2000
Distinguished
Engineering
Graduate
Recipients

Left to right: Glen P. Wilson, Jr., William J. Koros, P.E., Otto R. Harrison, Kenneth D. Cockrell, Kermit E. Brown, and Dean Ben Streetman

From 1966 to 1989, Dr. Brown was an administrator at Tulsa University, where he headed the petroleum engineering department, was vice president of research, and finally, director of resources engineering. He returned to the classroom in 1976 and continued teaching until 1989. Mr. Brown has written seven books on petroleum production. His book, Production Optimization of Oil & Gas Wells by Nodal Analysis, is considered essential reading by many engineering programs.

Dr. Brown received a Distinguished Teaching Award from The University’s Student Association, and UT’s College of Engineering awarded him the Convair Award for Outstanding Teaching. (The award is now the Lockheed Martin Teaching Award; the highest award the College gives for teaching excellence.) At Tulsa University, Dr. Brown received the Westinghouse Teaching Award and the Student Award for Outstanding Teaching. The Society of Professional Engineers recognized his contributions to petroleum engineering with the John Franklin Call Award.

As president of International Training & Consulting, Inc., since 1975, Dr. Brown shares his expertise in petroleum production, petroleum optimization, and artificial lift methods, “wherever there is an oil field in the world.”

Mr. Cockrell’s long career in the U.S. Naval Reserve began in 1972. He was a member of the U.S. Naval Aviation Reserve Officer Candidate Program at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, where he was commissioned, and later designated a naval aviator. In 1978, he entered the U.S. Test Pilot School in Maryland. Upon graduation a year later, he remained at the Naval Air Test Center conducting flight tests on a variety of aircraft until 1982, when he reported to the Naval Station in San Diego to become a staff officer and pilot. Mr. Cockrell resigned his commission in 1987 and retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1999.

His career with NASA began in 1987, first as an aerospace engineer and a research pilot. He became an astronaut in 1991, taking on a wide-range of technical assignments responsible for everything from testing craft safety and operations, to preparing procedural manuals carried upon Shuttle flights.

A veteran of four space flights, he is in the post-flight de-briefing period for the most recent one, STS-98. This flight on Atlantis carried the U.S. Laboratory module 'Destiny' to orbit and attached it to the International Space Station 'Alpha'.

A Texas native, Mr. Harrison’s career took him across the United States and around the world. He was manager of offshore operations during the development of Submerged Production Systems (SPS), the first drilling and production system using robots in 2,000-foot water depths. As general manager of Alaskan Operations, he oversaw the clean-up work on the Exxon Valdez spill, and lent his experience to clean-up efforts around the world. He was present during the early development of automated production, remote operated vehicles, and other industry developments. Called upon to share his expertise, he earned a Best Speaker Award from the Exxon Management School on three occasions. In 1987, he was an advisor to the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, in the creation of a petroleum engineering department. From 1972 to 1973, Mr. Harrison participated in Exxon’s Executive Interchange Program, spending the year with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr. Harrison has served as chairman and director of High Goals Corporation, director of Alaska and the Yellowstone Pipe Line Company, and chairman of the board of directors for the Plantation Pipe Line Company. He is a member of the American Petroleum Institute and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Mr. Harrison now lives in New Braunfels.

After a few years in industry, Dr. Koros returned to UT Austin to complete his Ph.D., then taught at North Carolina State University from 1977 to 1984. He returned to The University in 1984 as a professor, and became recognized throughout his career for both his teaching and research. In 1990 he received the College of Engineering’s highest teaching award, and his research in membranes was recognized first by the National Science Foundation through a Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1984 and this year through his election to membership in the National Academy of Engineering. His innovations in new materials and membrane structures for the separation of mixed gases include the separation of nitrogen from air. This process is being used to reduce the need for refrigeration for the storage of fruits and vegetables, which last longer at higher temperatures and ripen more slowly in a nitrogen-rich environment.

From 1991 to 1993, Dr. Koros served as associate chairman of the Department of Chemical Engineering, then chairman from 1993 to 1997. As chairman, Dr. Koros guided the department as it enlisted alumni and industry to honor emeritus faculty member John McKetta. The McKetta Challenge raised $2.5 million to endow initiatives in chemical engineering teaching and research.

Dr. Koros is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Membrane Science, a 4,000-page, international journal. He’s held leadership roles in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and the North American Membrane Society. He has over 200 published and refereed articles and five patents.

With a Ph.D. in psychology, Dr. Wilson traveled to Washington in 1955 to become an assistant to then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. Dr. Wilson’s bachelor’s of science degree in aeronautical engineering made him an ideal staff member on several space committees chaired by Senator Johnson. He served the Special Committee on Space and Astronautics, which wrote the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, and created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Dr. Wilson was a key staff member of the Standing Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, which led support for NASA’s Apollo program and later, the space shuttle program.

Dr. Wilson joined NASA in 1978 where he developed the Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP). The program encourages student interest in math and science by soliciting proposals for experiments to conduct on space shuttle missions. Millions of students have used SSIP resource materials and over 20, student-inspired experiments have occurred on shuttle missions. The success of the SSIP earned Dr. Wilson NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal in 1981.

Retired from NASA in 1982, Dr. Wilson continues his support of space sciences through the Marie D. and Glen P. Wilson Foundation. From 1984 to 1988 he was the executive director of the National Space Society, which promotes research, exploration, development, and habitation of space. He continues on the society’s board of governors as executive director emeritus.

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