ISOTOPE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Annual Giving
Aaron Bencks '16, Associate Director of Annual Giving Phone: (603) 862-4165 aaron.bencks@unh.edu
Job Titles:
- SENIOR LECTURER
- SENIOR LECTURER / Mathematics and Statistics
Job Titles:
- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
- Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School
Job Titles:
- RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Signal Integrity Engineer, Amphenol
Job Titles:
- Member of the External Advisory Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the NH CREATES Leadership Team
- NH CREATES, Project Director
Job Titles:
- Member of the External Advisory Committee
- Dean, UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Co - Founder and CEO of Zepteon Inc
Austin Boesch is co-founder and CEO of Zepteon Inc which has a novel purification technology used to enhance the potency of antibodies for cancer, infectious disease and autoimmunity. He also spends time consulting for startups and venture capital firms and developing new technologies for further company creation.
Austin has over 18 years of experience in the biotech industry working in R&D at small and large companies building and leading teams for both drug design and discovery as well as process development and manufacturing. He has worked with multiple drug modalities including proteins, conjugated proteins, lipid and protein-based nanoparticles, mRNA and ex vivo / in vivo cell therapies. In his last role at Tidal Therapeutics, he led the nanoparticle targeting and mRNA payload research efforts for in vivo CAR-T therapies against cancer which led to a $470M acquisition by Sanofi. Prior to Tidal, he led R&D efforts for multiple clinical candidates at Repertoire/Torque Therapeutics. Before working at startups, he worked at Wyeth/Pfizer performing process development and engineering for clinical and commercial drugs and Millipore developing drug processing tools such as virus filters and chromatography resins. During graduate school he explored alternative career paths through a fellowship at a venture capital firm, Flagship Pioneering, performing explorations and hypothesis testing for potential company creation and consulted for a hedge fund, Aperimus Capital, evaluating potential investment opportunities through a technical lense. He also was an Innovation PhD Fellow which enabled him to pursue coursework at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and pursue building a company while in graduate school.
Austin holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Science with a focus in Bioengineering from the Thayer School at Dartmouth, a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UNH. As an alumni, he was previously on the Dean's Council at the Thayer School and is currently the Thayer representative on the Dartmouth Alumni Council.
Job Titles:
- Post Doctoral Research Associate
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- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
- Assistant Superintendent SAU21, Presidential Teaching Awardee
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- Member of the Board
- President, Lamprey Networks
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Technology Development Manager, BAE Systems FAST Labs
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- Member of the Board
- Software Engineering Manager, Ticketmaster
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- Communications Consultant
- Member of the External Advisory Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the External Advisory Committee
- Superintendent, Dover School District
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- Associate Dean for Research
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- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
- Arthur Thurnau Professor of Chemistry, University of Michigan
Job Titles:
- Director of Annual Giving
Job Titles:
- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
- Member of the NH CREATES Leadership Team
- Advisor for the UNH Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers
- Associate Professor of Materials Science / Director of UNH Tech Camp & Tech for Teachers Institute
- Associate Professor of Materials Science at UNH
- Co - Principal Investigator / Associate Professor of Materials Science
- Director of Tech Camp / Associate Professor
Additionally, Dr. Amato-Wierda has served as PI for these previously NSF funded curriculum improvement efforts: (1) General Chemistry Investigations: An Interdisciplinary, Research Team Laboratory, and (2) Implementation of a Materials Synthesis and Characterization Laboratory Component Across the Undergraduate Science and Engineering Curriculum. Dr. Amato-Wierda also played an active role in developing the new graduate program in Materials Science at the University of New Hampshire.
Dr. Amato-Wierda is the faculty advisor for the UNH Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. She served on the New Hampshire Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers from 2001-2011, and currently serves on the Air Resources Council for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
Carmela Amato-Wierda has been an associate professor of materials science at UNH since 1995 and became director of Tech Camp in 2014 after teaching in the program for several summers. During her tenure as director, the camp has significantly grown and diversified its student population and added a number of new programs that improve access to STEM education and careers.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Lead Electrical Engineer, CUSA Consulting LLC
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Development
Job Titles:
- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR / Chemistry
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- Member of the Board
- Director of Development, CEPS, UNH
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- Member of the Board
- Director, Applications Portfolio, Liberty Mutual
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- Professor
- PROFESSOR / Chemistry
- Research Interests
Professor Bauer is no longer accepting graduate students for the Chemistry Education PhD program.
Since the 1980s, Professor Bauer has been designing, implementing, and studying inquiry-based learning activities for students and for teachers from elementary through university level. His research interests include student attitudes, content misconceptions, and self-awareness as learners; discovery-based and cooperatively-structured college chemistry curricula; and faculty and future-faculty beliefs and practice. His work includes development of valid and reliable assessments of these issues, melding both quantitative and qualitative techniques derived from psychology, social psychology, and education. His work also encompasses a long history of outreach to the K-12 community as well as professional development for science faculty at all levels.
Education
Ph.D., Chemistry, Colorado State University
M.S., Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.S., Chemistry, University of Notre Dame
Research Interests
Educational Psychology
Educational Testing/Measurement
Graduate Education
Higher Education
Science Education
Science/Technology/Engineering/Math (STEM) Education
Teacher Education
Undergraduate Education
Courses Taught
CHEM 403: General Chemistry I
CHEM 404/404H: General Chemistry II
CHEM 405: Chem Principles for Engineers
CHEM 501: Peer-led Team Learning in Chem
CHEM 502: Adv Peer-led Team Ldrshp Chem
CHEM 503: PLTL Mentoring
CHEM 696: Independent Study
CHEM 800: Intro Chem Practices
CHEM 802: Critical Thinking Chem
CHEM/PHYS 501: Peer-led Team Learning in Chem
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Vice President of Product Management, Symbotic
Job Titles:
- Administrative Coordinator
- Administrative Coordinator / Mathematics and Statistics
Job Titles:
- Dean
- Member of the Board
- Member of the External Advisory Committee
- Dean of CEPS, UNH
- Dean, UNH College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chief Architect - Senior Distinguished Engineer, Dell EMC
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- Member of the Board
- Chief Engineer, BAE Systems
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Vice President, Solution Strategy, Extreme Networks
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- TSC Analytical Instrument Engineer II
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- Member of the Board
- President & COO, Ascendle
Job Titles:
- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
David Ellis, faculty member at UNH in 1960s and 1970s; former President of Lafayette College and past president of Boston's Museum of Science.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Head of Enterprise Support and Technology, Devoted Health
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Co - Founder and Chief Architect, CHAOSSEARCH
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- Adjunct Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering & Bioengineering
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Advisory Board
Denise Saltojanes is an active early investor through Golden Seeds-Boston, which she co-chairs, and NuFund Venture Group-San Diego, where she focuses on due diligence, deal-sourcing, and advising early entrepreneurs.
With a broad background in medical and technology development and financial analysis, Denise Saltojanes holds a multifaceted skill set from her 25+ year engineering-based finance career. During her time with the US Air Force, she successfully modeled and defended $6B of Congressionally approved appropriations and was responsible for numerous financial agreements regarding technology and materiel transactions with America's foreign allies. Denise served as Vice President of Investment Banking at Medical Capital Advisors where she was an integral part of the firm's merger and acquisition team and led the valuation process. As a Senior Executive at Cambridge Polymer Group, a biopolymer research and development company in Boston, she supervised daily operations as well as coordinating marketing, financial strategy, and new business development and licensing agreements. She has been involved in private financings for orthopedic device and other medical technology companies. Additionally, Denise has held financial positions at the Orthopedic Biomechanics and Biomaterials Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and started her career as a process engineer at General Electric.
Denise is also an active philanthropist for the promotion of women and diversity in leadership roles, animal welfare, and expanding access to the arts. She is an active board member for the Advisory Board for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at University of New Hampshire ("UNH") and the Corporate Board of Advisors member for Chemical Engineering Dept at UNH. Denise actively promotes interdisciplinary learning and career goal-setting as well as STEM education for first generation college students.
She received an B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from University of New Hampshire and her MBA from Babson College.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chief Technology Officer, SilverTech
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- Member of the Board
- President, Pope Energy
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- Member of the Board
- Principal Systems Engineer, ESEG, Trident Systems, Inc.
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- Member of the Board
- Controller, HMS Industrial Networks Inc.
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- Member of the External Advisory Committee
Job Titles:
- RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Principal Digital / Micro Hardware Engineer, the MITRE Corporation
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Research Interests
Job Titles:
- Member of the NH CREATES Leadership Team
- Key Member of the Tech Camp
Fran Meffen has been a key member of the Tech Camp team since 2015 and brings to her role a deep understanding of STEAM education, student engagement and project-based learning. A member of the Dover School District Guidance Department for more than two decades, Meffen also founded the Dover Middle School STEAM Academy, an afterschool enrichment program, and served as its director for more than a decade. She has been actively involved in a number youth-oriented community service organizations and social justice initiatives over the course of her career.
"What gets my juices flowing at Tech Camp is seeing the kids so engaged in learning, collaborating, asking questions, solving problems - never holding back," says Meffen. "With Tech for Teachers, it's seeing a sense of renewed energy in the educators. They have been given the time and permission to explore, learn about emerging technologies and design a project that they can bring back into their classrooms. This is how you transform education."
Meffen holds a B.A. in Biology from Drew University; an M.S. in Molecular and Population Genetics from the University of Georgia; an M.Ed. in Guidance and Counseling from Keene State College; and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS) from Plymouth State University.
Married with three grown children and six grandchildren, Meffen loves to spend time with her family and also enjoys reading, knitting, sewing, singing and baking.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Professor
Dr. Bowlin is a Professor and Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence at The University of Memphis in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, where he has been a faculty member since 2013. Dr. Bowlin's research has and continues to focus on the application of electrospun templates for tissue engineering and tissue regenerative applications, all in the pursuit of saving lives and improving the quality of life. Dr. Bowlin's laboratory has published extensively with over 115 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Google Scholar data shows his group's published works have been cited over 9,700 times, resulting in an H-index of 43. To date, Dr. Bowlin has been granted 10 U.S. Patents and 32 foreign patents for his advancements in these different areas of research. These patents have helped to start five different companies and several commercially available and FDA cleared products. The most recent technology is being developed by Sweetbio, Inc., started March 2015 in Memphis, TN, for improving dental reconstruction procedures. Another company started, St. Teresa Medical, Inc. is currently undergoing clinical trials for CE Marking. He was recently awarded the Billy R. Martin Innovation Award in 2013 as well as being inducted as a Fellow into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He is also the Inaugural and current President of the International Society for Biomedical Polymers and Polymeric Biomaterials.
Dr. Bowlin received his B.E. from Youngstown State University (1988) and M.S. from the University of New Hampshire (1990) in Chemical Engineering. From 1990-92, he worked as a Process Engineer for NUCON International in Columbus, OH. He then obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Akron (1996) in Biomedical Engineering and subsequently completed an American Heart Association sponsored post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Surgery at Akron City Hospital. In 1997, Dr. Bowlin started his first faculty appointment at Virginia Commonwealth University and rose to the rank of Professor and held the Louis and Ruth Harris Exceptional Scholar Professorship. In August 2013, he relocated to The University of Memphis to continue his research and entrepreneurial endeavors and continued training of the next generation of Biomedical Engineers.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Principal Engineer II - Controls, Osram Sylvania
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- Member of the Board
- Vice President - Professional Services, Bottomline Technologies
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- Member of the Board
- Digital Leadership Development Program Associate, Raytheon Technologies
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- Chairman of Excellence at the University of Memphis
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- Member of the External Advisory Committee
- Retired Accountant - Community Member
Job Titles:
- Member of the External Advisory Committee
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- Member of the External Advisory Committee
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- TSC Senior Electronics Engineer
James Clemmons works in the field of space physics. His interests include auroral phenomena, physics of the Earth's ionosphere-thermosphere system, and the magnetosphere. Primary methods of inquiry are space experiments and instrumentation, as well as analysis of data. He serves as a Co-Investigator on NASA's Van Allen Probes and Magnetospheric Multiscale missions. Recent sounding rocket experiments include the Auroral Jet and RENU-2 missions, and current projects include the VISIONS-2, TOMEX-Plus, and Dynamo-2 sounding rocket missions, the LLITED cubesat mission, analysis of data from the TWINS-ES experiment, and modeling of the atmospheric mass density anomaly beneath the earth's magnetospheric cusp.
Education
Ph.D., Space Physics, University of California - Berkeley
M.A., Physics, University of California - Berkeley
B.S., Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.S., Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research Interests
Aeronomy
Atmosphere: Composition & Disturbance
Atmospheric Physics
Atmospheric Remote Sensing
Atmospheric Sciences
Atmospheric Structure and Dynamics
Geophysics
Geosciences
Instrumentation, Techniques (Physical Sciences)
Ionospheres
Ionospheric Phenomena
Ionospheric Physics
Magnetohydrodynamics
Magnetospheric Phenomena
Physical Sciences
Physics
Plasma Physics
Space Sciences
Space Weather
Spacecraft
Turbulence
Courses Taught
INCO 590: Student Research Experience
PHYS 407: General Physics I Recitation
PHYS 407S: General Physics I Studio
PHYS 408: General Physics II Recitation
PHYS 712/812: Space Plasma Physics
PHYS 797: Senior Design Project
PHYS 999: Doctoral Research
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Vice President, Marine Systems Enterprise, Physical Sciences, Inc.
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- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
- Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati
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- Member of the Board
- Randall Consulting
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Senior Consultant, Digital Delivery, Lincoln Financial
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- Member of the Board
- Founder & CEO, Seige Technologies
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- President and CEO of Nylon Corporation of America
Jay Bizarro is President and CEO of Nylon Corporation of America (NYCOA) in Manchester, NH. Jay joined NYCOA, a manufacturer of specialty grades of nylon 6 as well as copolymers and terpolymers that are based on nylon 6, in 2016. Prior to that Jay had a 29 year career at specialty chemical company International Specialty Products, based in Wayne, NJ, and then Ashland, who acquired ISP in 2011. Jay Bizarro has filled many roles during his career, starting out as an environmental engineer responsible for permitting and installing control equipment, followed by a stint doing public advocacy work while permitting a facility seen as controversial at the time. Jay then transitioned into operations leadership in 1996, where he has spent the majority of his career in positions of increasing responsibility, holding positions such as Production Manager, Director of Operations for a Business Unit, Operations Manager, and Plant Manager. Jay was promoted to VP of Texas Operations in 2011. During his 20 year manufacturing career, he lived in Kentucky, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Texas. When he left Ashland, he was Plant Manager of the company's flagship operation in Texas City, TX, as well as being responsible for 10 other manufacturing sites around the world. Jay Bizarro has also had business experience woven into his career, heading up ISP's $300 Million Elastomers business for 3 years as its VP and General Manager.
Jay Bizarro is a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, and earned his Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Chemical Engineering.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Director, IT Application Developement, Unitil
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- TSC Analytical Instrument Engineer III
- TSC Analytical Instrument Engineer III / Chemistry
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- Member of the Board
- Founder and President, Random Walk Ventures
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- Member of the Advisory Board
Ms. Donoghue graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering in 1991 from the University of New Hampshire. She has a broad range of R&D experience having spent over 15 years at premier research institutions. From 1995 to 2003, she held research and engineering positions at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution working in mass spectrometry, including the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometer facility. From 2004 to 2006, she held laboratory management positions in radioisotope and cellulosic ethanol technology laboratories at Dartmouth College. Since 2006, Ms. Donoghue has worked at Mascoma Corporation, a start-up cellulosic ethanol company located in Lebanon, NH. She is currently the operations director and has been involved in all aspects of operations including recruiting, laboratory/office start up and expansions, office and lab consolidations, and project management of a multi-million dollar laboratory and office building. She now oversees management of the laboratory spaces and operations, corporate administrative services, purchasing and safety. Ms. Donoghue also serves on the Small Business Advisory Council for Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Design Engineer, Analog Devices
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- Member of the Board
- Director, US Defense Hardware Discipline, BAE Systems
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- Member of the Board
- Manager Research & Technology, Watts Water, Corp.
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- Member of the Board
- Director of IT, Oyster River Cooperative High School District
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- Member of the Board
- Founder, Performance Dyno LLC
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- Member of the Board
- Executive Director, NH Tech Alliance
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- Member of the Board
- Vice President, Information Technology, Unitil
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- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
- Research & Development Manager, Atrium Medical, Nashua, NH
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- Member of the NH CREATES Leadership Team
- Co - Principal Investigator / Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences
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- Member of the External Advisory Committee
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- Member of the Board
- Senior Software Manager, Apple
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- Director, CEPS Technical Service Center
- TSC Director
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- Member of the Board
- Principal Electrical Engineer, Raytheon Technologies
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- Member of the Board
- Director, Engineering, Unitil
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- Member of the Board
- Manager, Cyber Security and Compliance, Unitil
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- Department of Computer Science
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- Member of the External Advisory Committee
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- Director of Institutional Giving
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- Administrative Coordinator
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- Member of the Board
- Manager, Electrical Engineering, IDEXX Laboratories
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- Postdoctoral Research Associate
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- Member of the External Advisory Committee
- Industry Liaison
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- Member of the Board
- Principal Engineer, UNH InterOperability Laboratory
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- Davison Professor of Environmental Engineering
- PROFESSOR
- Research Interests
Dr. Robin Collins is currently the Davison Professor of Environmental Engineering and a member of the Environmental Research Group and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New Hampshire. Dr. Collins has conducted research in cooperation with numerous funding agencies by characterizing natural organic matter and disinfection by-product precursor and microbial removals from selected water treatment processes including slow sand filtration, direct filtration, diatomaceous earth filtration, riverbank filtration, membrane filtration and conventional treatment. He has worked with numerous public water suppliers and consulting engineers nationwide in evaluating and piloting several filtration options, especially slow sand filtration. He has also co-organized edited four international research conferences and two regional workshops on slow sand filtration. His current research interests have focused on water treatment technologies for small systems involving innovative adsorptive media for arsenic removal, disinfection by-product precursor and pathogen reductions by biological filtration, development of engineering training modules for selected non-traditional technologies and post-treatment aeration to remove volatile organic compounds, e.g. THMs.
Education
Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of Arizona
M.S., Sanitation Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
B.S., Civil Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Courses Taught
CEE 520: Environmntl Pollutn & Protectn
CEE 723/823: Environmental Water Chemistry
CEE 730/830: Public Health Engineering
CEE 731/831: Adv Water Treatment Processes
CEE 731/931: Adv Water Treatment Processes
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Managing General Partner, New England Innovation Center
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- Member of the Board
- Senior Principal Engineer, Raytheon Technologies
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- Member of the Board
- President, CUSA Consulting LLC
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- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
- Director, Education Division of the American Chemical Society
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- Member of the External Advisory Committee
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- Member of the Board
- Business Unit Director - Linear and Current Sensors, Allegro MicroSystems, Inc.
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- Member of the Board
- President / Chief Technology Officer, MNG Technology Enterprises
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- Member of the Board
- Director, Advanced Data Analytics & Data Science, Liberty Mutual
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- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
- Research Interests
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- Member of the Board
- Vice President, Information Systems, Northeast Delta Dental
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- Postdoctoral Research Associate
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- Member of the Board
- Electrical Technology Department Chair, Manchester Community College
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- Member of the Board
- Founder and Chairman, Elbrys Networks
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- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
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- Department Chair, Physics & Astronomy
- PROFESSOR
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- Member of the Board
- Signal Integrity Engineer, Amphenol TCS
Prof. Greg Chini joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty at UNH in 1999. Since then, Prof. Chini has also worked as a visiting researcher in the Division of Applied and Computational Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology and in the Theoretical Mechanics Division of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Nottingham University (UK). He is a regular participant in the Annual Woods Hole Summer Program in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics.
Prof. Chini teaches undergraduate courses in Fluid Dynamics (ME 608) and Thermodynamics (ME 503) along with several advanced fluid dynamics and applied mathematics courses, including Waves in Fluids (ME 7/812), Viscous Flow (ME 909), and Asymptotic Methods (IAM 940). In 2007, Prof. Chini was appointed founding Co-Director of the CEPS Ph.D. Program in Integrated Applied Mathematics.
Prof. Chini's research interests are in the allied fields of fluid dynamics and physical applied mathematics. His research involves the mathematical modeling of geophysical, environmental, biological and industrial flows. The existence and stability of coherent features (e.g. nonlinear waves, vortices, plumes, and boundary layers) in such flows are of particular interest. Using hybrid analytical-numerical techniques (e.g. asymptotic, variational, and spectral methods), he aims to develop simplified models of complex fluid-mechanical systems; these models are used for identifying key physical processes and for purposes of prediction, design, and control. His specific areas of interest include:
Job Titles:
- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
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- Member of the External Advisory Committee
- Chairman / Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Co - Founder and Owner of Superior Controls
Rick Pierro is co-founder and owner of Superior Controls and has over twenty years of control systems experience. Mr. Pierro is currently serving as President of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) Boston Area Chapter and has served on the ISPE Board of Directors since 2004 as Chairman of Student Affairs. He is a Trustee for the New Hampshire High Technology Council and is Chairman of the Board of Advisors for the University of Massachusetts- Lowell, Chemical Engineering Department. Mr. Pierro's longtime support of the UMass Lowell's Francis College of Engineering earned him the "Francis College Distinguished Engineering Award" in 2003. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of Acumentrics Corporation, a leading fuel cell development and manufacturing company, and E-Trolz, a leading provider of technology for electrophysiological medical devices.
Prior to Superior Controls, Mr. Pierro held various positions in project engineering, sales, and sales management. His work experiences include serving as an automation engineer at a systems integrator, where he designed and implemented PLC-based control systems for both the chemical and food and beverage industries.
Mr. Pierro graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in Chemistry in 1981 and received his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lowell in 1983. He researched and wrote his thesis on the testing of advanced PID tuning techniques for process control applications, and also taught several process control courses. He later completed several business courses at Harvard Business School. He is a frequent guest speaker on topics ranging from biotech automation, batching, and FDA validation requirements such as 21CFR Part 11, Process Analytical Technology, and GAMP.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Business Manager, IEEE - Boston Section
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- Member of the Board
- Vice President of Marketing and Business, Vicor Corporation
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- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
- Founder of Environmental Analytical Companies in New Hampshire
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- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
- Chemistry Program Manager, Bureau of Laboratory Services, NH Public Health Labs
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- Member of the Board
- Director, Information Security, Cybersecurity Risk Assurance and GRC Solutions, Liberty Mutual Insurance
Job Titles:
- Member of the NH CREATES Leadership Team
- Manchester CREATES, Project Director
Shannon McCracken-Barber attended the Tech for Teachers Institute in 2021 and has been part of the extended Tech Camp family ever since. In 2022, she returned as a project leader and teaching assistant at Tech Camp and, this past summer, served as an instructor in the Tech for Teachers program. In July 2023, McCracken-Barber assumed the role of project director for the Manchester CREATES workforce development initiative.
"The Tech for Teachers Institute was the most energizing professional development program I ever attended while teaching," says McCracken-Barber. "Learning about cutting-edge research directly from those doing it added a new spark to my classroom curriculum. That's something I'm excited about bringing to the greater Manchester community moving forward."
A former high school STEAM teacher in Farmington and Tilton, McCracken-Barber brings to her new role at Manchester CREATES both an artistic flair and entrepreneurial spirit. In addition to her work as an educator, she is also the founder of the New Hampshire Renaissance Faire, an annual charity event that she owned and managed from 2005-2011, and a fine artist who previously ran two online businesses-one featuring her costume accessories, another handmade jewelry.
Married with two children, McCracken-Barber holds an M.A.T. from Plymouth State University and a B.F.A. from the Maine College of Art. Her office is located in the historic Pandora Mill Building at UNH Manchester.
Job Titles:
- Manager
- Staff Member at Tech Camp
Shawn Gygax has been a staff member at Tech Camp since its founding in 2007. Initially serving as a counselor for two years he then transitioned into a leadership role overseeing day-to-day operations of the camp each summer. As the camp manager, he works closely with teachers, staff members, students and parents to ensure a positive experience for all.
What does he like most about Tech Camp? "The excitement the campers have for learning while doing," he says. "The hands-on, experiential nature of the program makes it fun for everyone."
A middle school science teacher at Barrington Middle School for the past 18 years, Gygax holds a B.S. in Elementary Education and Natural Science from New England College. Additionally, he has been involved with STEM-related projects at the UNH Ocean Engineering Laboratory and Space Science Center, as well as the SeaPerch program at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Married with two sons, Gygax loves to play disc golf and hike in his free time. To date, he has hiked from Maine to Pennsylvania along the Appalachian Trail and hopes to finish the rest in due time, if his knees will cooperate.
Job Titles:
- Member of the External Advisory Committee
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- TSC Information Technologist III
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- Advising & Academic Success Director
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- Career and Professional Success
- CAREER DIRECTOR
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- Member of the Board
- Manager II, BAE Systems
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- Member of the Board
- IT Infrastructor Services Owner, Raytheon
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- Senior Administrative Assistant
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- Administrative Services Specialist
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- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR / Director, UNH Stormwater Center
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- Member of the Board
- CEO, Berkshire Grey and Former CTO of IRobot
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- Member of the Board
- Head of Digital Technology, Fidelity Investments
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- Member of the Board
- CTO, QA Cafe
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- Member of the Board
- Senior Executive for Software Development, UNH InterOperability Laboratory
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- Member of the External Advisory Committee
- Teacher, Pinkerton Academy
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- Member of the Board
- Chief Supply Chain Officer, Wagz
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- Member of the Chemistry Advisory Board
- Technical Director, AR Acrylates at Henkel Corporation
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- Assoc Dean Grad School - UNH
- Research Interests
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- Member of the Board
- CIO, University of New Hampshire
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Senior Manager of Software Engineering, Dell EMC