Engineering honors engineering faculty members

May 10, 2010, Blacksburg, VA

Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering held its thirteenth annual engineering faculty reception, honoring two dozen of its faculty for various awards in teaching, research, service, and outreach.

The recipients of the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence were: William Baumann of electrical and computer engineering (ECE); Kimberly Ellis of industrial and systems engineering (ISE); and Scott Huxtable of mechanical engineering (ME).

The recipients of the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence were: Rakesh Kapania, the Mitchell Professor of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering (AOE); Jason Lai of ECE; Naren Ramakrishnan of computer science (CS); Pavlos Vlachos of mechanical engineering (ME); and Ge Wang, the Samuel Reynolds Pritchard Professor of the School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES).

The Dean’s Awards for Service were presented to the following: Wayne Neu of AOE; Willem (Hardus) Odendaal of ECE; and Eileen Van Aken of ISE.

Five Outstanding New Assistant Professors were named: Aditya Johri of engineering education (EngE); Michael Philen of AOE; Padma Rajagopalan of chemical engineering (ChE); Shane D. Ross, of engineering science and mechanics (ESM); and Jake Socha, also of ESM.

Six College of Engineering Faculty Fellows were named. This award carries an annual $5,000 account for the next three fiscal years to be used for supporting his or her research. The recipients were: Steven Ellingson of ECE; Russell Green of civil and environmental engineering (CEE); Leigh McCue of AOE; Alexey V. Onufriev of CS; Amy Pruden-Bagchi of CEE; and Marissa Nichole Rylander of ME/SBES.

The W.S.”Pete” White Award in Engineering Education was presented to Vinod Lohani of EngE.

The College Award for Outreach Excellence for 2010 was Ken Harmon, Jr., of ISE.

Certificates of Teaching Excellence were awarded to: Michael Agnew of ISE; William Baumann of ECE; Gerald Luttrell of mining and minerals engineering; and Mark Stremler of ESM.