10, 2012 in UMASS Memorial Medical Center, and weighed 6 lb., 15 oz.

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Alumni News and Profiles

Sopheap Pich's work being shown in NYC
Sopheap Pich '95 holds a BFA in Painting from UMass Amherst and his work recently is largely sculptural. Recently at an exhibit on display at the Brookfield Place Financial Center in New York City Pich created a miniature bamboo city made of sustainable bamboo and titled, "Compound." The work comments on a massive construction boom in his home city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia which has caused the depletion of many of the natural resources in the region.
Janet Morales receives Excellence in Teaching award
Janet Morales '13 MEd, a former ACCELA participant, received a Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Award (formerly known as the Harold Grinspoon Award). Morales is an English Language Learner support teacher for Grades 6-8 at the Maurice Donahue School in Holyoke.
Alumni's Company takes Winners Competition
The New England Clean Energy Council Institute (NECEC Institute) has announced that Black Island Wind Turbines of Springfield, a startup company founded by Patrick Quinlan ’82 of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department, has been awarded $50,000 as part of the institute’s Cleantech Innovations New England 2012 Winner of Winners competition.
From the Classroom to the Bench
“UMass Amherst is a very special place for me,” says Judge William C. Ramsey ’97, “I was able to grow academically and personally at UMass, and I look back at my college experience with tremendous happiness.” Ramsey, who is now the Chief Administrative Law Judge for the Social Security Administration Office of Disability Adjudication and Review’s Boston Office, calls his college experience one of the most positive experiences of his life.
Republique Video Game inspired by 1984
Patrick Ascolese '02 is currently working on République, an upcoming game for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, PC, and Mac. It is the first full-length project for Camouflaj, the new video game company he joined in 2011. In Republique players control a network of cameras, computers, and everything else electronic to keep a woman named Hope safe from pursuers. The idea for the game came from the increased surveillance people face on a daily basis, according to Ascolese.
Mishy Lesser’s Rwanda film looks at violence and forgiving
The film called “Coexist” is set in Rwanda, but the story of genocide in that East African country has much to teach about violence and reconciliation here. Mishy Lesser '96 Ed.D. and her filmmaking partner Adam Mazo are hoping to raise enough money so that even more can see the film that they are screening and discussing at film festivals, colleges, high and middle schools.
Ferraro Delivers 13th Annual Tang Lecture
In October, Dr. Ellen J. Ferraro ’89 B.S., ’94 Ph.D., the director of the Systems Architecture Design and Integration Directorate for Integrated Defense Systems at Raytheon in Waltham, Mass., delivered the 13th annual Tang Lecture on the UMass Amherst campus. Dr. Ferraro has been profiled as one of the “Women to Watch” in Massachusetts by Mass High Tech Magazine.
Marie Laplante Chosen as SWE Fellow
Chemical engineering alumna Marie Laplante '87 has been chosen as a Fellow of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Laplante is currently a chief technology engineer, utilities branch, in KBR’s project definition group. She is responsible for managing utility design guidelines for major KBR petrochemical projects.
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This month in @UMASS
Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy Inaugurated
With academic pomp and pageantry, Kumble R. Subbaswamy was formally inaugurated today as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst during ceremonies at the Mullins Center. The installation was held in conjunction with a weeklong commemoration of the founding of the campus in 1863.
This month in Student @UMASS
Check out our Facebook photos of the 15th Annual Commencement Ball - Bright Lights, Big City, a project of the Student Alumni Association. Want to see all the photos? Go to our Flickr album.
This month in Graduate Student @UMASS
The Center for Women & Community, formerly known as the Everywoman's Center, is one of the oldest continually operating women’s centers in the country. On February 22 it will celebrate its 40th anniversary.