Please spread the word and plan to attend this student-led Special Collections open house. Come learn about ten unique items from the collection and talk with students about their research!
This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.
Reposted from UMBC News: Mark Benesch catalyzes UMBC’s partnership with drug maker AstraZeneca
On a recent Wednesday in September, thousands of people filled the arena of the Retriever Activity Center for the UMBC 2025 Fall Career and Internship Fair. At the booth for pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, Mark Benesch '08, chemical engineering, eagerly engaged with students, some of whom waited in a line 30-odd people long at times for their chance to ask questions and exchange contact information. 
Interns and staff in a lab at AstraZeneca. Foreground left to right: Ortisemoyowa Ikomi (capital project intern), Fola Okubanjo, Mark Benesch '08 (Americas capital portfolio director) Background left to right: Manasi Pukazhenthi, Tania Monterastelli '08 (senior capital project manager), Andrea Baez, and Phil Haven. Photo courtesy of Benesch.
Benesch has regularly brought his enthusiasm and energy to UMBC career fairs, first as a recruiter for ExxonMobil, where he worked immediately after graduating, and later for the Columbia, Maryland-based chemical company W.R. Grace. But it was after starting at AstraZeneca as the senior director of the capital projects portfolio for the Americas region in January 2023 that Benesch spotted the opportunity to take his connections with the university to the next level.
Mark Benesch and other AstraZeneca recruiters talk with students at the UMBC Career Fair in September. (Photo courtesy of Miriam Friedman)
AstraZeneca employs thousands of people across the state of Maryland, including at a large scientific campus in Gaithersburg, a center in Frederick that manufactures a diverse class of drugs called biologics, and a newly opened facility in Rockville that will manufacture immunotherapy drugs to treat cancer. The company has announced plans to invest $50 billion in America by 2030 for medicines manufacturing and research and development.
From the hundreds of UMBC alumni at AstraZeneca, Benesch has recruited and inspired a team of eight dedicated to forging stronger links to their alma mater. They, together with partners in AstraZeneca's Early Career Programs, have built a strong alumni-driven network linking UMBC students with opportunities at the company.
"Mark is always thinking about innovative ways to connect," says Christine Routzahn, the director of the Career Center at UMBC who has worked with Benesch to expand the UMBC-AstraZeneca partnership. "He's very passionate about UMBC and ensuring our students are successful."
Benesch's efforts will be recognized when he receives the 2025 Distinguished Service Alumni Award this October.
![Mark Benesch and some members of the UMBC recruiting team he has brought together. [Above], Benesch, Matthew Schwarz '11, Shakir Muradymov '07, Chioma Ngobili '04, Tania Monterastelli '08, and Sara Rego in front of the AstraZeneca Gaithersburg campus.](https://umbc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/astra-zeneca-umbc-recruiting-team-0294-1200x800.jpg)
Mark Benesch and some members of the UMBC recruiting team he has brought together. [Above], Benesch, Matthew Schwarz '11, Shakir Muradymov '07, Chioma Ngobili '04, Tania Monterastelli '08, and Sara Rego in front of the AstraZeneca Gaithersburg campus. [Below], the team chats inside. Not pictured are team members Emily Elliott, M.S. '22, Asmaa Hasan '22, Moe Nayel '15, and Babacarr Lemon '23. (Brad Ziegler/UMBC)![[Below], the team chats inside. Not pictured are team members Emily Elliott, M.S. '22, Asmaa Hasan '22, Moe Nayel '15, and Babacarr Lemon '23. (Brad Ziegler/UMBC)](https://umbc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/astra-zeneca-umbc-recruiting-team-0209-1200x800.jpg)
The work of the AstraZeneca-UMBC recruiting team has gone far beyond career fairs. Under Benesch's stewardship, AstraZeneca played a key role at the UMBC-hosted 2024 Mid-Atlantic Student Conference for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. The company sponsored the event and Pran Patel, the vice president of global engineering and real estate at AstraZeneca, served as a keynote speaker. Benesch met monthly with student organizers of the conference, helped lead a popular conference workshop, and mobilized other AstraZeneca employees to volunteer.
"From a five-minute conversation at the career fair, Mark took the initiative to follow up and create real collaboration opportunities," says An Dang '24, a student organizer who led the fundraising efforts for the conference.
Benesch and his team have also worked with UMBC to launch new collaborations such as dedicated on-campus information sessions and recruiting events, alumni happy hours, and tours and networking at the AstraZeneca Gaithersburg campus.
The efforts have paid off, as the number of UMBC students applying to summer internships at AstraZeneca has increased by 31 percent in the past year, and the number of students accepting internships has grown from one in summer 2024 to seven in 2025.
On the research side, Benesch attended the College of Engineering and Information Technology's recent Research Day and is facilitating discussions of ways AstraZeneca may partner with UMBC faculty on joint projects.
"Mark's ongoing dedication to serving his alma mater has been nothing short of extraordinary," says Mariajosé Castellanos, a teaching professor in the Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering who first met Benesch in her thermodynamics class in 2006. "As a faculty member who has been in the department for 20 years and served as the AIChE UMBC Chapter advisor for the past nine, I can confidently say that I have never seen this level of consistent engagement and support from any other undergraduate alumnus."
Benesch, who was the first from his family to go to college, credits his UMBC education with empowering him to realize his own potential.
"At UMBC, I was exposed to so much, and from that I gained confidence. Technical confidence, yes, but also the confidence to navigate the diversity of the world and the opportunities that come from that," he says. "So I'm inspired to help today's students receive that same kind of support, and even more so."
"Mark is so animated when he's connecting with people. He listens well and he really brings out the best in students," says Miriam Friedman, assistant director of alumni professional networks.
On his part, Benesch says the students give him energy. "They are curious and smart and I see their enormous potential," he says. "To give them opportunities to realize it for themselves is really gratifying."
Abi Postus, a junior in chemical engineering who interned this summer on Benesch's AstraZeneca team, says she was impressed by his efforts to connect her to resources and make sure she got the most out of the experience.
"I remember one piece of advice he told me," she says, "which was: 'Don't be afraid to take up space.' I found that very helpful because this was my first internship and it was kind of daunting. That made me feel more confident."
Word or text embeddings are a central component in modern language models, including those powering generative AI. Embeddings represent word meanings as positions in space, where words that are closer together are used in similar contexts or evoke similar concepts -- even if those words never actually co-occur. We navigate the meaning space created by embeddings directly using basic arithmetic, and in doing so, explore how meaning changes overtime or how meaning differs between different collections of texts.
Dustin Stoltz is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Cognitive Science at Lehigh University. He studies a variety of topics in cultural and economic sociology and specializes in computational methods. Five copies of his recently published book, Mapping Texts: Computational Text Analysis for the Social Sciences (coauthored with Marshall Taylor), will be raffled off to workshop registrants.
Lunch will be provided for registered attendees.
Hosted by the Center for Social Science Scholarship and cosponsored by the Departments of English; Sociology, Anthropology, & Public Health; Modern Languages, Linguistics, & Intercultural Communication; the Division of Information Technology; the Center for Scalable Data and Computational Science; and CGC-SCIPE.
]]>Your network is one of the most powerful tools you have for building your career — and the best time to start using it is now. Networking isn't just about collecting contacts; it's about building meaningful relationships that can open doors, spark collaborations, and help you turn your potential into real opportunities.
Whether you're exploring career paths, preparing for graduation, or hoping to gain experience while in school, connecting with professionals can give you insights and confidence that no online search can match.
1. Explore: Learn from Conversations, Not Just Job Posts
Networking helps you discover career options and industries that might not be on your radar. By talking with alumni, recruiters, or peers at career events, you gain firsthand advice about what it's really like to work in specific fields — and what skills matter most.
2. Connect: Build Relationships That Last
Every handshake, LinkedIn message, or quick chat can plant the seed for future opportunities. Focus on authentic conversations rather than "pitching" yourself. Ask thoughtful questions, listen actively, and follow up after events to keep the connection alive.
3. Advance: Turn Conversations into Career Momentum
The most successful job seekers don't wait for openings to appear — they build relationships that lead to them. Networking gives you insider perspectives, referrals, and mentors who can help you grow into your next professional chapter.
Ready to Turn Potential into Power?
Tonight you'll have an amazing opportunity to build your network and take the next step in your career journey at the Discovery Recruitment Event. Join the Career Center and the UMBC Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers for an exclusive networking event designed to help you make meaningful connections that can lead to an interview or career advancement.
There are only a few seats left, but still register, as there are usually cancellations and students on the waitlist should be able to attend.
Don't just show up — show who you are, what drives you, and where you're headed. Because when you connect with purpose, you turn your potential into power.
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The research and advisory firm Gartner released a Hype Cycle for artificial intelligence last week. Its hype cycles represent the maturity, adoption, and social application of technologies that are important to business and the economy. While the details are currently available for Gartner’s clients, more public information on it will be released in the coming weeks.
The concept of a hype cycle was invented by Gartner 30 years ago to capture the five stages that new technological advancements typically go through as they mature and are adapted. The stages are technology trigger, peak of inflated expectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment, and plateau of productivity. While the categories are not very scientific, they do represent some insights into how new technical ideas develop.
You can compare their 2025 AI hype cycle to the 2024 one.