A new academic year brings with it a new opportunity to celebrate the diversity in our community, beginning with Latine Heritage Month. 

Previously called Latinx Heritage Month, the new name reflects the university’s inclusive outlook and supports the Clark School’s vision of excellence through diversity in engineering. The Clark School’s Latine and Hispanic engineers are leaders in their fields, outstanding educators and mentors, founders of startup companies, and include our Innovation Hall of Fame members Angel P. Bezos ’69, Emilio A. Fernandez ’69, and José Reyes M.S. ’84, Ph.D. ’86.

We all benefit from their engineering solutions. 

Thanks to Latine and Hispanic engineers:

• We are addressing our country’s infrastructure challenges and building a more sustainable future. Research from Juan Carlos Vega-Vila, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering—and his students, including Marcela Ambar Shkolnik—will address ways to reduce the current carbon dioxide footprint made by industrial processes for a stronger built environment and a healthier climate.
• We are working to better understand wildfires and wildland-urban interface fires, which are becoming more common around the globe. Collaborating with fire protection and aerospace engineers, a team led by Fernando Raffan-Montoya M.S. '08, Ph.D. '16, an assistant professor in fire protection engineering, earned a UMD Grand Challenges Grant to help forecast fire behavior and generate new solutions for incident response.
• We are conducting groundbreaking work in micro battery design. A researcher in the Rubloff Research Group, materials science and engineering graduate student Leopoldo Jose Tapia-Aracayo aims to improve the design processes and propel advancements in clean energy manufacturing.

Latine and Hispanic engineers are also addressing crucial health challenges, creating stronger environmental futures, and ensuring that their peers find their people and purpose, on and off campus. UMD’s Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), for example, aims to empower the Hispanic community of students to excel as leaders in STEM. The newly formed SHPEtinas chair highlights the Latina perspective within SHPE. The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science at UMD, one of the first chapters in the U.S., welcomes students, faculty, and staff to join in fostering the success of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in attaining advanced degrees, careers, and positions of leadership in STEM. 

Engineering is most powerful when it draws from the greatest variety of viewpoints and experiences. We are a healthier, safer, and more just world with the contributions of Latine and Hispanic engineers. During Latine Heritage Month, we encourage you to engage with and share their stories on our digital platforms, and get involved in campus activities.

Samuel Graham, Jr. (he/him/his)
Dean and Nariman Farvardin Professor