Dr. John G. Ekerdt has won the Joe J. King Professional Achievement award, which is reserved for “faculty showing exemplary leadership in the engineering profession.”
As head of the Department of Chemical Engineering for eight years, Ekerdt’s devotion to hiring faculty and administration helped boost the department into the top seven rank. Also from 1991 to 2002, Ekerdt was associate director for the university’s Science and Technology Center for the Synthesis and Analysis of Electronic Materials.
He has also taken several leadership positions within the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). In 1980 he helped found a South Texas Section of the organization. Later, serving as an AIChE division chair, he helped integrate the area of electronic materials processing into the larger chemical engineering professional organization.
Ekerdt’s research has improved the quality of silicon alloy films used for microelectronics. He also developed screening procedures and rules for engineering precursor material that allow engineers to deposit compound semiconducting material, or other materials, in a reproducible way.
He holds the Dick Rothwell Endowed Chair in Chemical Engineering.
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About the Cockrell School of Engineering:
The Cockrell School ranks among the top ten engineering programs in the United States and aspires to move into the top five. With the nation's fourth highest number of faculty members elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the Cockrell School's more than 7,000 students work with many of the world's finest engineering educators and researchers. This environment prepares graduates to become engineering leaders and innovators working for the betterment of society.