An Austin executive and a Houston-based petroleum engineer are this year’s recipients of The University of Texas at Austin College of Engineering’s Outstanding Young Engineering Graduate award. Ray Almgren, vice president of product marketing and academic relations for National Instruments (NI), and Karen Hagedorn, recovery technology supervisor of ExxonMobil Upstream Research, will be honored at commencement ceremonies May 21. The award is given to individuals age 40 and under for distinguished contributions in the realms of professional accomplishment, community service, and service to the UT Austin College of Engineering.
Almgren has devoted significant effort to enhancing the quality of science and engineering education throughout his 17 years with the company. He began working there soon after earning his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1987 from UT Austin. He has held positions with NI in the areas of marketing, research and development and applications engineering; including vice president of product strategy, director of research and development for the measurements products group and director of software marketing.
As director of software marketing, Almgren helped guide LabVIEW, the company’s award-winning software, and its product family to its industry-leading position in measurement and automation. In 1994, he also helped establish NIWeek, the company’s worldwide conference on virtual instrumentation. He pioneered many of the company’s academic and university relations programs, including the ROBOLAB project. It combines LabVIEW and LEGO Mindstorms (robots made from LEGOs) to introduce robotics and computer and design technology to grade school students, piquing their interest in engineering and science at an early age. He has also led the company’s workplace philanthropy campaign, NI GIVES.
In the mid 1990s, Ray helped develop and implement UT Austin College of Engineering’s Laptops for Learning initiative, a program making laptops easily available and affordable for engineering students. He helped provide a free package of National Instruments software for those buying the laptops. This software helps students unable to afford the software to remain technically compatible with their peers.
Ray also worked with National Instruments to produce the largest donation of any company to the College’s Friends of Alec annual giving program. He actively drives this program every year to provide scholarships that help students earn a UT Austin engineering degree without the added stress of financing all of their college expenses.
Ray is currently a member of the Texas Engineering Technical Consortium Advisory Committee and the Texas Workforce Development Advisory Committee. He also serves on the Advisory Committee for the Electrical and Computing Engineering Department at UT Austin. In addition, he is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Instrumentation and Measurement Society and the American Society for Engineering Education.
He also serves as vice president and sits on the board of directors for the National Instruments Foundation, a private foundation focused on science and engineering education and research.
Dr. Karen D. Hagedorn earned a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from UT Austin in 1986. She earned the degree in three years with highest honors, and her subsequent educational and career paths have remained equally impressive.
While at the university, Karen was involved in many extracurricular activities, including the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and Delta Gamma sorority. In recognition of her academic achievements, she was elected to Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society, Pi Epsilon Tau, the petroleum engineering honor society, and Mortar Board, a national honor society that recognizes college seniors who have distinguished themselves in scholarship, leadership, and service. As a senior, Karen was one of five finalists for University Sweetheart, and at graduation she was recognized by the Cactus Yearbook as an Outstanding Student and by the College of Engineering with the Outstanding Scholar-Leadership Award.
After graduation from UT Austin, Karen earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from Stanford University. Soon after, she joined Exxon Company, USA's Alaska Interest Group in the production department in Houston and worked on a variety of reservoir engineering projects related to Prudhoe Bay. In 1995, she transferred to Anchorage, Alaska, where she continued to work on projects related to Prudhoe Bay and other Exxon Alaskan interests. While in Anchorage, she served on the advisory board for the University of Alaska--Fairbanks Department of Petroleum Engineering and began volunteer work in the Abused Women's Aid in Crisis shelter, an agency aiding women and children dealing with domestic violence. In 1998, Karen was awarded the
Young Member Outstanding Service Award by SPE, recognizing her service to SPE and to the shelter.
In 2000 Karen was reassigned to ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company in Houston, where she became involved in field testing methods for improving oil recovery from underground reservoirs. In 2003, she was promoted to her current position, research supervisor of the Recovery Technology Section in the Reservoir Division. She is responsible for the development and application of improved recovery technologies for ExxonMobil's worldwide operations.
In addition to her formal duties with ExxonMobil, Karen is involved in several related professional activities. She has served on a number of committees for the Society of Petroleum Engineers including the community service, editorial review, nominating and Distinguished Service Award committees. She is currently the ExxonMobil engineering recruiting team captain for Stanford University. Karen was also one of the first members of the Women in Engineering Program Advisory Committee at UT Austin and a benefactor to Friends of Alec and UT Austin.
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The University of Texas at Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering ranks among the top six public engineering schools in the United States. With the nation's fourth highest number of faculty elected members of the National Academy of Engineering, the School's more than 7,000 students gain exposure to the nation's finest engineering practitioners. Appropriately, the School's logo, an embellished checkmark used by the first UT engineering dean to denote high quality student work, is the nation's oldest quality symbol. The School maintains a Web site at http://www.engr.utexas.edu