The Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering department is happy to announce that Jeffrey Halpern was promoted to full Professor this year. We also welcomed Alissa Libby as a Senior Administrative Assistant to our department in August 2024.
Several of our faculty were recognized for their achievements this year. Harish Vashisth won the CEPS Excellence in Research award for his outstanding research and scholarship in developing computational molecular simulation methods for studying biophysical problems. Jeffrey Halpern received the Office of Community, Equity and Diversity (OCED) Faculty Advocacy award for making a more inclusive, welcoming, and belonging community. Linqing Li was awarded the NIH Outstanding Investigator MIRA Grant for $1.9 Million for 5 years. As part of this grant, Linqing will use injectable biomaterials to promote blood vessel growth for chronic wound healing.
Some of our notable student achievements include the Leaders in Action award won by Chemical Engineering undergraduate, Kathryn Carlson. This university level award recognized Kathryn’s strong emphasis on leadership development, campus involvement, and inclusion. Chemical Engineering PhD student, Haley Royce, received the NH Space Grant Summer Fellowship to study the impact of microgravity on vascular development.
Dr. Aylin Aykanat is our newest and only hire for 2024. Dr. Aykanat came to us as a Postdoctoral Diversity and Innovation Scholar (PDIS) scholar who worked with Prof. Nathan Oldenhuis for 2022 and 2023.
We are pleased to share that Professor Bauer has received a 2025 ACS Award for Achievement in Research for Teaching and Learning of Chemistry.
Prof. Anyin Li has been working with the University Instrumentation Center to develop the UNH Mass Spectrometry Core facility which includes a newly acquired Orbitrap Ascend Tribrid and an Orbitrap Exploris 120.
A huge THANK YOU to Chemistry Gifts donors whose donations made it possible for us to have the 1500L Liquid Nitrogen tank removed and a new 3000L LN2 tank installed to feed the Parsons Hall house nitrogen system. LN2 is used for both course labs and research. Having a larger tank will meet our growing needs for course development and research expansion. Thank you, DONORS!
In 2024 the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering welcomed Matthew Ferby as Postdoctoral Diversity & Innovation Scholar Fellow. Professor Robin Collins retired in 2024. Professor Collins was a valued member of the department since 2001.
Two student organizations affiliated with the department had notable events last year. The American Society of Civil Engineers UNH chapter hosted the regional concrete canoe and steel bridge competition in April of 2024. The Solar Decathlon team advanced to the final round of the competition with 9 other teams from across the US.
ECE did not have any retirements last year. We are in the process of hiring a new lecturer for Fall 2025. We hope to have this completed before the Spring Break or sooner.
To learn more about what is happening around the department, please check out our bi-annual newsletter: https://ceps.unh.edu/electrical-computer-engineering/about/newsletter
The ME department welcomed Dr. Jeff Oishi as a faculty member and associate chair. Dr. Oishi joined UNH from Bates College where he was an associate professor and Chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department. Dr. Oishi’s research area is computational fluid mechanics. He is a co-developer of Dedalus, which is an open-source framework for spectrally solving differential equations on a computational grid. Dedalus is widely used in both the physical and natural sciences.
Assistant Professors Tracy Mandel and Nathan Laxague have received NSF CAREER awards. Dr. Mandel’s project title is “CAREER: Flow-mediated mechanisms of marine disease transmission in benthic ecosystems”. The award amount is $ 1,179,186. It was awarded through the Division of Ocean Sciences. Dr. Mandel’s educational and research plans are tightly intertwined and focused on marine health and resilience. Dr. Laxague’s project title is “CAREER: Investigating the impacts of sea breeze and steep surface gravity waves on nearshore air-sea fluxes”. The award amount is $738,012. It was awarded through the Division of Ocean Sciences. Dr. Laxague will be working with the Seacoast Science Center for the educational and outreach component of the grant award.
The Atlantic Marine Energy Center, directed by ME Professor Martin Wosnik, received three grant awards from the Department of Energy (DOE) totaling $2.4M. In total, DOE awarded eighteen grants totaling $18M in Marine Energy and Offshore Wind Research at Universities. To put this in perspective, UNH received 11.1% of the awards and 13.3% of the funds nationwide. NOAA's official value for the total length of the U.S. shoreline is 153,646 kilometers (95,471 miles). The coastal length of NH is 13 miles (or 0.013% of the US shoreline).
First, the Department of Physics & Astronomy thanks Katie Makem-Boucher and Michelle Mancini for their dedicated service to the University of New Hampshire (UNH) of 35 and 25 years, respectively.
Congratulations to Professor Fabian Kislat, who earned tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor. Professor Fabian Kislat also received the CEPS Outstanding Assistant Professor Award. While no new tenure-track faculty member was hired, the department welcomed several talented postdoctoral researchers and research scientists. Among them, ZhaoZong Shi joined the Nuclear Physics Group, while Romain Meyrand, Peter Hammon, and Aviral Prakash joined theoretical and computational astrophysics groups. Additionally, 21 new undergraduate students and 10 first-year graduate students began their academic journeys. We wish all of them the best of luck at UNH.
Several members of the department received prestigious awards: Professor Shawna Hollen was named a 2024 Experimental Physics Investigator by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Professor Elena Long received the American Physical Society 5 Sigma Award; Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein was elected to the United States High Energy Physics Advisory Panel; and Professors Dawn Meredith and Ben Chandran were honored at the UNH Faculty Excellence Award ceremony for their exceptional teaching contributions, as the 2024 UNH Brierly Award and CEPS Teaching Award recipients, respectively. In addition, , while Professor Marc Lessard was the recipient of the Outstanding Research Professor Award. Finally, Nathan Rutherford earned a UNH Dissertation Year Fellowship for his dark matter research,
The New England Fall Astronomy Festival (NEFAF 2024) was a tremendous success, attracting over 2,000 visitors in October. Organized by John Gianforte and supported by many volunteers, the festival showcased the community’s commitment to outreach and education.
Thanks to all those involved in these and many other achievements, celebrating the excellence and enthusiasm that drive the success of the Department of Physics & Astronomy.
