Engineering science and mechanics alumnus Benjamin Ross receives Alumni Achievement Award
3/13/2019
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Engineering science and mechanics (ESM) alumnus Benjamin M. Ross (’06 ESC, ’07 M.S. ESC) was recently named one of 15 recipients of the 2019 Penn State Alumni Association Alumni Achievement Award.
The Alumni Achievement Award recognizes alumni 35 years of age and younger for their extraordinary professional accomplishments. Award recipients are nominated by an academic college or campus and invited by the President of the University to return to Penn State to share their expertise with students and the University community. Honorees demonstrate to students that Penn State alumni succeed in exceptional fashion at an early age.
Ross is founder and chief technical officer of POWr.io, which provides customizable, easy-to-use and affordable solutions to help businesses grow online. POWr has helped more than 12 million small businesses grow, and the company has doubled in size each of the last two years, currently employing about 30 people.
After earning his master’s degree, Ross received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied the interface of nanotechnology, biology and photonics, and published more than 20 papers and patents.
Ross has made numerous research contributions in the fields of optics and bionanotechnology. He has founded a series of startups, including Diasses, a company that provides rapid point-of-care DNA testing and has gone through the top tech incubators in the world (YCombinator and StartX). He also served as the lead developer of Go Overseas, described as “Yelp for overseas travel, study and volunteer experiences.” Ross is additionally an angel investor in several software and biotech startups.
Not only has Ross distinguished himself through his professional accomplishments, he has also continued a lifelong fascination with music. He has released dozens of singles, EPs, LPs and videos, including an early HTML5 music video (featured by Google Chrome Experiments) and a VR Music video.
Ross received the 2016 ESM Early Career Recognition Award. He is a life member of the Penn State Alumni Association and lives in Oakland, California, with his dog, Founder.
Along with the University’s other Alumni Achievement Award recipients, Ross will be officially recognized at an award ceremony on March 29, 2019, on the University Park campus.
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