Past Outstanding Achievement and Advocacy Award Recipients

• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Francisco Cervantes-Perez ('85 PhD) 
  President, Universities Network, PROEDUCA Global
• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Julie Flannery ('93 BS)
  Senior Director of Software Engineering, Dell Technologies
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Tian Guo ('13 MS, '16 PhD)
  Assistant Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Christoper Jaynes ('00 PhD)
  CTO, Mersive Technologies
• Computing for the Common Good Award: Josephy Kiniry ('94 MA)
  Principal Scientist, Galois; CEO and Chief Scientist, Free & Fair
• Outstanding Support for the College: Hanuma Kodavalla ('88 MS)
  Technical Fellow, Microsoft

Watch the 2022 OAA award recipient videos 

• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Lee Delaney ('93 BS) 
  Former President, Chief Executive Officer and Director, BJ's Wholesale Club
• Outstanding Achievement in Technical Development: Harpreet Sawhney ('92 PhD)
  Principal Computer Vision Architect, Microsoft Hololens 
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Brendan Burns ('07 PhD)
  Co-Founder, Kubernetes & Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Azure
• Computing for the Common Good Award: Kavya Krishna ('16 BS)
  Co-Founder, Society of Women Coders 
• Outstanding Support for the College: Robert Sproull 
  Adjunct Professor, Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences and former Vice President and Director, Oracle Labs 

Watch the 2021 OAA Award recipient videos. 

• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Quentin Clark ('94 BS) 
  Chief Technology Officer, Dropbox
• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Panos K. Chrysanthis ('86 MS, '91 PhD)
  Professor of Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Matthew B. Dwyer ('95 PhD)
   John C. Knight Faculty Fellow and Professor of Computer Science, University of Virginia
• Computing for the Common Good Award: Helen Gigley ('69 MS, '82 PhD)
  Program Manager, Office of Naval Research (retired)
• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Arvind Nithrakashyap ('97 MS)
  Co-founder & CTO, Rubrik
• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Paul Scorza ('81 BS) 
  Executive Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer,
  Retail Business Services, Ahold Delhaize USA
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Jay M. Wong ('14 BS, 16 MS)
  Co-founder, Southie Autonomy

View photos from the 2019 OAA Awards banquet.

• Outstanding Contributions to Society: Esha Sahai (UMass Amherst '02 BS, '04 MS)
  Venture Partner  
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Shiraj Sen (UMass Amherst '07 MS, '12 PhD)
  Lead Scientist, GE Global Research
• Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Subhabrata "Shubho" Sen (UMass Amherst '97 MS, '01 PhD)
  Lead Inventive Scientist, AT&T Labs Research  
• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Rahul Simha (UMass Amherst '86 MS, '90 PhD)
  Professor of Computer Science, The George Washington University 
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Lisa Zurk (UMass Amherst '85 BS)
  Program Manager, Strategic Technology Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 

View photos from the 2018 OAA Awards banquet.

• Outstanding Contributions to Society: Shashi Buluswar (UMass Amherst '95 CS MS, '02 PhD)
  CEO, Institute for Transformative Technologies 
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Jamie Callan (UMass Amherst '87 CS MS, '93 PhD)
  Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University 
• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Rajesh Jha (UMass Amherst '90 CS MS)
  Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Office Live and Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft
• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Tareef Kawaf (UMass Amherst '94 CS, Math)
  President, RStudio 
• Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Brian Kettler (UMass Amherst '87 CS BS)
  Chief Scientist, LM Fellow, Lockheed Martin 
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Sarah Osentoski (UMass Amherst '09 CS PhD), Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Mayfield Robotics

View photos from the 2017 OAA Awards banquet. 

• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Alden DoRosario  (UMass Amherst '04 CS MS), Co-founder, Chitika
• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Elaine C. Haney (UMass Amherst '84 CS BS), Chief Operating Officer, Legacy.com 
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Shaun Kane (UMass Amherst '03 CS BS, '05 MS), Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder 
• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Steven Levitan (UMass Amherst '79 CS MS, '84 PhD), John A. Jurenko, Professor of Computer Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh 
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Badri Nath (UMass Amherst '89 CS PhD), Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, Rutgers University
• Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Tom Wagner (UMass Amherst '00 CS PhD), Entrepreneur and Former CTO, iRobot

• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Kevin D. Ashley (UMass Amherst '88 CS PhD), Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Professor, Graduate Program in Intelligent Systems, and Senior Scientist, Learning Research and Development Center
• Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Eric W. Brown (UMass Amherst '96 CS PhD ), Director of Watson Algorithms for IBM Watson Group Innovations
• Outstanding Contributions to Society: Janice Cuny (former UMass Amherst faculty member), NSF CISE Program Director for Computing Education; Program Director for NSF's Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance Program 
• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Peter F. DiGiammarino (UMass Amherst '75 BDIC), Chairman of Compusearch and CEO of IntelliVen, LLC
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Lixin Gao (UMass Amherst '97 CS PhD), Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Ziv Gillat(UMass Amherst '95 CS BS), Cofounder and Evangelist at Eye-Fi, Inc.
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Meck Khalfan (UMass Amherst '05 CS BS), CEO and Cofounder of Puku LLC

• Outstanding Contributions to Society: Randy E. Ellis (UMass Amherst '87 CS PhD), Professor in the School of Computing, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department of Surgery at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario
• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Donald H. House(UMass Amherst '84 CS PhD), Professor and Chair, Division of Visual Computing in the School of Computing at Clemson University
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Vanessa Murdock(UMass Amherst '05 CS MS, '06 PhD), Principal Applied Researcher, Microsoft Bing, Relevance Sciences Group
• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Mary-Ellen Prescott(UMass Amherst '84 CS BS), New Technology Program Manager at Bose Corporation
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Zhi-Li Zhang (UMass Amherst '92 CS MS, '97 PhD), Qwest Chair Professor and McKnight Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota
• Outstanding Support for the School: EMC Corporation

• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Laura K. Dillon (UMass Amherst '81 CS MS, '84 PhD), Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University
• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Wayne W. Duso(UMass Amherst '85 CS BS), General Manager, AWS New Cloud Initiatives at Amazon.com
• Outstanding Contributions to Society: Arthur I. Karshmer(UMass Amherst  '74 CS MS, '78 PhD), Professor and Department Chair in the School of Management's Department of Analytics and Technology at the University of San Francisco
• Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Rakesh (Teddy) Kumar (UMass Amherst '92 CS PhD), Director of Vision Technologies Center at SRI International
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Jennifer Neville(UMass Amherst '00 CS BS, '04 MS, '06 PhD), Associate Professor of Computer Science and Statistics at Purdue University
• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Aaron St. John(UMass Amherst '03 CS BS, '05 MS), Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of HitPoint Studios
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Richard S. Sutton(UMass Amherst '80 CS MS, '84 PhD), Professor and iCORE Chair in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta

• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Justin Borgman(UMass Amherst '02 CS BS), Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder of Hadapt
• Outstanding Support for the Department: Frederick W. Byron Jr., retired Vice-Chancellor for Research of the University of Massachusetts Amherst ('94-'04)/Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics ('79 to '93)
• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Claire Cardie (UMass Amherst '94 CS PhD), Professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University and Cofounder and Chief Scientist of Appinions
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Edmund Durfee (UMass Amherst '87 PhD), Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and in the School of Information at University of Michigan
• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Andrew Merlino(UMass Amherst '85 CS BS), President and Founder of Pixel Forensics
• Outstanding Support for the Department: Ken Schmidt, Academic Relations Director for Yahoo!
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Henning Schulzrinne(UMass Amherst '92 PhD), Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and Chief Technology Officer of the Federal Communications Commission
• Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Edwin (Ted) Selker (UMass Amherst '81 CS MS),Associate Director of Mobility Research and Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley
• Outstanding Contributions to Society: Elliot Soloway (UMass Amherst '78 CS PhD), Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the College of Engineering, the School of Information and the School of Education at the University of Michigan

• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Ronald Craig Arkin(UMass Amherst '87 CS PhD), Regents' Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Space Planning in the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory.
• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Renu Chipalkatti(UMass Amherst '87 CS MS), Global Head, Vertical Industry Solutions: Product Management at Verizon Business
• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: A. Anthony Gee(UMass Amherst '90 CS BS), Cofounder and Managing Partner of Carthage Capital Group
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Irene Ros (UMass Amherst '06 CS BS), Research Developer at the Visual Communication Lab, a group within the Collaborative User Experience group at the Center for Social Software at IBM Research
• Outstanding Achievement in Public Service: John L. Woods(UMass Amherst '80 CS PhD), retired in 2006 as President and General Manager of TRW's Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory
• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Wei Zhao (UMass Amherst '86 CS PhD), Rector and Chaired Professor of the University of Macau
• Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Michael Zyda (UMass Amherst '78 CS MS), Director of the Game Pipe Laboratory and a Professor of Engineering Practice in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California

• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Carla Brodley (UMass Amherst '94 CS PhD), Professor of Computer Science, Tufts University
• Outstanding Achievement in Public Service: Jody Daniels(UMass Amherst '97 CS PhD), Director of Advanced Programs, Lockheed Martin, and Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves
• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Andrew Singer(UMass Amherst '79 CS PhD), Chief Scientist, Edison Labs LLC, and previously Founder, CEO, and CTO of Rapport  Incorporated
• Outstanding Achievement by a Young Alum: Sanjay Tandon(UMass Amherst '01 CS BS), Founder and CEO, Paramount Defenses Inc.
• Outstanding Support for the Department: Sidney Topol (UMass Amherst Physics '47 BS), President of The Topol Group
• Outstanding Achievement in Management: Steve Vinter (UMass Amherst '85 CS PhD), Director, Google Cambridge
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Alexander Wolf (UMass Amherst '85 CS PhD), Professor of Computing, Imperial College London

• Outstanding Achievement in Management: P. Anandan (UMass Amherst '87 PhD), Managing Director of Microsoft Research India
• Outstanding Achievement in Technology Development: Carol A. Broverman (UMass Amherst '91 PhD), Senior Corporate Manager, Enterprise Medication Informatics and Decision Support, Clinical Informatics Research and Development, Partners Healthcare Systems, Inc, Boston
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Michael J. Franklin(UMass Amherst '83 BS), Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Computer Science Division, University of California Berkeley, and co-Founder of Truviso, Inc.
• Outstanding Support for the Department: Joyce L. Plotkin, President Emerita, Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council
• Outstanding Achievement in Education: Debra J. Richardson(UMass Amherst '81 PhD), Professor of Informatics and the Ted and Janice Smith Family Foundation Dean of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine
• Outstanding Achievement in Research: Tuomas Sandholm(UMass Amherst '96 PhD), Professor of Computer Science and Director, Agent-Mediated Electronic Marketplaces Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University, and Founder of CombineNet, Inc.
• Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship: Steven Willis(UMass Amherst '78 BDIC BS), Founder of Wellfleet Communications and Argon Networks
• Outstanding Contributions to Society: Bryant W. York (UMass Amherst '81 PhD), Professor, Computer Science Department and Co-Director, Laboratory for Learning and Adaptive Systems, Portland State University