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A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research (2017)

Chapter: Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
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A

Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

MAXINE L. SAVITZ, Co-Chair, is the retired general manager for Technology Partnerships at Honeywell, Inc., formerly AlliedSignal. Previously, she was the general manager of AlliedSignal Ceramics Components. Dr. Savitz was employed at the Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies (1974-1983) and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Conservation. She serves on the board of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy and on advisory bodies for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She serves on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) visiting committee for sponsored research activities. In 2009, Dr. Savitz was appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and served as vice president of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) from 2006 to 2014. She is a member of the NAE, a fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Past board memberships include the National Science Board, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, the Defense Science Board, the Electric Power Research Institute, Draper Laboratories, and the Energy Foundation. Dr. Savitz’s awards and honors include the Orton Memorial Lecturer Award (American Ceramic Society, 1998), the DOE Outstanding Service Medal (1981), the President’s Meritorious Rank Award (1980), recognition by the Engineering News Record for Contribution to Construction Industry (1975 and 1979), and the U.S. Mobility Equipment Research and Design Command (MERDC) Commander Award for Scientific Excellence (1967). She is the author of about 20 publications.

DAVID R. WALT, Co-Chair, is a university professor, professor of biomedical engineering, professor of genetics, and a professor of oral medicine at Tufts University and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor. Dr. Walt is the founding scientist of Illumina, Inc., where he was a director from 1998 to 2016 and is currently chairman of its scientific advisory board. He is also the founding scientist of Quanterix Corporation and a director and chairman of its scientific advisory board since 2007. Dr. Walt has received numerous national and international awards and honors for his fundamental and applied work in the field of optical sensors, arrays, and single molecule detection. He served as co-chair of the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine from 2013 to 2016. Dr. Walt is a member of the NAE, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×

NADINE AUBRY is a university distinguished professor and dean of the Northeastern University College of Engineering and an expert in the field of fluid dynamics, including the modeling of open flow turbulence and other complex flows using advanced decomposition techniques and dynamical systems theory, and microfluidics. Dr. Aubry is a member of the NAE and is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the AAAS, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the National Academy of Inventors. She is a recipient of the G.I. Taylor Medal from the Society of Engineering Science and the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). She currently serves as president of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) and as section secretary of the NAE mechanical engineering section, and on the NAE Membership Policy Committee, the NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education selection committee, the International Council for Science, the U.S. National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNC/TAM) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and the AAAS Engineering Section executive committee. Past positions include chair of USNC/TAM, chair of the U.S. delegation to IUTAM, chair of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics and chair of the NAE Frontiers of Engineering Education advisory committee. Before joining Northeastern, Dr. Aubry was the Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor, university professor, and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. She holds a Diplome d’ Ingenieur from Institut National Polytechnic Grenoble and a Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies from Universite Grenoble Alps, both in mechanical engineering, and a Ph.D. from the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

CHERYL R. BLANCHARD is the CEO and a member of the board of directors of Microchips Biotech, Inc. Dr. Blanchard has extensive experience in the medical device and biologics sectors. From 2002 to 2014, she served in roles of increasing responsibility at Zimmer, Inc., a medical device company focused on musculoskeletal products. Her roles at Zimmer included leadership of research and development (R&D), clinical, quality and regulatory affairs, and health economics. She was also a member of Zimmer’s executive committee and developed and led the biologics business at Zimmer through disciplined execution of an R&D pipeline, coupled with significant partnering and business development activities. Previous to Zimmer, Dr. Blanchard built and led the medical device practice at Southwest Research Institute while also serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center, both in San Antonio, Texas. She has a B.S in ceramic engineering from Alfred University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Texas, Austin. She was elected to the NAE in 2015.

ROBERT D. BRAUN is dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has more than 25 years of experience in performing design and analysis of planetary exploration systems as a member of the technical staff of the NASA Langley Research Center and the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research has focused on systems’ aspects of planetary exploration, where he contributed to the design, development, test, and operation of several robotic space flight systems. He has been an active participant in the development of advanced methods for multidisciplinary design and optimization. Dr. Braun developed the Collaborative Optimization architecture while at Stanford University from 1991 to 1996. This architecture was shown to have significant computational and operational benefits in the optimization of large, distributed design problems. Since completing the initial research in this area, several university and industry groups have applied this technique in solving a diverse set of engineering challenges. From 2000 to 2001, he led and integrated NASA’s advanced engineering environment development program. Dr. Braun received a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1987, an M.S. in astronautics from George Washington University in 1989, and a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in 1996. He has received the inaugural American Astronautical Society Space Technology Award (2014), the 2012 Alvin Seiff Memorial Award, the 2011 AIAA von Karman Astronautics Award, the 1999 AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, two NASA Inventions and Contributions Team Awards, and nine NASA Group Achievement Awards. He is a member of the NAE, vice chair of the National Academies’ Space Studies Board, editor-in-chief of the AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, an AIAA fellow, and the author or co-author of more than 275 technical publications in the fields of atmospheric flight dynamics, planetary explora-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×

tion, multidisciplinary design optimization, and systems engineering. He presently serves on advisory boards for JPL, the Space Systems Sector of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, and the Planetary Society.

CURTIS R. CARLSON is founder and CEO of Practice of Innovation, LLC, was president and CEO of SRI International from 1998 to 2014, and is a prominent innovator and pioneer in developing innovation best practices. He has helped create more than two dozen new companies, including Siri, which was bought by Apple and is now on the iPhone. The value creation process he developed, “Five Disciplines of Innovation,” is used worldwide, including by companies, universities, and government agencies in the United States, Sweden, Finland, Chile, Singapore, Japan, Denmark, Brazil, and Taiwan. A physics graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and a Ph.D. graduate in geophysical fluid dynamics from Rutgers University, he worked at RCA, GE, and then the Sarnoff Corporation. While at Sarnoff, Dr. Carlson led teams that developed the U.S. HDTV standard and a system to assess broadcast digital-video image quality, both of which were awarded engineering Emmy awards. He is fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He received Suffolk University’s first Global Leadership in Innovation and Collaboration Award. He was honored with the Medal of Excellence Award by Rutgers University’s School of Engineering and the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Award from WPI for his professional achievements. For his role in advancing the performance and image quality of information displays, he received the Society for Information Display’s Otto H. Schade Award. He has received four honorary doctor awards, including from the Malaysian Technical University. He was a member of President Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Taiwan’s scientific advisory board, and the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Currently, he is a member of the scientific advisory board for the Singapore National Research Foundation, the advisory council for NSF, and a trustee at WPI. With William Wilmot, he wrote the Business Week Top-10 book Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want.

JIM C.I. CHANG is an adjunct professor in the Department of Electric and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University and formerly a visiting chair professor at National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics from Cornell University. He retired as chief scientist of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). Prior to joining ARL in 1998, Dr. Chang served as director of the Aerospace and Materials Science Directorate of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, chief scientist of the Naval Air Systems Command, manager of advanced materials, structures, and space systems at NASA, and branch head of the structural integrity branch of the Naval Research Laboratory.

MARTHA N. CYR is the director of K-12 Outreach at WPI and is a nationally recognized authority on K-12 educational outreach. Dr. Cyr joined WPI in 2003 after serving as director of the Center for Engineering Educational Outreach at Tufts University, where she had also taught engineering for 9 years. She received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. and Ph.D. in the field from WPI. She also worked as a thermal engineer for Data General Corporation and held a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program fellowship for 3 years working on computational thermal fluids research on the impact of liquid pooling on the energy transfer within a heat pipe in microgravity. At WPI, Dr. Cyr oversees one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive university-based K-12 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach programs, which includes programs targeted at students in elementary, middle, and secondary schools; programs that seek to engage girls and students from underrepresented minorities in STEM disciplines; and programs that provide training and classroom resources for teachers. Working with researchers at other universities under a $1 million award from the NSF National Digital Library Program, Dr. Cyr helped develop Teach Engineering, an extensive online resource for K-12 educators who teach engineering. At Tufts, she was also the principal investigator on a $1.5 million NSF award that funded the Tufts Engineering Next Steps Project and a $1.75 million award from the NSF Teacher Enhancement Program for a pre-college engineering project for teachers.

MONICA OLVERA DE LA CRUZ is the Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, professor of chemistry, professor of chemical and biological engineering, and professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University; director of the Center for Computation and Theory of Soft Materials; and co-director

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×

of the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science. Dr. de la Cruz was elected to the NAS in 2012. She obtained her B.A. in physics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM, Mexico) in 1981, and her Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University, U.K., in 1985. She was a guest scientist (1985-1986) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She joined Northwestern University in 1986. From 2006 to 2013, she directed the Materials Research Center at Northwestern. From 1995 to 1997, she was a staff scientist in the Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique, Saclay, France, where she also held visiting scientist positions in 1993 and in 2003. She has developed theoretical models to determine the thermodynamics, statistics, and dynamics of macromolecules in complex environments, including multicomponent solutions of heterogeneous synthetic and biological molecules, and molecular electrolytes.

MIKE GREGORY is head of the Manufacturing and Management Division of the University Engineering Department and of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM). Following an early career in industry, he was the founder member of the team which established the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos, a senior undergraduate program covering, marketing, design, production, distribution, and service with very close industrial engagement. Subsequent developments in research and collaboration with industry reflected this broad view of manufacturing and led to the establishment of the IfM in 1998. Linking science, engineering, management, and economics and integrating education, research, and practice, the IfM now has more than 230 staff and research students and 100 undergraduate and masters students. Mr. Gregory’s work continues to be closely linked with industry and government, and he has published in the areas of manufacturing strategy, technology management, international manufacturing, and manufacturing policy. External activities have included membership of various government and institutional committees. He served as executive director of the Cambridge MIT Institute from 2005 to 2008 and was a Springer Visiting Professor at University of California, Berkeley, in 2008 and 2009. He chairs the U.K. Manufacturing Professors Forum and is a member of the U.K. government’s Manufacturing Analytical Group on Manufacturing. He is a fellow of Churchill College Cambridge.

WILLIAM HARRIS is the president and CEO of Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz). Prior to joining SFAz, Dr. Harris was in Ireland serving as founding director general of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), a new Irish agency that helped facilitate tremendous growth in Ireland’s R&D sector during his tenure. Immediately prior to going to Ireland, Dr. Harris was vice president of research and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of South Carolina (USC). There, he oversaw research activities throughout the USC system, several interdisciplinary centers and institutes, the USC Research Foundation, and sponsored research programs. Dr. Harris served at the U.S. NSF from 1978 to 1996, including as the assistant director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (1991-1996). He was responsible for federal grants appropriation of $750 million. He also established the initial 25 science and technology centers to support investigative, interdisciplinary research by multi-university consortia. Earlier in his career, he catalyzed the Research Experience for Undergraduates program in the chemistry division, and it became an NSF-wide activity. In 2005, Dr. Harris was elected a member of the Irish Royal Academy and received the Wiley Lifetime Achievement Award from California Polytechnic State University. He has authored more than 50 research papers and review articles in spectroscopy and is a fellow of the AAAS. Dr. Harris earned his undergraduate degree at the College of William and Mary and received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of South Carolina.

FRED C. LEE is currently a university distinguished professor and founder and director of the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), a preeminent academic center in power electronics research at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He is a member of the NAE, an academician of Academia Sinica, and a foreign member of the Chinese Academic of Engineering. As CPES director, Dr. Lee leads a program encompassing research, technology development, educational outreach, industry collaboration, and technology transfer. CPES focuses its research to meet industry needs and allows industry to profit from the center’s research and outputs. The CPES program enables its principal industry members to sponsor graduate fellowships and provides the opportunity to direct research in areas of mutual interest, as well as the ability to access intellectual property generated collectively by all industry-funded fellowships on a royalty-free and nonexclusive

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×

basis. To date, more than 150 companies worldwide have benefited from this industry partnership program. The center has been cited by NSF as a model ERC for its industry collaboration and technology transfer, education, and outreach programs. Dr. Lee has served as major advisor to 83 M.S. and 76 Ph.D. students. He holds 74 U.S. patents and has published 270 journal articles and more than 660 refereed technical papers. His research interests include high-frequency power conversion, magnetics and electromagnetic interference, distributed power systems, renewable energy, power quality, high-density electronics packaging, and integration, modeling, and control.

PHILIP M. NECHES is the founder of Teradata Corporation. Dr. Neches served as the chief technology officer at idealab! in 1999. He served as a vice president and chief technology officer at Multimedia Products and Services Group, AT&T Corporation, from 1994 to 1996; senior vice president and chief scientist at NCR Corporation from 1989 to 1994; and led both the repositioning of their computer product family and the product plan for a merger at AT&T. He founded Teradata in 1979, where he served as vice president and chief scientist from 1979 to 1988. Dr. Neches began his career as a manager of Systems Evaluation Group at Transaction Technology, Inc., where he led analysis of consumer banking networks, including the first large-scale deployment of automated teller machines in the United States. He has been an independent consultant and advisor at a number of public and private information technology companies since 1996. He serves on the advisory boards of Foundation Ventures, LLC (chairman), Evolution Venture Partners, LLC, Tizor Systems, Inc., Simulmedia, Inc., EarthLink, TACODA, LLC, Luxtera, Inc., and the Technology Group of Merrill Lynch. Dr. Neches serves on the board of directors of PeopleLink, Inc., and at Caltech, he serves on the board of trustees; sits on its audit, investment, business, and finance, development, JPL, and executive committees; and chairs the Technology Transfer Committee. He has been a director of International Meta Systems, Inc., since 1996 and served as a director of Expand Beyond Corporation, Vendquest, Inc., Evolving Systems, Inc., International Rectifier Corporation DemoGraFx, and MediaMap. He is one of America’s leading technologists and has more than 30 years of leadership in the field. Dr. Neches received his formal training at Caltech, where he completed his B.S. degree with honors in 1973, M.S. in engineering science in 1977, and Ph.D. in computer science in 1983.

DARRYLL J. PINES is dean and the Nariman Farvardin Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, since 2009. He first arrived at the Clark School in 1995 as an assistant professor and then served as chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering from 2006 to 2009. During a leave of absence from the university (2003-2006), Dr. Pines served as program manager for the Tactical Technology Office and Defense Sciences Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). While at DARPA, he initiated five new programs primarily related to the development of aerospace technologies, for which he received a Distinguished Service Medal. He also held positions at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Chevron Corporation, and Space Tethers, Inc. At LLNL, Dr. Pines worked on the Clementine Spacecraft program, which discovered water near the south pole of the Moon. A replica of the spacecraft now sits in the National Air and Space Museum. Dr. Pines received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT.

RICHARD F. RASHID is chief research officer at Microsoft Research, which he founded in 1991, and between 1991 and 2013, he oversaw the worldwide operations for Microsoft Research, an organization that grew to encompass more than 850 researchers across nearly a dozen laboratories worldwide. His teams collaborated with the world’s foremost researchers in academia, industry, and government on initiatives to expand the state of the art across the breadth of computing and to help ensure the future of Microsoft’s products. During his time at Microsoft, Dr. Rashid has held the positions of director, vice president, senior vice president, and chief research officer. He is currently chief technology officer of Microsoft’s Applications and Services Division. He was presented with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Emanuel R. Piore Award in 2008 and inducted into the NAE in 2003. He was also inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award in 2008. In 2009, Dr. Rashid was given the Microsoft Technical Recognition Award for exceptional career achievements and was inducted into the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014. He is a past member of the NSF Computer Directorate Advisory Committee, the DARPA UNIX Steering Committee, and the Computer Science Network Ex-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×

ecutive Committee. He is a trustee for the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, as well as a former chair of the Association for Computing Machinery Software System Awards Committee. Dr. Rashid received master of science (1977) and doctoral (1980) degrees in computer science from the University of Rochester. He graduated with honors in mathematics and comparative literature from Stanford University in 1974.

S. SHANKAR SASTRY is currently the dean of engineering at University of California, Berkeley, and the faculty director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies. From 2004 to 2007, Dr. Sastry was the director of the Center for Information Technology in the Interests of Society (CITRIS), an interdisciplinary center spanning the University of California in Berkeley, Davis, Merced, and Santa Cruz. He has served as chair, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, from January 2001 through June 2004. From 1999 to early 2001, he was on leave from Berkeley as director of the Information Technology Office at DARPA. From 1996 to 1999, he was the director of the Electronics Research Laboratory at Berkeley. Dr. Sastry received his Ph.D. degree in 1981 from the University of California, Berkeley. He was on the faculty of MIT as an assistant professor from 1980 to 1982 and at Harvard University as a chaired Gordon McKay Professor in 1994. His areas of personal research are resilient network control systems, cybersecurity, autonomous and unmanned systems (especially aerial vehicles), computer vision, nonlinear and adaptive control, control of hybrid and embedded systems, and software. Most recently, he has been concerned with critical infrastructure protection, in the context of establishing a 10-year NSF Science and Technology Center Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technologies. He has coauthored more than 550 technical papers and nine books. Dr. Sastry was elected into the NAE in 2001 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004, and a fellow of the IEEE. He also received the President of India Gold Medal in 1977, the IBM Faculty Development award for 1983-1985, the a NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1985, the Eckman Award of the American Automatic Control Council in 1990, the Ragazzini Award for Distinguished Accomplishments in teaching in 2005, the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology in 1999, and the David Marr Prize for the best paper at the International Conference in Computer Vision in 1999, and the C.L. Tien Award for Academic Leadership in 2010. Dr. Sastry earned an M.A. (honoris causa) from Harvard University in 1994 and an honorary doctorate from the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology in 2007. He has been a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (2002-2005) and the Defense Science Board (2008), among other national boards. He is currently on the corporate boards of C3-Carbon and HCL Technologies (India) and on the scientific advisory boards of Interwest, LLC, GE Software, and Eriksholm.

EDWIN L.THOMAS is the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering. He holds joint appointments in the Departments of Materials Science and Nanoengineering and Chemical and Bio-molecular Engineering at Rice University. Dr. Thomas is a materials scientist and mechanical engineer and is passionate about promoting engineering leadership and student design competitions. His research is currently focused on using 2D and 3D lithography, direct-write, and self-assembly techniques for creating metamaterials with unprecedented mechanical and thermal properties. Dr. Thomas is the former head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. He was the Morris Cohen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering from 1989-2011 and founding director of the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology (2002-2006). He is a recipient of the 1991 High Polymer Physics Prize of the APS and the 1985 American Chemical Society Creative Polymer Chemist award. He was elected to the NAE and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009, and he is an inaugural fellow of the Materials Society in 2008, a fellow of the AAAS (2003), and a fellow of the APS in 1986. He wrote the undergraduate textbook The Structure of Materials and has coauthored more than 450 papers and holds 18 patents. Dr. Thomas received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts and his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Cornell University.

KARAN L. WATSON is provost and executive vice president of Texas A&M University. Dr. Watson had served in the interim position since July 2009. She previously served as vice provost at Texas A&M from December 2008 to July 2009 and as dean of faculties and associate provost from February 2002 to December 2008. She joined the faculty of Texas A&M in 1983 and is currently a Regents Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×

Engineering and in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Before assuming the position of dean of faculties and associate provost, Dr. Watson served as the associate dean for graduate studies in the Dwight Look College of Engineering. She also served the Look College as associate dean for academic affairs and as a member of the faculty senate. She was interim vice president and associate provost for diversity from November 2005 to September 2006, a role that she again held from December 2008 until July 2009. Dr. Watson is a fellow of the IEEE and the ASEE. Her awards and recognitions include the U.S. President’s Award for Mentoring Minorities and Women in Science and Technology, the AAAS mentoring award, the IEEE International Undergraduate Teaching Award, the College of Engineering Crawford Teaching Award, and two university-level Distinguished Achievement Awards from the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students—one in student relations in 1992 and one in administration in 2010. Dr. Watson has chaired the graduate committees of 34 doctoral students and more than 60 master’s degree students. From 2003 to 2004, she served as a senior fellow of the NAE Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education. Since 1991, she has served as an accreditation evaluator and commissioner and is now on the board of directors for ABET, Inc., formerly the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, where she served as president from 2012 to 2013.

YANNIS YORTSOS has served as dean of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering since 2005. He is the Chester F. Dolley Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and holds the Zohrab A. Kaprielian Dean’s Chair in Engineering. Dr. Yortsos is well known for his work on fluid flow, transport, and reaction processes in porous and fractured media with applications to the recovery of subsurface fluids and soil remediation. He has been actively involved in the peer review of the Yucca Mountain Project for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The recipient of many honors for research, teaching, and service, Dr. Yortsos is a member of the NAE and serves as the chair of Section 11. He received his B.Sc. from the National Technical University, Athens, Greece, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Caltech, all in chemical engineering. An invited scholar at several institutions in the United States and abroad, Dr. Yortsos joined the faculty of USC in 1978. He is an associate member of the Academy of Athens and is the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He served on the executive committee of the Engineering Deans Council as well as the executive committee of the Global Engineering Deans Council.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×
Page 65
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×
Page 66
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×
Page 67
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×
Page 68
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×
Page 69
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×
Page 70
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24767.
×
Page 71
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The future security, economic growth, and competitiveness of the United States depend on its capacity to innovate. Major sources of innovative capacity are the new knowledge and trained students generated by U.S. research universities. However, many of the complex technical and societal problems the United States faces cannot be addressed by the traditional model of individual university research groups headed by a single principal investigator. Instead, they can only be solved if researchers from multiple institutions and with diverse expertise combine their efforts. The National Science Foundation (NSF), among other federal agencies, began to explore the potential of such center-scale research programs in the 1970s and 1980s; in many ways, the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) program is its flagship program in this regard.

The ERCs are "interdisciplinary, multi-institutional centers that join academia, industry, and government in partnership to produce transformational engineered systems and engineering graduates who are adept at innovation and primed for leadership in the global economy. To ensure that the ERCs continue to be a source of innovation, economic development, and educational excellence, A New Vision for Center-Based Engineering Research explores the future of center-based engineering research, the skills needed for effective center leadership, and opportunities to enhance engineering education through the centers.

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