February 9, 2008

2 Purdue professors elected to National Academy of Engineering

Sinha

Kumares Sinha, the Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, and Andrew M. Weiner, the Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, are among the 65 new members and nine foreign associates elected to the academy this year.

"Election to membership in the National Academy of Engineering is one of the highest distinctions that can be bestowed on an engineer," said Leah Jamieson, Purdue's John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering and a 2005 academy inductee. "Professor Sinha was elected for his contributions to the advancement of highway infrastructure engineering and management and to the education of transportation professionals worldwide. Professor Weiner was elected for his contributions to the development of femtosecond optical-pulse shaping technology."

Weiner

Weiner's technology creates and controls ultrafast laser pulses for applications including advanced sensors, more powerful communications technologies and more precise laboratory instruments.

Purdue now has 21 current and retired faculty members of the National Academy of Engineering.

Sinha has been on the Purdue faculty for 32. For the past 12 years, he has served as the director of the Joint Transportation Research Program, a collaboration between Purdue and the Indiana Department of Transportation.

His research on system performance, costing and network optimization are used worldwide and have been adopted in pavement, bridge, and safety management systems developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Highway Administration and National Research Council.

He  received his bachelor's degree from Jadavpur University in India in 1961, and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Connecticut in 1966 and 1968, respectively. Sinha was named an honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and was honored by various other organizations. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation Engineering, and he has served as a consultant for the World Bank for more than two decades. He also served as President of Transportation and Development Institute of ASCE and has mentored more than 200 masters, doctoral and post-doctoral students around the world.

"I am humbled by this honor because the recognition comes from my peers," Sinha said. "Purdue is known for its outstanding engineering programs and it's gratifying to be part of this team."

Weiner has taught at Purdue since 1992 and served as vice president of the International Commission on Optics from 2002-2005. His leadership in the field of lasers and optics dates back to 1988 when he served as a distinguished  lecturer for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Laser and Electro-optics Society. Weiner has served on or chaired numerous conferences, research review panels, professional society awards committees and conference program committees connected with the laser and optics field.

Weiner holds nine U.S. patents and has won numerous awards for his research, including the International Commission on Optics Prize in 1997, the William Streifer Scientific Research Achievement Award in 1999 and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists in 2000.

He earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the last in 1984.

 "I feel the work that I and other colleagues have done in this technology has created something that has been widely useful to a lot of people,” Weiner said. “It is very gratifying to see the broader engineering community recognize that impact."

The National Academy of Engineering has 2,227 peer-elected members and more than 194 foreign associates who are among the world's most accomplished engineers in academia, business and government. Members are chosen for their outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature" and to the "pioneering of new and developing field of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

Writer: Clyde Hughes, (765) 494-2073, jchughes@purdue.edu

Sources:  Leah Jamieson, (765) 494-5346, lhj@purdue.edu

Kumares Sinha, (765) 494-2211, ksinha@purdue.edu

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