Distinguished Alumni Awards Recipients
The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed by the UMass Amherst Alumni Association on alumni, faculty and friends. Recipients of this prestigious award have translated their UMass Amherst experience into distinguished achievement in the public, business or professional realms and bring honor to UMass Amherst and to their field of endeavor.
Susan Hagedorn '77- A nationally recognized nurse, filmmaker and philanthropist.
2012 Distinguished Alumni AwardAfter a long career as a pediatric and women’s health nurse, Hagedorn founded Seedworks Films to produce and direct films about nursing and social change. She is also the only woman to create an endowed professorship in a public nursing school in New England with the Seedworks Professorship at the UMass Amherst School of Nursing.
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Victor Bahl '97 PhD- Director of Microsoft’s Mobile Computing Research Center
2012 Distinguished Alumni AwardVictor Bahl is the director of Microsoft’s Mobile Computing Research Center, which focuses on basic and applied research in all areas related to mobile computing. The emphasis is on inter-disciplinary research to address problems, build proof-of-concept systems, engage with academia, publish scientific papers, publish software for the research community, and transfer cutting-edge technologies to Microsoft’s product divisions.
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Henry L. Barr '68- The senior partner of the law firm of Barr and Cole.
2012 Distinguished Alumni Service AwardHenry Barr is the senior partner of the law firm of Barr and Cole. He has served UMass Amherst as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, Center for Public Policy and Administration Advisory Board, and UMass Amherst Foundation, to name a few. He has also endowed a scholarship fund allowing urban youth from the West End House Boys and Girls Club of Allston, MA to attend UMass Amherst.
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George G. Smith, Jr. '02- Manages Global Social Media and CRM strategy for the PepsiCo beverage portfolio.
2012 Distinguished Young Alumni AwardGeorge Smith manages Global Social Media and CRM strategy for the PepsiCo beverage portfolio. He is deeply engaged in the implementation of the Pepsi Refresh Project, which provides grants for refreshing consumer generated ideas. He is an award winning social media strategist and has been a featured speaker at national conferences such as South by Southwest, AdTech, Social Media Week and Blog World Expo.
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John D. Stuart - Senior vice president of global education and country manager of PTC Eastern Europe.
2012 Distinguished Honorary Alumni AwardJohn D. Stuart is senior vice president of global education and country manager of PTC Eastern Europe, which delivers technology-based learning solutions that inspire a new generation of engineers. He is the co-chair of the UMass Amherst Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Industry Advisory Board and serves on the board for the American Society of Engineering K-12 Educators.
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Sigrid Bauschinger- Wolfgang Paulsen Professor of German Studies emerita at UMass Amherst.
2012 Distinguished Faculty AwardSigrid Bauschinger is a Wolfgang Paulsen Professor of German Studies emerita at UMass Amherst. She joined the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in 1968 and served as department head from 1976 to 1979 introducing German Studies courses that focused on the historical, political and cultural context of German literature. She is a renowned scholar, author and coordinator of the Amherst Colloquia on German Literature.
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