Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has announced the appointment of Emily Perlow as vice president for student affairs and dean of students, effective immediately. Perlow, who has served WPI since 2005 and most recently was assistant vice president and dean of students, has long been recognized as a champion for students and an empowering mentor for her team.  In her new role, Perlow will oversee all areas within student affairs, including career development, housing and dining, physical education, athletics, recreation, student activities and engagement, support for WPI’s diverse student populations, health and well-being, student conduct, the Rubin Campus Center, and the bookstore.  “Emily has consistently demonstrated empathetic and principled leadership that puts students at the center of everything she does,” said Grace Wang, president of WPI. “Her vision, dedication, and deep knowledge of higher education will continue to strengthen WPI’s commitment to providing an outstanding student experience.”  Since joining WPI, Perlow has played a central role in shaping the university’s student experience, from enhancing residential life and student well-being to advancing initiatives that promote belonging and developing leadership opportunities. She has overseen multimillion-dollar housing and dining operations, led crisis response teams, advanced student conduct processes, and secured major grants to support equitable teamwork and universal design in education.  “I am honored to step into this role and continue working alongside our remarkable students, staff, and faculty,” said Perlow. “WPI is a community that values innovation, inclusion, and resilience, and I look forward to advancing initiatives that ensure every student thrives personally, academically, and professionally.”  Beyond her leadership at WPI, Perlow is widely recognized in the field of student affairs. She has authored numerous articles, book chapters, presentations, and resources on hazing prevention, including editing and contributing to the 2024 New Directions for Student Services monograph, “Special Issue: Understanding and Addressing Hazing,” and has a forthcoming book chapter on hazing prevention in athletics. She also designed the curriculum for and continues to lead the award-winning Hazing Prevention Institute through the Hazing Prevention Network, which received the North American Interfraternity Conference 2024 Laurel Wreath Award.  Her professional leadership includes service as vice chair of the board of directors for Worcester’s Friendly House Inc., participation on numerous accreditation visit teams for the New England Commission of Higher Education, and more than a decade of teaching as an adjunct instructor in the Student Development in Higher Education program at Central Connecticut State University. Her professional excellence has also been recognized with the Talent of Leadership Award by Alpha Gamma Delta and the Compass Award from the Northeast Greek Leadership Association.  Perlow earned her PhD in higher education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where her dissertation examined fraternity men’s gender identity and hazing. She also holds a master of arts in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University and a bachelor of arts in anthropology, with distinction, summa cum laude, from the Ohio State University.  Perlow succeeds Philip Clay, who will retire in May after nearly 33 years of dedicated service to WPI, leaving a lasting legacy of commitment to student success and community. 

The story behind why producers from the home improvement show This Old House came to Washburn Shops in August to film general contractor Tom Silva and WPI student Max Sivert ’26 as they created a topographical map of Massachusetts that is destined to be installed on a U.S. Navy submarine—well, pull up a chair, because it’s a long one.  Dinis Pimentel The tale begins with alumnus Dinis Pimentel ’92, chair of the board of directors for the commissioning committee of the USS Massachusetts, a new Virginia-class attack submarine scheduled to be commissioned in Boston in March 2026. The committee is a nonprofit organization that acts as a sort of booster club for the USS Massachusetts, with volunteers working to bring symbols of the commonwealth into the submarine to capture the spirit of its namesake. In addition to planning the commissioning ceremony, the committee acts as a lifelong support system for USS Massachusetts sailors and their families. Pimentel is a captain in the Navy Reserves who served on active duty in submarines when he entered the U.S. Navy after graduating from WPI. He reached out to producers of This Old House, a show with Massachusetts roots, to see if they wanted to participate in some kind of project related to the submarine. The producers toured a sub in Groton, Conn., and identified an elegant solution to a simple problem: creating a safe location for officers’ coffee mugs that would normally hang from simple pegs in the wardroom. After a consultation with the sub’s captain, Silva, with the help of carpenter Nathan Gilbert from the spinoff show Ask This Old House, constructed a beautiful, wall-mounted, wooden board that will snuggly hold each mug, even in the worst sailing conditions. Above the mugs sits an intricately cut map of Massachusetts, with each of its 14 counties constructed from a different type of wood.  The map of Massachusetts ready for its third dimension.  The design called for adding a third dimension to the map to show the topography of the state—from the mountains of Western Massachusetts to the flat Atlantic coastline—a task that needed specialized CNC (computer numerical control) machinery. That’s when Pimentel, remembering his time in Washburn Shops as a nuclear and mechanical engineering major at WPI, contacted Robert Daniello, associate teaching professor and manager of Washburn Shops. “I’m often talking to people around the state about the USS Massachusetts, and as we build community, we see the spirit of the state coming to get behind the boat, the crew, and their families,” says Pimentel, who has volunteered on the committee since construction of the sub started in 2019.  “I thought it was an interesting project,” says Daniello, who notes that although most of the CNC machines in the shop are for metal work, one of the oldest machines (circa 2001) could be adapted.  Enter Sivert, a robotics engineering major with a mechanical engineering minor, who is a lead lab assistant for the intro to manufacturing course and evening lab monitor for the shops. In addition to attending a trade high school focusing on advanced manufacturing, he completed a co-op at a machine shop working with CNC machines. “For the past eight years or so I’ve really only worked with metal,” he says. “Given the chance to not only work with a variety of woods, but for a commemorative art installation, it seemed like an incredibly interesting project.” Sivert worked on the project in his free time—no credit or pay involved—and says writing the CAD (computer-aided design) program to accommodate the size of the board was the most challenging part. “First, I had to split the state into a few different pieces because the board was too large to machine in one go,” he says. The town of Southwick, which oddly juts into the top of central Connecticut, proved to be particularly challenging. “Seeing the first pass of the endmill go over Southwick successfully was a big relief because it proved the remainder of the program would work.” The three-person This Old House crew, which in addition to Silva included producer Sara Ferguson and videographer Dino D’Onofrio, was keen on getting multiple angles of the entire process of setting up and running the machine. “Being filmed while working was kind of bizarre,” says Sivert. “I felt incredibly self-aware about what I was doing throughout the entire milling process. Usually, I interact with the workpiece and the machine console without much thought, but this time around I had to explain everything I was doing, and the reason for it.” Sivert confirms the genuineness of Silva’s down-to-earth, friendly TV persona.  “Just chatting with him throughout the day was nice, too. He’s got a lot of stories to share, and just hearing his perspective on the board and shop was really insightful,” says Sivert, adding that his grandmother is a huge fan of the show. It’s unclear when or how the final segment may air, either as part of the Ask This Old House or a web feature. But Pimentel hopes it can premier sometime around the official commissioning ceremony at the end of March 2026.  “We look forward to celebrating this project with the This Old House and WPI teams at the commissioning gala to thank everyone for their help,” he says. “It’s great that a little bit of WPI and This Old House will be symbolically represented in a submarine named for Massachusetts.”

When a group of WPI students and faculty members first set out in 2022 to interview people connected to the rare earth magnet industry, they wanted to know if an innovative magnet recycling business could succeed. After more than 130 interviews, says Adam Powell, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a member of the team, the group concluded that the answer is a qualified “yes.” Adam Powell “We learned there is demand for recycled materials, and a lot of people want a domestic recycling industry to grow,” Powell says. “Yet the reality is that only a small number of U.S. companies are building recycling capacity. The industry is still maturing as companies develop facilities, awareness of recycling grows, and a steady supply of old magnets builds.” “Rare earth” refers to a group of metallic elements such as neodymium that are abundant in the earth’s crust but difficult and environmentally damaging to mine and process. Magnets made from rare earth minerals are used in everything from hybrid and electric vehicles to wind turbines and fighter jets, and the total market for rare earth elements was valued at more than $3 billion in 2023. China supplies most of the world’s rare earth minerals and has used its hold on the market as a political tool. In early 2025, China threatened to limit rare earth exports, especially to Western defense contractors, as a response to U.S. tariffs. During its review, the WPI group found that challenges for rare earth recycling include incentivizing the recycling of materials and competing with magnets made from virgin materials. 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) announced the appointment of David LaMarco as associate vice president for facilities and campus planning. LaMarco, who will join WPI Oct. 6, brings more than two decades of leadership experience in facilities operations, capital planning, and strategic infrastructure management across higher education and private industry.  LaMarco joins WPI from Wheaton College, where he has served as associate vice president for facilities and auxiliary services, providing executive oversight for facilities operations, dining services, business services, and conference and event management.  At WPI, LaMarco will serve as the university’s chief facilities executive, reporting directly to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mike Horan. He will lead oversee specialized areas—including campus planning, design and construction, and environmental health and safety—and manage a team of approximately 110 professionals and an annual budget of more than $40 million. He will provide strategic oversight of WPI’s built environment, including implementation of the university’s comprehensive campus framework, and will lead capital planning and projects. LaMarco will provide operational management of campus services, including maintenance, custodial, utilities, and groundskeeping, with a focus on performance metrics and continuous improvement, and will advance WPI’s sustainability initiatives, including energy management, green building practices, and environmental stewardship. LaMarco’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for WPI, which recently achieved Carnegie R1 research status—placing it among the top 3% of research institutions nationwide. As WPI’s research enterprise and academic programs continue to grow, LaMarco will play a critical role in ensuring the university’s physical infrastructure supports its mission of preparing students to solve global challenges through project-based learning and interdisciplinary collaboration. “David’s deep expertise in facilities management and his proven ability to lead complex operations make him an outstanding addition to our leadership team,” said Horan. “His strategic vision and operational acumen will be essential as we continue to expand and evolve our campus to meet the needs of an R1 institution.” “I am excited to join WPI right now, as the campus is experiencing strategic growth while adapting to the rapidly changing landscape of higher education,” said LaMarco. “Now more than ever, it’s crucial for leaders within facilities operations to add value through data-driven decision-making while creating an aspirational vision for their teams.” LaMarco holds a master of science in cybersecurity policy and governance from Boston College and a bachelor of science in facilities engineering from Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He is a certified energy manager, certified professional maintenance manager, and certified data center professional.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) today announced a visionary $12 million legacy gift from Carl Karlsson, Class of 1960. The unrestricted estate gift, made following Karlsson’s passing in 2023, will provide broad support across WPI, with a portion dedicated to establishing endowed professorships for early career faculty—a strategic investment in the university’s long-term academic excellence.  Among the most significant philanthropic commitments ever made by an individual to WPI and in support of Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Karlsson’s gift will leave a lasting mark on the university’s future. Unrestricted gifts are among the most powerful forms of philanthropy because they provide WPI with the flexibility to address its highest priorities, respond to emerging opportunities, and invest strategically in areas of greatest need. Karlsson’s altruism ensures WPI remains nimble and well-positioned to advance its mission for generations to come.  “This is a shining example of the extraordinary generosity and dedication of our alumni to give back and help WPI continue to thrive,” said Grace J. Wang, President of WPI. “Carl Karlsson’s remarkable gift will impact the university by supporting faculty excellence, fueling research and innovation, and enriching the student experience. His legacy will empower future generations to achieve, discover, and lead in ways that ensure WPI’s enduring excellence and global impact.”  After earning his degree in chemical engineering in 1960, Karlsson built a successful career in information systems and technology, working for Praxair Inc. in Tonawanda, New York. Throughout his life, he remained deeply connected to WPI, contributing annually to the university’s areas of greatest need for nearly four decades. His legacy gift reflects a lifelong belief in the power of education to improve lives, a value that aligns closely with WPI’s mission and project-based learning model.

Christina Bailey-Hytholt’s research explores something so ordinary that it is often discarded when no longer needed yet so critical that it sustains life. The placenta. Recently named to the Leonard P. Kinnicutt Professorship, Bailey-Hytholt ’15 is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering who focuses on using engineering approaches to advance women’s and prenatal health. She concentrates specifically on problems of the placenta, a temporary organ that forms in the uterus during pregnancy to provide nutrients and oxygen to a developing baby. Some of her work is considered exploratory, but she’s also interested in developing models of the placenta for research and developing particles that package and deliver therapies to patients. Her research has captured attention from funders and others. In 2024, Bailey-Hytholt was awarded a three-year, $502,999 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for early-career researchers to determine the relationship between placental cells known as trophoblasts and the biomolecules they secrete, called exosomes, that are important for cell communication. In 2022, Forbes named her to its 30 Under 30 Class of Innovators. Bailey-Hytholt joined the WPI faculty in 2022 after receiving her PhD in biomedical engineering at Brown University and completing postdoctoral research in genomic medicine and biologics drug product development and manufacturing at Sanofi. Her research has been supported by the NSF, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, and the Amnion Foundation. She is affiliated with WPI’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. From left, Christina Bailey-Hytholt and students Emily Lei '27 and PhD student Kerstin Andrews '25 Q: Did you always want to be a researcher? A: I always gravitated toward healthcare. During middle and high school, I volunteered at a nursing home for several years. When I arrived at WPI as an undergraduate in chemical engineering, I thought I would later go to medical school. Then I worked in the lab of Terri Camesano (dean of graduate studies) and had the best experience. She and the graduate students working in her lab encouraged me to think about pursuing research and my PhD. I didn’t know what graduate school and becoming a researcher really was until my experience working in a lab. At the same time, I had some health challenges of my own. I realized that there are many things we don’t have answers to in a clinical setting, and new research is important to advance medicine.  Q: How did you decide to focus your research on women’s unmet health needs? A: Women’s health is an area that I can relate to and feel I can be an advocate for, which led to my passion for this area of research. However, research into women’s health as an engineer really wasn’t on my radar until a few things came together during my first year of graduate school—opportunities, exciting projects, and good mentors. There was an opportunity to contribute to a prenatal diagnostic project, and that project spurred ideas about using engineering skill sets to study the placenta. I also was fortunate to be an NSF fellow and to have advisors who supported me. Pursuing these projects, I really became passionate about the subject and saw that there were not many engineering approaches being used to advance prenatal and women’s health. On a personal level, I recently went through my own pregnancy and had a healthy daughter, so I saw firsthand how important research is for prenatal health. A researcher holds a clear container that is used to measure the surface charge of nanoparticles in solution. Q: What does chemical engineering have to do with human health? A: The words “chemical engineering” may typically conjure up images of a person wearing a hard hat and working in an industrial plant, but chemical engineers work in many different fields. Many chemical engineers work in health-related fields such as the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Chemical engineers learn to solve problems involving complex systems and processes, and human health involves complex systems and processes. Chemical engineering concepts such as material properties, mass balances, transport, kinetics, thermodynamics, and more are crucial to designing therapeutics and cell models, which are important in advancing human health.  Q: What is the goal of your three-year NSF-funded project? A: The goal of this project is to study and identify the relationship between the environment that trophoblast cells, the main cells in the placenta, are grown in and how they communicate with each other. Trophoblasts invade the endometrium, which is the membrane that lines the uterus, to anchor the placenta in place and ensure adequate blood flow. Trophoblasts also secrete factors that allow cells in the placenta to communicate with each other. The placenta is not a well-understood organ, so my lab is looking at how the environment in the placenta—such as the presence of growth factors or hormones—influences invasiveness and impacts what trophoblasts secrete. It’s important to expand knowledge about the placenta because it is a critical organ for developing babies and there are studies that suggest placental health impacts the lifelong health of babies and mothers—so really, everyone. This award also financially supports graduate and undergraduate students in the lab. We have a great team working on this important project.  Q: As a graduate of WPI, what is it like to return here as a faculty member? A: I love it. It’s awesome to be back in the same research building where I got started. I also think a lot about the mentors I had as an undergraduate, how they influenced my career decisions, and how I can give the undergraduates in my research group a similar experience. I want to give them the opportunity to own their research and enjoy an immersive experience. In the classroom, I can relate to students taking the chemical engineering courses that I teach, because I was in the same seat as them not so long ago. I thought the seven-week terms were fast paced as a student, but they seem to fly by even faster now as a faculty member!