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Fall 2004 Departments
Exchange
Around the Pond
Great Sport
Arts
Books
Foundation News
Connections
Extended Family
Zip 01003
Features
The Future's So Bright
The Prince of Pages
The Changing Face of Beauty
Campaigns: Good for What Ails Us?
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Foundation News
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To the Starting Line
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—Karen Skolfield ’98 G
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John and Elizabeth Armstrong enjoy getting to know students who reveive funding from the engineering scholarship they helped establish in 2001. |
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THE VIEW FROM THEIR PICTURE window is spectacular, with the blue haze of hills in the distance, just at the edge of campus. When John and Elizabeth Armstrong are asked why they’ve become so connected to UMass Amherst, Elizabeth laughs and nods toward the view: “You look out the window and there it is.”
Though their ties to UMass Amherst are many, proximity was indeed first. Science and education have been a predominant part of their lives: John Armstrong has served on the National Science Board that oversees the National Science Foundation, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Neither Armstrong is an alum, but after their move to Amherst in 1995, John began working as an adjunct professor in the physics department, then joined the Dean’s Advisory Council in the College of Engineering. Soon after, they decided to endow a scholarship in engineering. Then a professorship. And then they waited.
The $200,000 seed money for the engineering scholarship paid out first, in 2001. Since then four students in electrical and computer engineering have become Armstrong Scholars. “We get emails from Rich,” John says, referring to Rich Powers CSE ’02, who is now a master’s candidate at the University of Washington. “He’s on his way to being a first-rate engineer. We expect great things from him.”
The scholarship is geared toward undergraduate research. “I’m a big fan of undergraduates doing hard stuff,” says John, who earned his engineering degrees from Harvard and worked for 30 years in research at IBM, where his positions included vice president for science and technology and director of research. It’s not surprising, then, that the Armstrong Professional Development Professorship would also be used to encourage young professors to devote their energy to the next level of “hard stuff.”
“The amount of effort required to get proposals out is huge,” John says. “This [professorship] was to supplement young faculty in their research. This is an investment in young careers,” John adds. “You don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but you only get real rewards if you take real risks.”
Behind where the Armstrongs sit, and not far from their view of UMass, there is a plaque commemorating the Armstrong professorship, a UMass mug, a cluster of pictures—three years of the Armstrongs standing with their scholars.
“This is our UMass shrine,” says Elizabeth. She adds, “We just got them to the starting line. Now we root for them.”
http://www.umass.edu/development/donors/
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/ |
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[top of page]
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Kicking Arboriculture Up a Notch
Kicking Arboriculture Up a Notch: more images
The Future of Small
The Future of Small: larger image
To the Starting Line
To the Starting Line: larger image
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