Orbit of Excellence: Physics Professor Earns UML’s Highest Honor

12/04/2024
By Ed Brennen

Asked to say a few words after being surprised with the news that he’d been named UMass Lowell’s 2024 Distinguished University Professor, Physics Prof. Supriya Chakrabarti instead reached into his backpack and pulled out a Chickadee, a new nanosatellite that he’s been working on with students.

“Some of our aerospace engineering students put this together, and we’re hoping that by the end of the year we’ll have a satellite that could be used by our university students and maybe even high school students,” Chakrabarti explained enthusiastically to more than a dozen administrators and faculty members gathered in the Chancellor’s suite for the announcement.

In a moment that was all about him, Chakrabarti’s first instinct was to highlight students’ work — a character trait that is among the many reasons he was chosen for UML’s top academic honor for a faculty member.

“This is truly unexpected. It’s humbling to be recognized,” Chakrabarti eventually said of the award, which is given annually to a tenured full professor for outstanding contributions to research, education and service to the university community.

A world-renowned expert in space science and technology, Chakrabarti joined UML’s Physics and Applied Physics Department in 2012 after two decades at Boston University. Since then, he has averaged more than $1.5 million in annual research funding, authored more than 340 peer-reviewed publications and spoken at scores of prestigious forums around the world.

“Beyond these numbers is what he’s built up here — entities that help raise the visibility of UMass Lowell as a leader in space science and technology,” Chancellor Julie Chen said.

Chakrabarti is the founding director of the Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology (LoCSST), which has launched several student-driven space missions, including the SPACE HAUC satellite and the PICTURE-C planet-finding telescope.

He is also director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Space Technology and Sciences (MASTS), a multimillion-dollar, state-funded facility for spacecraft testing that was launched on campus earlier this year. He was previously director of Undergraduate Research Opportunities and Collaborations (UROC).

Interdisciplinary collaboration is the rocket fuel for Chakrabarti’s groundbreaking work on space instrumentation and exoplanet research. Provost Joe Hartman noted that Chakrabarti was nominated for the award by 15 faculty members spanning three colleges and seven departments, led by Assoc. Prof. of Physics Ofer Cohen.

“That’s a testament to not only the impact you’ve had across the globe, but the impact that you’ve had on campus,” Hartman said in presenting the award.

“You are an example of what can be done when we work across disciplines,” added Noureddine Melikechi, dean of the Kennedy College of Sciences.

Chen, who was on the BU faculty with Chakrabarti in the 1990s, noted that he has the ability to explain complex scientific concepts in layperson terms that “excite everybody, from little kids up to those of us who are still kids at heart.”

Chakrabarti, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, is the 17th UML professor to receive the award since it was established in 2008, and the fourth from the Kennedy College.

His three-year term as Distinguished University Professor will run through 2027. Other current honorees include Profs. Sandra Lim (English, 2023-2026), Ramaswamy Nagarajan (plastics engineering, 2022-2025) and Katherine Tucker (biomedical and nutritional sciences, 2021-2024).

As part of the award, Chakrabarti will deliver a Distinguished University Professor Lecture on campus next spring.

“Your commitment to our students and to lifelong learning has been a hallmark of your career,” Chen told Chakrabarti as the ceremony concluded.

“It’s easy when you have great students,” he said.