Stay in touch with fellow UConn engineering alumni. Visit our Engineering alumni website or our LinkedIn alumni page and fill us in on your latest activities or learn what your college friends are doing nowadays! Some recent alumni news follows:
Peter Lewis (B.S. Mechanical and Materials Engineering, ‘83 ) has been named Chief Financial Officer of Nabsys, Inc., a life sciences company pioneering solid-state, single-molecule positional sequencing for broad applicability in DNA analysis. He previously served as Vice President of Finance and Administration at Bioscale and as Vice President of Finance and Administration at Affymetrix following the acquisition of Genetic MicroSystems, where he was CFO. In addition to his B.S. degree, Peter also received his MBA from UConn in 1988.
Michael J. Pazzani (B.S., M.S. Computer Science and Engineering, ’80, ’81), Ph.D., was named Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development at the University of California Riverside in July. He was previously Vice President of Research and Economic Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where he oversaw sponsored research, technology transfer, corporate partnerships, and laboratory services. Dr. Pazzani previously served as the director of Information and Intelligent Systems in the Division of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation, and was a founder of AdaptiveInfo, a company that provided personalized mobile content delivery for companies such as the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union Tribune. Dr. Pazzani earned his Ph.D. at UCLA, recently shared lessons learned about his academic education.
Thomas Prete (B.S. Mechanical Engineering, ‘85) was promoted to Vice President of Engineering for Pratt & Whitney. He served previously as Chief Engineer of Hot Section Engineering and engineering director for Operational Military Engines, in charge of engine safety, airworthiness, life management, life extensions, product improvements and technology insertion. He has been with Pratt & Whitney since 1989 and has extensive technical background working in both military and commercial programs. He received an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer and an MBA from the University of Connecticut in 2001. He serves on the External Advisory Board of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UConn.
Robert Roche (B.S. Chemical Engineering and Materials Engineering ’85) was recently appointed V.P. of Sales, Marketing and Communications at Colorado-based Ascent Solar Technologies, a developer of flexible CIGS solar panels. Prior to joining Ascent, Robert served two years as Vice-President, Sales and Business Development at United Solar, a division of Energy Conversion Devices. Before joining United Solar, he was V.P. of Sales and Business Development at United Technologies Corporation’s (UTC) Carrier Division. Earlier in his career, Robert served as General Manager of Marketing and Applications Engineering at UTC’s UTC Power division, and led global marketing and technical sales support efforts for its commercial fuel cell and alternative energy product lines. Mr. Roche’s career at UTC Power also included international experience in engineering management, joint venture program management, new product development and product management and he is a named inventor on nine U.S. Patents. He holds an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
