Purdue News
Purdue News
|
|
November 16, 2001 Purdue honors 7 electrical engineering alumniWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Seven Purdue University alumni were honored Thursday (11/15) at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering's 10th annual Outstanding Electrical Engineer Awards ceremony. "Out of approximately 20,000 electrical and computer engineering alumni, only 127 have received the Outstanding Electrical Engineer Award," said W. Kent Fuchs, head of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "These individuals have broken technological barriers with their inventions and written the textbooks used by today's engineering students. They have served their profession and their communities and had an impact on lives of people around the globe. "The school is proud to spotlight the work of these Purdue alumni, because their contributions to engineering truly are shaping the future of our country and the world." The 2001 Outstanding Electrical Engineer honorees are:
• Carl J. Johnson, Natrona Heights, Pa., chairman/chief executive officer of II-VI Inc., Saxonburg, Pa. Johnson earned his bachelor's degree from Purdue in 1964, his master's from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his doctorate from the University of Illinois. He founded II-VI Inc. in 1971. The company manufactures laser optics, materials and components, military infrared optics components and x-ray/gamma ray detectors. Johnson began his career working on the development of submarine cable and satellite communication systems at Bell Telephone Laboratories. From 1966 to 1971 he was responsible for a number of research projects sponsored by Essex International at Mellon Institute, now part of Carnegie-Mellon University. He served eight years on the Laser and Electronics Technical Activity Committee at the U.S. Department of Commerce, advising on export regulations, and seven years with the Pennsylvania Ben Franklin technology organization, a state-sponsored technology development initiative.
• Aelred J. Kurtenbach, Brookings, S. D., president, director and treasurer of Daktronics Inc. Kurtenbach received his doctoral degree from Purdue in 1968. He is co-founder and president of Daktronics Inc., a company that began as a manufacturer of electronic voting systems for state legislatures. The company is a supplier of electronic scoreboards, large-screen video boards and computer-programmable displays. Kurtenbach is a former South Dakota State University professor and interim dean of the engineering school at South Dakota State University. He is a past member of the South Dakota Board of Regents and a member of the South Dakota State University Foundation Board. He was twice named South Dakota's Small Businessman of the Year. Kurtenbach was the 1994 winner of the South Dakota Entrepreneurial Success of the Year and South Dakota Sales and Marketing Executive of the Year awards and received the 2000 Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the manufacturing category.
• Guojie Li, Beijing, Peoples Republic of China, director of the National Research Center for Intelligent Computing Systems, director of the Institute of Computing Technology at the Chinese Academy of Science. Li graduated from Peking University and completed a master's degree in computer science at the Science and Technology University of China. He earned his doctoral degree at Purdue in 1985. He did postdoctoral work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign until he returned to China in 1987 to begin work at the Institute of Computing Technology. In 1989 Li was named a professor at the institute and later was named director of the National Research Center for Intelligent Computing Systems. In 1999 Li became director of the Institute of Computing Technology. He was made a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1995 and received the Chinese Academy of Sciences National Award of Science and Technology Progress in 2000. Li is active in international professional societies and in 2000 was a member of the steering committee for the International Symposium on Parallel Architectures, Algorithms and Networks in Texas.
• Paul V. McEnroe, Buellton, Calif. McEnroe earned his master's degree at Purdue in 1960 and served 23 years at IBM. In the late 1960s he led and contributed to the team that developed the universal product code, commonly known as "the bar code." The team also developed associated technologies, including IBM's first intelligent terminal, custom chip and distributed system. He was responsible for the development of "the token ring" local area network and served as IBM's group director of systems development. In his last IBM assignment, he was director of the Raleigh Laboratory, which developed IBM's communications products. In 1984 McEnroe became president of Trilogy Systems Corp., where he led the development of copper-polyimide multichip module technology. He negotiated a merger of Trilogy with Digital Equipment Corp. and continued working for Digital until his retirement in 1992. He then served as president of The Pathway Group, a Menlo Park, Calif., consulting firm. McEnroe is chairman emeritus and a director of the California Engineering Foundation and a member of the University of Dayton Engineering Advisory Board. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a former member of California's Blue Ribbon Committee on Educational Technology.
• Harrison Y. Miyahira, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., chairman/chief executive officer, HM Electronics Inc., San Diego, Calif. Miyahira received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1957. He worked on the engineering staff at Purdue's WBAA radio station and was in charge of maintaining the radio system for the Purdue campus police. Upon completing his military service in 1960, he joined Space Technology Laboratories, where he worked on a variety of space communication systems and was awarded several patents. In 1969 he joined Soladyne International Inc. as executive assistant to the president. In 1971 he started HM Electronics Inc., which developed the first wireless full-duplex intercom system. In 1982 the company developed the first wireless drive-through intercom system, which is now the industry standard. HM Electronics also manufactures products for the security and surveillance market. He is chairman of the board of directors of Commercial Electronics Inc. and HM Electronics Inc.
• Reda Razouk, Sunnyvale, Calif., vice president of technical resources and development, National Semiconductor Corp., Santa Clara, Calif. Razouk received his bachelor's degree in 1971, his master's in 1972 and his doctoral degree in 1977, all from Purdue. He began his career with Fairchild Semiconductor as a member of the research staff. Razouk joined National Semiconductor in 1991 to establish an analog process technology development organization and built laboratories for device modeling, device characterization, automated testing and data analysis. As vice president of worldwide process technology development, Razouk is responsible for the development and manufacturing of new process technology capability at National Semiconductor. Razouk holds or shares eight U.S. patents, has authored and co-authored more than 30 technical papers, and has received several achievement awards from Fairchild and National Semiconductor. He has served on numerous professional organization boards and committees.
• Timothy N. Trick, Champaign, Ill., professor of electrical and computer engineering, University of Illinois. Trick received his bachelor's degree from the University of Dayton in 1961 and his master's and doctoral degrees from Purdue in 1962 and 1966, respectively. He joined the faculty at the University of Illinois in 1965. At Illinois, he has served as head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as director of the Coordinated Science Laboratory and as director of the Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning. He is now the director of the Anderson Laboratory for Global Education in Engineering. He has been a member of the board of directors for the International Engineering Consortium since 1989. In 1994 Trick was elected president of the National Electrical Engineering Department Heads' Association. He has conducted research and published widely in the areas of computational methods for circuit analysis and design, integrated circuits, and analog and digital signal processing. His current research interests are in the application of multimedia, the Web and conferencing software in the creation of learning environments for on-campus and distance learning. Purdue's Outstanding Electrical Engineer Award, instituted in 1992, honors alumni and former faculty members for their contributions to the engineering profession as researchers, teachers and entrepreneurs. Previous winners include former astronaut Eugene Cernan, Tellabs' founder Michael Birck, Texas Instruments' chairman Thomas Engibous and the late Nobel Laureat Edward Purcell. Writer: Grant Flora, (765) 494-2073, gflora@purdue.edu Source: W. Kent Fuchs, (765) 494-3539, fuchs@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Publication-quality photographs of the honorees are available at ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/uns/+ee.awards.01. Photos of award recipients will be listed by name in this directory.
|
