1930s
James Headrick, BSEE ’39, is almost fully retired after revising the Radar Handbook chapter on high frequency radar with coauthor Stuart Anderson, DSTO Australia.
1940s
Douglas Steadman, BSCE ’46, MSCE ’48, celebrated his 61st wedding anniversary with wife Jurene in July 2007.
James R. Hutton, BSPE ’47, P.E. and vice president of Compressor Engineering Company, has written a book titled “How to Sell Technical Equipment and Services,” published by PennWell, in Tulsa.
Robert Marshall, BSME ’47, has retired to Carlsbad, Calif. He spent his career with Westinghouse and was in the electronics instruments business. Later, he formed DynaSales Company in 1959, and DYNASERVICE CO. in 1960.
F. Tuck Focht, BSCE ’49, spent 30 years wandering around the world troubleshooting engineering problems in the oil field and teaching engineering seminars. He is now completely retired, has eleven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
1950s
Joe G. Joseph, BSEE ’50, earned an MA in public administration in 1962. His career included municipal management and public electric utility work as well as a commission in the U.S. Air Force civil service. Widowed and remarried, he has 12 children, 16 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. His hobbies include model airplanes.
William E. Baker, BSME ’51, PhDEM ’66, has recently retired after a career with Sandia Corporation, teaching at the University of New Mexico and consulting. He resides in Albuquerque.
Ed Segner, BSCE ’49, MSCE ’52, a professor emeritus at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, received the 2006 Distinguished Service Award from the Engineering Council of Birmingham. He is a previous recipient of their Engineer of the Year Award in 1998. The Engineering Council of Birmingham is the umbrella organization for all engineering societies in central Alabama.
Houston Humphries, BSCE ’53, after years as a structural engineer at General Dynamics, retired as an engineering specialist in 1990. He worked primarily on the B-58, the F-111 and the F-16 airplanes. He married Carolyn Baker from Fort Worth, Texas, and they have three sons: Mark, BBA ’79, Clay and Drew. They also have seven grandchildren.
John Harrison Cockrell Jr., BSARE ’55, retired in 2006 after a long and varied career in the U.S. Air Force, engineering, real estate and business. He and his wife, Elinor Jane English, have three sons and two granddaughters. He is an avid world-traveler.
Phillip Hawley, BSChE ’57, now retired in La Jolla, Calif., has lived about half of his life outside the United States. After working in Texas as a refinery engineer and then chemical company process engineer, he moved to London in 1967 to open a new office of a Dallas consulting firm. He spent more than 35 years in England and then Italy. His main job was co-founder and head of the global energy practice of Arthur D. Little.
Benjamin J. Leon, BSEE ’54, MS ’57, retired in 1976 after six years at what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he set up an interdisciplinary program in telecommunications. Since retiring, he’s done volunteer jobs for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Communications Society.
James A. Feibelman, BSME ’56, retired as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Air Force in May of 1981 after serving for 23 years. He retired a second time in 1992 from McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Corporation in Houston where he worked as an aerospace engineer. After moving to Canyon Lake, Texas, in 1993, he has volunteered at the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce, the Museum of the Texas Hill Country, the Canyon Lake Noon Lions Club and in positions at his church. Jim has four children, all living in Texas. He is married to Irma Morgan Feibelman.
Don H. Edgington, BSPE ’58, retired for a second time in 1993. Since retiring as president of Kerr McGee’s oil and gas division in 1985, he served as president and chief executive officer of Lear Petroleum Exploration, Inc.; senior vice president of oil and gas, Minatome Corporation; and a consultant with The Finley Companies. Currently, he serves on the board of trustees, University of the South and on the board of trustees and executive council and as treasurer and chairman of the department of finance, Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas.
William Shupe, BSME ’58, retired from USDA ARS in 1985. While stationed at UC-Davis, he developed the electronic egg, a machined plastic egg in which an electronic transmitter connected to an accelerometer indicated exactly where eggs were being cracked in the egg handling system. William also worked at Aerojet General in Sacramento, Calif., as a test engineer on Titan II liquid rocket engines for use on ICBMs.
Norm Cooper, BSCE ’59, is a frequent contributor and speaker at national conventions based on his 20 years of service to the justice system as a forensic engineer. He is founder and chief engineer of Realty Engineering, Inc. His prior experience includes serving as United Nations advisor to Israel and representing the United States at conferences in and with Spain. His volunteer service has included American Society of Civil Engineers (section president), Boy Scouts (council board, district chairman), elected office (city councilman) and Rotary (president).
George Lowe, BSChE ’59, MD ’66, retired from Austin Heart Clinic after 40 years of cardiology practice. He plans to spend time with his wife Nancy, eight grandchildren and his weekends at his Guadalupe River retreat in Seguin. He hopes to organize his 2,000-book Civil War library and write his novel on Stonewall Jackson’s ’62 Shanendoah Valley campaign. He helped keep Dr. McKetta’s heart going for 37 years since 1970 and confirms Dr. McKetta has a heart of gold.
1960s
Edward Lyle Flinn, BSEE ’60, passed away on June 1, 2007. He had been married to the former Paula Brick for 45 years. They met at the university during the 1959-60 school year. They had two children and one grandchild. Flinn was 70 years old.
Larry Partain, BSChE ’61, began and ended his career with Eastman Chemical Company in Longview, Texas. He retired in 1996. He and his wife, Carlene Bunce Partain, have three children and six grandchildren.
Lewis H. Steve’s, BSChE ’61, career spans work for General Electric at the Hanford Atomic Energy Works, graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle, a stint at ExxonMobil’s nuclear division and a foreign trade partnership with Taiwanese friends. He married Judy Powell, and they have two daughters and three grandchildren. Judy is a psychotherapist with her own private practice in Redmond. Most of Lewis’ time now is spent writing and playing in two big swing bands, a Dixieland band and his church’s trombone choir (http://www.fpcbellevue.org/worship/trombones.php).
Paul Dunn, BSCE ’62, received the College of Engineering Distinguished Graduate Award from the university in 1993, where he was also inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni in Civil and Architectural Engineering in 2003. He also became principal director of Launch Systems Engineering Directorate, Space Launch Operations, The Aerospace Corporation in 2005. He was inducted as a fellow in the African Scientific Institute in November 2006.
Don Sparks, BSPE ’62, has been appointed to the Unconventional Resource Technology Advisory Committee with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Eric Jones, BSME ’57,MSME ’58, PhDME ’63, was named Ernst & Young 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year based on his venture capital career in leading, funding and aiding young companies over the last several decades.
John Hughes, MSEE ’64, was director of business development for Texas Instruments (TI) broadband communications group. He also held technologist and business management positions in TI. Upon retirement, John and his wife, Nancy, moved to Lakeway, Texas. John and Nancy remain active with the university, where they participate in the UT Forum continuing education program and Nancy is a docent with the university’s Blanton Museum of Art.
Bill Sayle, BSEE ’63, MSEE ’64, retired from Georgia Tech in 2003 where he was professor and associate chair for undergraduate affairs in electrical and computer engineering. He is now director of undergraduate education for Georgia Tech-Lorraine, Metz, France. In his spare professional time he volunteers for the Institute of Electrical and the Electronics Engineers and Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.
Phillip Paul Berry, BSEE ’65, retired from the Harris Corporation, Melbourne, Fla. last year. He worked on the International Space Station where his team won several awards from The Boeing Co. He now spends time playing golf and helping his new wife, Irene.
William C. Cobb, BSASE ’66, owns Cobb Consulting, which works with professional service firms. He and his wife, Nancy, live in Houston and have three children, all of whom are Longhorns.
Charles E. McQueary, BSME ’62, MSME ’64, PhDME ’66, was sworn in as director of operational test and evaluation, U.S. Department of Defense, in 2006. A Presidential appointee confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he serves as the senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense on testing of U.S. DOD weapon systems, prescribing policies and procedures for the conduct of operational and live fire test and evaluation.
Douglas Ferguson, BSME ’67, passed his P.E. exam on his first attempt and received his P.E. license in 2003, 36 years after leaving the university. He married for a second time in November 2002. Douglas works for DuPont, and he relocated to the Houston area at their Cypress Station regional engineering office. He and his wife currently reside in The Woodlands, Texas.
Roland Haden, PhDECE ’67, received the Lamme Award at the most recent American Society for Engineering Education meeting in Hawaii. Established in 1928, the Benjamin Garver Lamme Award recognizes excellence in teaching, contributions to research and technical literature and achievements that advance the profession of engineering college administration. Roland is former vice chancellor for engineering and dean of the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Don A. Pace, BSCE ’67, started work for J. Ray McDermott in New Orleans after graduating, then served in the U.S. Marines until 1970. He returned to Texas for his MPA and worked for Ernst & Ernst for a time. He is now a shareholder in a 25-person CPA firm in San Antonio, Texas.
Tom Baker, BSME ’68, just completed 39 years with the TXU Company in Dallas. He was promoted to vice chairman of TXU in April 2007 to oversee the pending buyout of the company. Outside of business, his interests are his six grandkids and two motorcycles. He and his wife, Nancy, have been married for 41 years.
Darron Granger, BSME ’68, is the senior vice president of engineering and construction, Cheniere LNG, Inc. He has more than 39 years of cryogenic engineering in project management and process design. He was a self-employed process engineering consultant for 14 years associated with LNG, primarily as the owner’s engineer. Granger is also the developer/owner of several LNG-related patents as well as the shipping simulation program, ShipSim.
Douglas Barfoot, BSChE ’69, retired in 2005 after 36 years in the chemical industry in assignments that ranged from process engineering to manufacturing management to re-engineering and Y2K conversion to purchasing management. He has been married to Cherry for 37 years, and the couple has two sons, who also became engineers (electrical), and a grandson. After retirement, The Barfoots relocated to the Texas Hill country in Lago Vista to enjoy beautiful sunsets and great golf.
Chandra Desai, PhDCE ’69, is the Regent’s Professor in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Arizona. He received the prestigious 2007 Karl Terzaghi Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Geo-Institute Board of Governors. The award recognizes outstanding contributions in geotechnical engineering and geomechanics.
1970s
Ted Bourgoyne, PhDPE ’70, was one of two engineers inducted into the Louisiana State University College of Engineering Hall of Distinction in 2006, becoming one of 58 individuals recognized with this honor since its formation in 1979. His son, Dwayne Bourgoyne, was born in Austin while Ted was attending the university. He is currently with ExxonMobil Research in Houston.
Xavier Gonzalez, BSChE ’70, proudly watched his five children graduate from the university between 2001 and 2004 in the subjects of computer science, economics, psychology and home economics.
John H. Matlock, BES ’67, MSME ’69, PhDMatSci and Eng ’70, after 36 years in the silicon materials industry, stepped down from his role as president and chief executive officer of Komatsu Silicon America, based in Hillsboro, Ore. John and his wife Kathe have been serving as special assignment missionaries of the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.), living and working in Babati, Tanzania. Their primary responsibility has been working with a program that supports about 800 students from primary through high school. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in Africa during this year.
Les H. Richards, BSASE ’71, was selected as engineering fellow at BAE Systems Sensor Integration in Austin. BAE Systems was originally Tracor, Inc., Austin’s first high tech company founded in 1955 by four university professors. Les has worked in the aerospace industry for over 38 years.
Bob West, BSEE ’71, is currently working for J3S, Inc., an Austin-based company, as a consultant senior systems engineer in Sunnyvale, Calif. His daughter, Brittany, earned degrees in Plan II and Russian and East European Studies from the university and is now at Lewis and Clark Law School. His son, Bob, works at Thompson Hine Law Firm in Cleveland, Ohio. His wife, Sara, is in a psychiatry residency at Case Western. They have two grandchildren, Nicholas and Simon.
Dennis Chastain, BSChe ’72, is now a manager of projects for Mustang Engineering’s process plants group in Houston. He serves on several CII committees and research teams. His daughter, Lindsey, graduated from the university with a BS in advertising with honors. His other daughter, Leslie, a sophomore in Radio-Television-Film, is a National Merit finalist and dean’s list honoree. Dennis and his wife, Lillian, are very proud of their daughters and maintain strong, continuing ties with the university.
Bryan L. Lewis, MSEM ’72, has served as the president of Teledyne Continental Motors since 1990. The company designs, certifies, manufactures and provides global aftermarket support for reciprocating aircraft engines for light general aviation aircraft, small jet turbine engines for military cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft, aviation batteries and digital electronic engine controls. Bryan and his wife, Lou Ann, have two adult children, son Brad and daughter Luisa.
V.J. Mahajan, MSChE ’72, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 2006.
Michael L. Smith, BSAE ’72, is vice president of operations with Fluor in its Haarlem, Netherlands, office, which executes projects in refining, chemicals and infrastructure for European and Middle Eastern clients. Michael and his wife enjoy Holland.
Brian R. Sullivan, BSPE ’72, completed his term on the Council of the Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Law Section of the State Bar of Texas in June. Brian was elected to the council in 1998 and served as chairman from 2005-06. Brian is a petroleum engineer and board certified in oil, gas and mineral law by the State Bar of Texas.
Paul M. Calmes II, BSEE ’73, retired last year after a 37-year career spanning positions at Schlumberger, Tracor, Bell Aerospace and Computer Sciences Corporation. He and his wife, Gayle, live in Northwest Austin and enjoy traveling, spending time with all their nearby family and having fun with model trains.
Gary W. Johnson, BSAE ’72, MSAE ’73, of Expert Technical Services in McGregor, Texas, has been experimenting with converting vehicles to run on ethanol. He concludes that any competent mechanic can make the necessary modifications inexpensively.
Sammy K. McSpadden, BSChE ’73, MSChE ’74, was recently promoted from chief operating officer to chief executive officer of ThermoTek, Inc. (Thermal Control Technologies). His son, Aaron, just graduated from the university and his daughter, Jenna, just transferred back to the university as a junior after playing college basketball at Hofstra University.
John Langdon, BSEE ’74, joined HelioVolt in 2002. Earlier, he worked for TI and left the company in 1986 to become chief executive officer of start-up marketing firm, MediaNet, Inc., which was acquired by Affiliated Computer Systems in 1995. Since then he has been an angel investor, advisory board member and chief executive officer for several start-ups. In 2002, he won the IC2 Institute’s prestigious Kozmetsky Award for Academic Excellence.
Max Reinbach, Jr., BSCE ’74, has spent his career working in the oil and gas industry. The last 19 years he has been a consultant for Reinbach Engineering, Inc., mostly on drilling rigs in the Arkansas/Louisiana/Texas area. Max and his wife of 28 years, Susan, are very proud that their children, Elise and Max III, are now both graduates of the university. Elise is an executive assistant in the fashion industry in New York City, and Max III is a financial analyst in Austin. Max and Susan have purchased property along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County and have plans to relocate in the next few years.
Richard McKenzie, BSASE ’74, MSASE ’76, passed away in June 2007. Rick started his commercial career with LTV in Dallas and went on to work at a series of aerospace companies, eventually finishing his career at Northrop Grumman in Denver. Many young, up-and-coming engineers in the aerospace community owe their work ethic and attention to detail to the inspiration and direction they received while working with Rick. He was at the forefront of the computer automation of his field and his experience and expertise will be hard to replace. His friends say he was a true celestial mechanician to the very end. A memorial service for him was held in Colorado Springs.
J. R. Zamora, BSPE ’74, is proud that all of his family members are university alumni. The ladies have fine arts degrees (’74 and ’03) and the guys have or are pursuing engineering degrees (’74, ’07, ’09).
Tom Gouldie, BSPE ’75, an operations integrity engineer with Santos Ltd., was awarded the 2006 Society of Petroleum Engineers’ HSE Award. Tom runs a 40-acre alpaca farm outside of Adelaide in Australia.
Albert Hervey, MSOR ’75, has a long career in service to the United States, including positions with the U.S. Department of the Army, Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command, Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia Directorate. Currently, he is chief at the Internal Review Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District.
Clarence C. Meyer Jr., BSME ’75, is the director of proposals at KBR Energy & Chemicals, where he has worked for 31 years. He is currently married to Joanne Meyer, with whom he has three children: Andy, Stephen and Julie.
Sam Smolik, BSChE ’75, continues to travel the world as vice president of downstream health, safety, security and environment for Shell. Sam and his wife, Stephanie, live in Houston and had their first grandchild (future Longhorn) in October.
Bob Bridge, PhDEE ’76, is founder and chief executive officer of an Austin venture-capital-funded semiconductor company, Zilker Labs. The company designs and sells a family of innovative power management ICs used in computing and communications systems to regulate and supervise power on complex printed circuit cards. Bob also serves as an entrepreneur-in-residence at the university.
Paul Little, BSARE ’76, after 31 years with Turner Construction Co., has become chief executive officer for Panattoni Construction Inc. PCI provides a broad range of preconstruction and construction services to a large number of Fortune 500 companies. Since graduating, Paul has completed several executive courses at both Harvard and Darden.
Garrett D. Polhamus, BSME ’72, MS ’72, PhDBME ’76, is now chief of directed energy bioeffects division, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory/Human Effectiveness Directorate. The company is based in Brooks City-Base, Texas.
Terry C. Taylor, BSASE ’76, opened a satellite office for Haag Engineering Co., a preeminent damage and failure analysis engineering consulting firm based in Dallas, in 2005. Terry is a principal engineer with Haag and has been employed in Haag’s Dallas, Houston and now Austin offices for 23 years. He and his wife, Sandy, have two children currently enrolled at the university.
William M. Bollinger, MSCE ’77, is a senior structural engineer with Crafton, Tull, Sparks & Associates, Inc. He received his National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying Certificate in 1998, and became a model law structural engineer in 2005.
Rudolph Bonaparte, BSCE ’77, was elected in 2007 to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional distinctions accorded a U.S. engineer. Also in 2007, he was elected to the CAEE Academy of Distinguished Alumni. Dr. Bonaparte serves as president and chief executive officer of Geosyntec Consultants, an environmental, geotechnical, water resources and structural engineering firm. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Anna, and children Sarah, Alex and Maria.
Doug Bready, BSChE ’77, is president of the Texas State Bank in the Rio Grande Valley/ Corpus Christi area. The bank was recently acquired by BBVA Bank of Spain. Doug lives in McAllen, Texas, with two sons (one a Longhorn and the second a motion design junior at Cornish College of Art and Design in Seattle). He and his wife, Elaine, celebrated 30 years of marriage this summer.
Steven Bull, BSCE ’77, has worked for the past 11 years as project engineering manager for SOFEC, Inc. in Houston. He has been married for 15 years and has four children. His family currently lives in Cypress, Texas. January 2008 will mark his completion of 30 years of work in the offshore oil industry.
James G. King, BSES ’78, recently married Terry Clayton of Wolfe City, Texas. They live in Dallas where Jim is an engineering fellow in his 30th year with Raytheon and predecessor company E-Systems. He is the program manager and chief engineer for the worldwide sensor pacer communications network serving the U.S. intelligence community.
Nghi Pham, BSPE ’78, has been president and co-owner of Cathy Home Care LTD since 2002.
Ricardo Rivera, BSEE ’79, is a certified system administrator for HP-UX, and is focused in storage area networks in the technology solutions group. He and his wife, Camilla, have two sons and live in Centreville, Va.
1980s
Ali S. Al-Bemani, BSPE ’80, an associate professor, has recently been appointed deputy vice chancellor for academic affairs and community services at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. His research interests are in enhanced oil recovery and well testing.
Paul Donnelly, BSASE ’80, is presently the quality and document control manager for Baker Hughes, Houston Technology Center. He is married to Judy Fitch Donnelly and has one son, Power, and one daughter, Marydith.
Chris Reynolds, BSCE ’80, is a partner with Gibbs & Bruns, LLP, in Houston. Chris’ practice is in commercial litigation with a focus on energy and engineering-related disputes. He was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers last year. He and his wife, George Ann Reynolds, have two children, Micah (with whom he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro) and Hannah.
William I. Echt, BSChE ’81, is currently a technology manager for UOP working in the gas processing tech center. When not at work, he tries to keep up with his three children, plays a little golf and enjoys community service.
Col. Steve Haustein, MSChE ’81, will complete his deployment to Afghanistan in November, where he serves as the mentor for the Afghan National Army chief of staff, General Bismillah Khan. He deployed to Kabul following his assignment as commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District. Following his return, Steve will be retiring from the Army to pursue a civilian career. His youngest daughter, Ashley, is a freshman in the Plan II program.
Shailesh Kadakia, MSEE ’81, recently attended his daughters’ graduation at the university. Next year he begins a PhD program in the physics department of the university, where he’ll focus on relativity and astronomy.
Bradley Kimmell, BSCE ’81, started Kimmell Builders, Inc. in Dripping Springs, Texas, six years ago and has served as president of the Dripping Springs Rotary Club for the past two years. He and his wife, Barbara, have three kids, Lillian, Luke and Caitlin.
David Winter, MSCE ’81, has been named president of GeoEngineers, Inc. David will lead the expansion programs for the nationwide 330-person engineering and technology company based in Redmond, Wash.
David R. Wright, MSCE ’81, is senior principal and chief executive officer of Carpenter Wright Engineers, PLLC, a Tennessee structural engineering design firm. His professional interests include forensics and development of engineering office management software. Residing in Mount Juliet, Tenn., he is married to Dr. Connie L. Wright, and they have two sons; Jordan is a sophomore at Tennessee Technological University, and Brendan is a high school freshman. David’s spare time is spent coaching his sons’ summer baseball teams, and they have played (and lost) in the Little League State Championship game for three straight years.
Rich Brasher, BSCE ’82, provides Urban Planning Design Services to the western region offices of Edmonton, Alberta, based Stantec Consulting Inc. He and his wife, DeEllen, have spent 20 years in the San Diego area. Rich achieved and maintains professional registrations in both engineering and planning.
Scott Fish, BSME ’82, accepted the position of deputy director of the Institute for Advanced Technology (IAT) at the university. Most recently, Scott was the chief engineer for unmanned ground vehicles at SAIC, and prior to that worked at IAT for 10 years.
Ricky Jackson Sr., BSEE ’82, has been a division engineer, corporate engineer, production manager and business unit manager since graduating from the university. He retired from Abbott Laboratories and is now working in Georgia for Kroger at Centennial Farms Dairy as a plant engineer. He has seven children: Ricky Jr. (32), Christopher (23), Michael (22), Lachelle (7), Owen (7), Vance (7) and Edgar (7).
Paul N. Latta, BSME ’82, earned his D.D.S. at Baylor College of Dentistry in 1991, became a fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry in 2007 and is married to Kay Kenner Latta, B.S. accounting ’83. They have two sons: Andrew (13) and Matthew (9).
Farid Piroozmandi, BSME ’82, received his MSME with a minor in heat and mass transfer and numerical analysis from Portland State University in 1985. He then earned his JD from Seattle University School of Law in 2007. He is married and has a daughter, Arezu (12), and a son, Ara (7). He is presently working at Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company in Everett, Wash.
V.J. Turner Jr., MSEE ’82, manager of central infra-structure with ExxonMobil, was named to the board of directors for the Houston A+ Challenge.
Bret Wingert, BAASE ’82, recently left his engineering career behind at Motorola to apply his skills in a new concept tea store created with his wife, Kerstin, called Souvia. There are two locations so far, in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Ariz.
Rick Beale, BSChE ’83, has two grown daughters, and is now principal partner of a consulting engineering firm automating chemical plants specializing in food, pharmaceutical and hydrocarbon industries. Rick is an orange-blooded fan of football, men’s basketball and baseball.
Peter J. Boucher, BSPE ’83, recently left his position as wastewater division chief for the County of Hawaii and is now serving as facility engineer for the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center. He is enrolled in the PhD program at University of Hawaii at Manoa in environmental engineering, where he’s studying the potential for using constructed wetlands to treat saline aquacultural wastewater.
Bruce Broberg, BSCE ’79, MSCE ’83, is the vice president of Houston Operations for URS Corp, the world’s largest design engineering firm. Bruce recently led his office to be named “Best Place to Work” by the Houston Business Journal.
Aaron Todd Curtis, MSEE ’83, published his second book, “Parenting and the Internet,” released in July by Speedbrake Publishing. It is a how-to guide that helps parents manage the online activities of their children. Details on the book, published under the name of Todd Curtis, are available at http://books.speedbrake.com.
Thomas J. Forestier, BSPE ’83, is a litigation shareholder with Winstead PC, specializing in complex litigation, media law and condemnation. Tom currently serves as chairperson for the firm’s diversity committee.
Mazen Jabri, MSARE ’83, has been promoted to operations director and general manager for Cisco Systems in the United Arab Emirates. He has three children.
Bill Barber, BSChE ’84, in 2006, along with a few colleagues, started a trademark boutique law firm named Pirkey Barber LLP. Their practice focuses exclusively on trademark law and the related areas of copyright and unfair competition law.
Michael D. Byars, BSME ’84, works for Lennox Industries.
Gregory Kyle Graves, BSPE ’84, is currently employed with DeGolyer and MacNaughton Worldwide Petroleum Consulting and resides in Houston.
Mark Ward, BSPE ’84, founded Natural Gas Consultants, LLC, in April 2005. His primary business is design and optimization of low pressure gas gathering systems and compression facilities as well as gasprocessing and gathering project economics. Mark lives in Kingwood, Texas, with his wife, Debbie, and their three children: Hanna (19), Hope (17), and Hayden (14).
J.J. Roger Cheng, MSCE ’81, PhD CE ’84, is a professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Alberta, which he joined in 1984. His research interests and expertise are in many areas of steel structures, cold-formed steel structures, behavior and design of steel pipelines, rehabilitation of structures using fiber reinforce polymers and structural health monitoring. He is also the theme director of structural health monitoring in Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures Canada, a research network of centers of excellence of Canada.
Philip Beyer, BSASE ’85, works for LORAL, which is part of the Lockheed-Martin Corp. He is a system engineer principle who developed an initial turn guidance system for the Patriot PAC-3 missile that allows the missile to make a quick turn immediately after launch and increases effectiveness by 50 percent. He is married with three children.
Ronnie Finn, BSPE ’85, sold his business, American Chem-Dry and Country Carpets in Round Rock, Texas, several years ago. Since 1999 he has worked in real estate for Remax Franchise and Huck Finn Real Estate in Crawford and Waco. In 2003 Ronnie was ranked Remax’s #9 sales agent.
Mark Vasicek, BSPE ’85, left his engineering career after 20 years working for Mobil, BASF and a small plastics company to care for his child who has an illness. He then switched careers to teach high school math, where he enjoys sharing the euphoric feeling that comes from solving a problem on your own. He and his wife of 24 years have four children.
James N. Willi, BSEE ’85, is an attorney with McKool Smith, P.C.in Austin, where he specializes in patent litigation and appeals. His LLM thesis was published recently in the Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal. Jim’s wife, Tracy (BA ’89), who is board certified in civil appellate law, operates Willi Law Firm, P.C. in Austin, where she specializes in state and federal civil litigation and appeals. Jim and Tracy have four sons and are active in scouting.
Tim Brown, BSAE ’86, is captain at United Airlines flying the Airbus 320/319. He is a major in the Air Force Reserves and a liaison officer for the U.S. Air Force Academy Habitat For Humanity. Tim lives in Spokane, Wash.
Eric Delaye, MSARE ’86, after leaving his international public transportation group Keolis as internal audit director, founded VALENS CONSEIL with two partners in December 2006. It is an advisory firm in risk management, internal control and information systems.
Rebecca Lance Svatos, MSEWRE ’86, manages the Iowa City office of Stanley Consultants, a group of environmental professionals that provides environmental compliance and environmental engineering consulting services nationwide for industrial, electric utility, governmental and land development clients.
Ray Almgren, BSEE ’87, serves as chairman of the Texas Engineering and Technical Consortium, a six-year-old collaboration of industry, state and higher education to recruit and retain engineering students.
Tracy (Dour) Atkins, BSARE ’87, was named to the City of Austin Planning Commission in December 2006 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in community and regional planning in the UT School of Architecture.
Saifallah Benjaafar, BSEE ’87, was honored as a 2007 Institute of Industrial Engineers Fellow.
David Drewelow, BSPE ’87, started his own company to supply equipment and services to the major oil companies for the remediation of soil and groundwater contamination. Drewelow Remediation Equipment supplies soil vapor extraction equipment to Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobile, Honeywell, Hitachi and Black & Decker.
Keith Terry, BSME ’87, began his career at Hycalag, now a division of Grant Prideco. In 1997, he moved to Halliburton as plant manager for the roller cone drill bit manufacturing plant in Dallas. Keith is currently global quality director for Halliburton’s drill bit product service line - Security DBS. He is married to Amy Terry and has two children: Christian (13) and Ashton (10).
Olcay Unver, PhDCE ’87, has been nominated as the coordinator of the United Nation’s World Water Assessment Program and left Kent State University to take up his new post with UNESCO at the end of May 2007.
Lee Vick, BSEE ’87, worked at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for Lockheed. While working for the National Security Agency, he received a Tribute of Appreciation from the U.S. Secretary of State and a Director’s Productivity Improvement Award from the director of the NSA. He returned to Houston in 1997, where he worked for Texas Instruments, Compaq and Fairchild before settling in as a field applications engineer for California-based Tensilica. Lee has two children, Matthew and Bonnie.
Iain Brown, MSARE ’88, earned an MBA at Wharton in 1992, and went to work in finance for a marine container lessor. He still has the same job 15 years later and lives in Surrey, England. He is married with two small children. As a sideline, he is beginning to do property development with a group of fellow investors.
Jon Cutshall, BSASE ’88, has been at Southwest Research Institute for almost 18 years and is a senior research engineer in aerospace structures. He is the outgoing section chairman of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Southwest Texas section, and has served as an AIAA section officer for most of the past 10 years.
Wiede Cutshall, BSASE ’88, an independent consultant with Cutshall Consulting, LLC, is the incoming section treasurer for the AIAA Southwest Texas section.
Scott Schwob, BSARE ’88, was married this year to Karin Hoctor. Karin is a fellow Longhorn and works as a physician’s assistant in Dallas. Schwob Building Company is currently designing and constructing several airplane hangars, including a 455-foot clear span hangar at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla.
Pamela Tucker, MSChE ’86, PhDChE ’88, is co-founder of Utility CompositesInternational Ltd, a manufacturing company in Round Rock, Texas, that makes patented composite fasteners that sell all over the world. She is chair-elect of the University of Oklahoma ChE board and sits on the board of directors of Fixeon, a company that manufactures wafer shipping devices. She owns and flies a four-passenger single-engine plane and has two children.
James Buzan, BSCE ’89, and his family live in Beijing, PRC, where James is the health, safety and environmental manager for the Bohai Bay Project, a joint development between ConocoPhillips and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
Habib Chamoun-Nicolas, MSChE ’85, PhDChE ’89, just published a new book, titled “Negotiate Like a Phoenician”, collaborating with Randy Hazlett.
Elena Etcharren, BSChE ’89, her husband Sandro Hangartner and their two boys (Adrian and Gregor) are thrilled to be back in the United States after 10 years living in Europe. Elena is global marketing director for breath freshening at the Wrigley Co., based in Chicago.
Robert C. Junge, BSChE ’89, is celebrating 18 years working for Shell Oil in the Houston area. Robert has two daughters: Charlotte (3.5 yrs) and Lauren (16 months).
John Luman, MSME ’89, is a trial attorney and partner with Bracewell & Giuliani in Houston. His litigation practice focuses on disputes related to intellectual property. Prior to his legal career, John was a mechanical engineer for the Northrop Corporation.
Terry Palumbo, BSChE ’89, worked for BASF Corporation for 17 years at the Freeport, Texas, plant as a project manager. In 2006 he began work for Chevron at the Richmond, Calif., refinery as a projectmanager.
Steve E. Watkins, PhDEE ’89, is the host advisor for the 2007 Regional Student Leadership Conference for Eta Kappa Nu (HKN). HKN is the national honor society for electrical and computer engineering students. Watkins is a professor and associate chair of electrical and computer engineering at University of Missouri-Rolla and has been HKN faculty advisor for the UMR chapter for 15 years.
1990s
Berry Gibson, BSASE ’88, MSASE ’90, has taken a new position as vice president and general manager, aerospace and defense division, with Inmedius. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., Inmedius is a global leader in delivering software applications that capture, create, manage and deploy technical information assets targeted primarily at the aerospace and defense industry.
George Avlonitis, BSME ’87, MSME ’91, and wife, Maribel, welcomed their fourth child in July. Their children are Samuel (4), Maria (2), Bianca (1) and Emmanuela.
Mirut Dalal, BSEE ’91, was promoted to Shareholder at McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd. Mirut is a patent attorney with over 10 years of experience patenting electrical engineering inventions.
Greg Leitich Smith, MSEE ’91, a patent attorney living in Texas with his wife, children’s author, Cynthia Leitich Smith, debuts this season with his first middle grade novel. His love of reading in part led him to write his debut novel, “Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo”. This novel has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Selection.
Julie Bonner, BSPE ’92, has worked for Chevron for the past nine years. She is a senior drilling engineer on the completion team, and as a global multilateral well expert, she travels overseas frequently. She also serves as Chevron step change & emerging technologies team leader, chairman of Technical Advancement of Multi-Laterals and co-chairman of the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ multilateral technologies technical interest group.
Indranil Chowdhury, BSEE ’90, MSEE ’92, has formed the law firm of Chowdhury & Georgakis, P.C. with his colleague Giorgos Georgakis. The firm is devoted to intellectual property acquisition and enforcement and patent acquisition and enforcement. The firm has offices in Houston.
Blake E. Cotton, BSARE ’89, MSCE ’92, and his wife welcomed their second daughter in May. He opened the Baton Rouge office of Fugro Consultants in 2003 and received the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design AP in 2004. InJanuary 2007 he was named manager over New Orleans operations.
Irene Lo, MSCE ’90, PhDCE ’92, has been selected by the Environmental Water Resources Institute to receive the 2007 Samuel Arnold Greeley Award. This prestigious award is presented by the American Society of Civil Engineers to recognize outstanding papers dealing with the design, construction, operation or financing of water supply pollution control, storm drainage or refuse disposal projects.
Ravi Malhotra, BSMSE ’92, founded the International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology, a nonprofit organization that focuses on ways to help poor communities achieve a sustainable future. He and his wife have one son.
Doug Nichols, BSASE ’92, married Holly Noel and gained two wonderful stepsons, Nate and Jack. The family now lives in Wichita, Kan., where Doug is an engineering manager at Hawker Beechcraft.
Mike Purvis, BSCE ’92, is a senior engineer at the environmental consulting firm ARCADIS, Inc.
Amar Sawhney, MSChE ’89, PhD ’92, is running a new company, I-Therapeutix, after having sold his previous company to Tyco Healthcare. He is married and has two children, Anhad (4) and Pria (2), who are Longhorn fans.
Shahin Tavackoli, BSCE ’92, worked for Dupont for two years, then went to medical school at UTMB in Galveston. After finishing a residency in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and a cardiology fellowship at UTMB, Shahin is a staff cardiologist at Hermann Memorial City Medical Center.
Karen Thole, PhDME ’92, began serving as the head of the department of mechanical and nuclear engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. Previous to arriving at Penn State, Thole held the William S. Cross Professorship in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. Thole’s research interests include convective heat transfer, turbulent boundary layers and gas turbine heat transfer. Thole has been recognized with many honors and awards including American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellow, the University of Texas Mechanical Engineering Department Distinguished Alumni Award, the AdvanceVT Professorship at Virginia Tech and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Stephanie Wilson, MSAE ’92, a mission specialist, is scheduled to fly aboard the STS-120—the 23rd shuttle mission to the International Space Station—in October. STS-120 will deliver the “Harmony Module,” a piece of equipment that provides attachment points for Japanese and European laboratory modules.
Greg Davenport, BSARE ’93, is a structural engineer and vice president with HKS. He holds an engineering license in six states and is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accredited professional. Greg’s primary role is senior project engineer in the market sectors of healthcare, corporate/commercial, sports, hospitality and education. He is a member of many industry organizations and is active primarily in SEAoT and the North Texas chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. He has been married to Danelle (Wiede) Davenport since 1997. They have two children: son Ethan and daughter Elena.
Laura Bass Gibson, BSASE ’88, MSE ’93, works for the State of Texas Dam Safety Program. She follows in the footsteps of her grandfather, who helped build the Buchanan and Amistad dams, among others. Previously, Laura worked for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Johnson Space Center.
Dave Taylor, BSEE ’93, a successful gaming entrepreneur, currently sits on the advisory board of Allegorithmic and is consulting on a modern remake of a classic Apple IIe game. He lives in West Hollywood, Calif., and his hobbies include competing in real-time strategy games, teaching and advising young entrepreneurs.
Praveen Vishakantaiah, PhDEE ’93, has been named president of Intel India.
Wei-Meng Chee, BSECE ’94, was recently promoted to the position of vice president of technology for Frog Design and plans to move back to Austin and live near the university.
Hean Chin, BSME ’94, is transportation solution manager with PepsiCo, based in Plano, Texas. He has accepted a new role with PepsiCo International as a supply chain manager in China, and his family is relocating to Shanghai.
Roger Gonzalez, PhDPE ’94, has just completed his 11th year at LeTourneau University. He is currently a professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering, program director of biomedical engineering and executive director of LeTourneau Engineering Global Solutions, with projects in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Bangladesh. Roger also has an active research lab with funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He was recently awarded the American Society for Engineering Education Section Outstanding Teaching Award.
Hernan Madero, MSME ’94, recently entered IBM Mexico in the SAP Consulting Community. He earned an MBA from Thunderbird in 2006, and is presently living in Monterrey, Mexico. He is married and has two daughters.
Michael McNerney, MSARE ’78, PhDCE ’94, has been elected president of the Fort Worth Texas Exes for the 2007-08 year. He also organized and taught an airport planning short course for the Center for Lifelong Engineering Education in Lisbon, Portugal, last summer. He currently teaches four airport series short courses at the Thompson Conference Center each year.
Tom Thomas, MSECE ’94, returned to Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, after graduation. There he founded two companies: Ekomate Systems India Pvt Ltd, which exports IT development, and Teemag Enterprises Pvt Ltd, which manufactures auto components for Bosch. He is married with three children.
Ridwan Widijanto, MSPE ’94, is now a reservoir engineer for Chevron Indonesia Company.
Scott J. Mason, BSME ’93, MSOR ’95, is an associate professor, and associate department head of industrial engineering at the University of Arkansas, and the chair of industrial engineering graduate studies. His research and teaching interests include production planning, control and scheduling and large-scale systems modeling, optimization and algorithms. He is a member of INFORMS and a senior member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. He and his wife Andrea, are the proud parents of three future Longhorns.
Guillermo Gonzalez, BSASE ’95, works as the controls system integration team lead for GE-Aviation’s F136 engine for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter. He has two sons, Eric (4) and Ryan (2).
Brian Kremer, MSME ’95, worked for the U.S. Department of Energy in the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology and in the Office of Nonproliferation and National Security; for the international organization, KEDO; and for NASA on an advanced space nuclear power program. Last year he changed careers, joining a boutique investment bank in New York City that focuses exclusively on alternative and renewable energy.
Jose Antonio Alvarez Trevit, PhDChE ’95, has been working for more than 10 years at Carso’s Center for R&D, CIDEC, located in Queretaro City, Mexico. His main job areas are statistical quality analysis for R&D, new cable and related materials projects.
Michael Webber, BSASE & BA Plan II ’95, has joined the university as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. He and his wife, Julia, have three children, Evelyn (7), David (4) and Maverick (1). This year Michael was the recipient of the prestigious Marshall Memorial Fellowship, has been featured in the PBS news program “NOW” for a segment on biofuels, and has published op-eds in daily and Sunday editions of the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, San Antonio Express-News and Austin American-Statesman.
Athar Saeed, MSCE ’93, PhDCE ’96, was selected as Engineer and Scientist of the Year by the management and board of directors of Applied Research Associates, Inc. in recognition of his extraordinary dedication and initiative for international engineering and research projects.
Bryan Bogle, BSASE ’96, is currently a servicesmanager with Dell in Round Rock, Texas, supporting the federal government. He’s also been promoted to major in the Army Reserve and has been accepted for an operations officer position with Space and Missile Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colo. Bryan and his wife, Shari, have a daughter, Megan. He is the proud co-owner of a 2005 Cessna 182.
Mike Logothetis, MSME ’96, works as a rocket scientist in Elkton, Md., analyzing solid fuel rocket motor systems. He has been involved in diverse projects including the Mars Exploration Rovers. Mike plays competitive soccer and tennis and likes to mountain bike, sail, ski, hike and play music. He volunteers for AFS-USA, an international student exchange program.
Scott Lubarsky, MSCE ’96, recently was elected treasurer of the North Jersey American Society of Civil Engineers.
Nathan Buysse, BSChE ’97, after four years of working in Amsterdam for Shell Global Solutions, will be taking his family to Mobile, Ala., where he will take up the position of capacity assurance manager for Shell Chemicals Mobile plant.
Caleb Duncan, BSARE ’97, was promoted last February to the position of associate principal with L. A. Fuess Partners. The firm was founded by alumnus Larry Fuess, (BSARE ’67, MSARE ’69), in 1979 and is the largest all-structural consulting engineering firm in Dallas.
Israel Garcia, BSME ’97, received a JD from the University of Houston Law Center and passed the February 2007 bar exam. After a one-year judicial clerkship for U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby in McAllen, Texas, he plans to return to Houston to practice intellectual property law.
Rohit Prasankumar, BSEE ’97, is a staff scientist at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, a collaborative effort between Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. His research focuses on the use of ultrashort pulsed lasers to study dynamics in a wide variety of materials ranging from strongly correlated systems to semiconductor nanostructures. Rohit and his wife, Anuradha, welcomed a baby boy, Amandeep, into the world in January.
Julie Sieberg Thyne, BSChE ’97, has worked for The Dow Chemical Company for the last nine years. She is married with a daughter, Amy, who is five. Julie is currently working for Dow Automotive in Midland, Mich., as the manufacturing representative for a new brake fluids plant.
Amy Hill Amick, BSChE ’98, and Brian Amick, BSEE ’99, celebrated their fourth year of marriage in 2007. Amy graduated from a neurology residency at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Mass., in June. Brian is an engineer at AMD. They spend free time exploring Massachusetts with their two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Mischa and Manny.
Brian Kiep, BSME ’98, is now vice president of Panaseas International Inc. and runs the plastics division. He is married to wife, Tracy, and has a son, Austin. Brian is on the board of directors for the North American Telecommunications Dealers Association as well as the International Association of Telecommunications Dealers. He is also chairman of the committee that plans and organizes the conferences for these two organizations.
Erol Cagatay, BSASE ’98, works as a senior design engineer for G. F. Peters & Partner GmbH in Munich, Germany, as a freelancer. He is still working on the Airbus A400M.
Laura Jordan Navarro, BSChE ’98, MSEM ’03, and husband, Aaron Navarro, now call Dallas home. Laura is employed as a process engineer with Texas Instruments and obtained her Texas professional engineer’s license in 2004. Aaron is an assistant professor of Latin American history at the University of North Texas.
Damon Williams, BSEE ’98, authored a new book, titled “Pro PayPal E-Commerce,” about developing Websites that work with PayPal. The book is available online at Amazon and other online retailers and can be previewed at www.propaypal.com.
Kyle B. Woo, BSCE ’98, works for Honeywell International, Automation & Control Solutions, Honeywell Process Solutions as a senior engineer in advanced solutions operations. He and his wife reside in Houston.
Dr. Tareq A. Albahri, PhDChE ’99, is an assistant professor in Kuwait University’s chemical engineering department. He won a silver medal at the Geneva PALEXPO 2007 International Exhibition of Inventors for an invention titled “Antiviral medicament and method for producing and using the same for the prophylactic and therapeutic treatment of Papilloma viral induced tumours, lesions and diseases.” Tareq, his wife and son live in Kuwait.
Michelle K. (Clayton) Brown, BSChE ’99, and Greg Brown, BSME ’99, have a daughter, Savannah. Michelle is a resource manager for BP America and Greg is full-time Mr. Mom and helps people understand and improve their finances.
Alshare Hughes, BSME ’99, and his wife Kimberly (Landry) Hughes, BSChE ’99, have one daughter, Kyla, and live outside of Dallas. They are both actively involved in their church and in the Texas Ex-Students Association, and they both serve as officers for the non-profit organization The Black Ex-Students of Texas, Inc. Alshare earned his PE license in 2006 and is working as generation planning consultant for TXU Power. Kimberly earned her PE license in 2007 and is working as an air quality engineer for American Electric Power.
Eliot Offutt, BSME ’99, married Nicole Silva in the Dominican Republic in May. Several Longhorn friends were there to celebrate with them. Eliot graduated from the Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia in May 2007. The couple is relocating to Chicago, where Eliot begins work for ZS Associates.
S. Sarp Sevinc, MSCE ’99, married Heather Trocmet in July 2007. He is currently employed in Beaumont, Texas, as a project manager for Entergy Corporation.
Sanjay Sridharan, BSEE ’99, married Samantha Ramchandran, an Austin teacher, in January 2007. They were married in Bangalore, India, where Sanjay’s parents and brother live.
Heath Staffeld, BSCE ’99, works at Jaster-Quintanilla Dallas, LLP, as a project manager.
2000s
Murat Baykal, MSCE ’00, was promoted to associate with Leslie E. Robertson Associates, the New York City-based structural engineering firm known for its innovative designs, including many of the tallest buildings in the world. Murat and his wife had a daughter in February 2007, and the family lives in Stamford, Conn.
Denny Galindo, BSME ’00, has graduated from Columbia Business School.
Anant Madabhushi, MSBME ’00, went on to earn her PhD in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and is currently an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rutgers University.
Trey McDougall, BSME ’00, has been promoted to associate principal at ClearyZimmermann Engineers in San Antonio.
Marcus Schuster, BSME ’00, and his wife, Corinne (Burrows) Schuster, BSME ’01, met while attending the university. As of December 2006 they became the proud parents of future Longhorn Mason Lee Schuster. Corinne is currently attending The University of Chicago pursuing her MBA, while Marcus is a project manager/design engineer for Senior Automotive in Chicago, Ill.
John Taboada, MSEE ’97, PhDEE ’00, has been awarded four U.S. patents for inventions ranging from a new optical mount to a laser archery arrow. He and his wife, Vera Annasina Miller Taboada, recently announced the birth of their second child, Johan Sebestiano Taboada.
Raymond Arthur, BSAE ’01, worked for Hunt & Joiner, Inc. in Dallas as a project engineer and project manager of the Sam’s Club Design Group. In May 2007, he earned his MBA from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University, and he plans to pursue a career in marketing and strategic management on the West Coast.
Paul J. Axtell, MSCE ’01, is married to Katie Fasbender, and the couple has three children: P.J., Maggie and Grant. Paul was recently appointed geotechnical engineer expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, located in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Bernard Choi, PhDBME ’01, married fellow Longhorn Vanessa Trujillo, BSEE ’95, MSE ’97, and the couple has two children, Gaby and Giovanni. After a three-year Beckman Fellowship at UC-Irvine, Bernard is an assistant professor in the departments of biomedical engineering and surgery at UC-Irvine.
Joel Henry, BSME ’01, received his PE licence in mechanical engineering in January 2007, was given a NASA Team Space Flight Awareness Award in February 2007, and received an RNASA Stellar Nomination in April 2007. He is now working on NASA projects in specialized engineering for ARES Corporation at Johnson Space Center.
Carlos I. Huerta Lopez, PhDCE ’01, is a senior researcher and professor at the department of seismology of the Research Center and Higher Education at Ensenada. He is a member of the National Investigators System. He has been developing binational projects for the estimation of seismic ground motion response for the San Diego-Tijuana, Mexico metropolitan area. He is an active member of local organizations working to improve the quality of life of the people of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
Tiffany Daykin, BSChE ’02, works at Nexidea, Inc. as a technical and economic consultant in the refining industry and teaches undergraduate business courses at UT Dallas. She recently earned an MBA, and in 2006 won the Institute of Internal Auditors’ Ester Sawyer scholarship for a paper on corporate social responsibility reporting and corporate governance. Tiffany and her husband have two children.
Mary (Zaboski) Hvistendahl, BSME ’02, has left the Dell, Inc. product group in Austin to enter Northwestern University’s MMM program. The two-year full-time program leads to both an MBA from Kellogg School of Management and an MEM from McCormick School of Engineering.
Stephanie Nicole Krenzke, BSCE ’02, married Scott Hadleigh Paul at The Woodlands Resort and Conference Center in April 2007.
David R. Shields, PhDCE ’02, was selected as the Outstanding Construction Management Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he is an associate professor and director of the Construction Management Program in the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering. He was selected as Western and Pacific Regions vice chair for the National Society of Professional Engineers, Professional Engineers in Construction Practice Division.
Lorenzo Thione, MSEE ’02, is the founder and product architect of Powerset, a new venture-funded company that is building a new generation of search engines based on the understanding of natural human language. Prior to founding Powerset, he worked as a researcher at the Fuji-Xerox Palo Alto Laboratory. In June 2007 Lorenzo participated in the AIDS Lifecycle, a ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles (more than 500 miles) that raises money and awareness for AIDS services. Lorenzo lives in San Francisco.
Alvin Leung, BSEE ’03, graduated from USC Viterbi School of Engineering with an MS in systems architecture and engineering. He was the June 2007 Boeing-Houston Employee of the Month and also won the 2007 NASA-JSC Software of the Year team award.
John Verhalen, BSASE ’03, started as a production support engineer for Cessna Aircraft Co. in July 2005 and recently joined Mooney Airplane Co. in a role similar to liaison engineer. He currently lives in Kerrville, where Mooney is located, and married Chandra Turner in July. He earned a private pilot’s license while at Cessna.
Jason E. Charalambides, PhDCE ’04, married Nancy Ann Sifferman in France and lived in Cyprus while he was an assistant professor at a private college there. Since August 2006, Jason has been at the College of Engineering of California State University, Fresno, where he serves as an assistant professor in the College of Engineering.
Luke Culpepper, BSME ’04, received his JD from the University of Houston Law Center this past May and has accepted a job in the patent litigation section at Howrey LLP in Houston. He recently married Lindsey Townley, BA ’04.
David DeZern, BSEE ’04, recently graduated from the university’s School of Law and began working for Sidley Austin LLP in Dallas.
David Wei Fan, PhDCE ’04, was a senior statistical and optimization solution software developer at the R&D department of SAS Institute Inc., prior to joining the UT Tyler civil engineering faculty as an assistant professor in August 2006. He won the 2006-07 Best Civil Engineering Professor award at UT Tyler and served as a member of the Transportation Research Board’s committee on new public transportation systems and technology and paratransit. He is listed in “Marquis Who’s Who in America.” He has two children, Jennifer and Peter.
Gavon Renfroe, BSEE ’04, graduated from Emory University School of Law in May 2007 after spending his last semester studying Japanese Law at Temple University in Tokyo, Japan. He was honored with the ABA/BNA Award For Excellence In The Study of Intellectual Property and inducted into the Order of Emory Advocates. He has accepted a job offer from the Houston office of Howrey LLP as a first-year associate in its intellectual property group.
Ben Matthews, MSE ’04, after a seven-year career in the Air Force, is now working as a professional engineer in Dallas for Carter & Burgess. He is actively involved with the Society of American Military Engineers and is the college outreach chair for the society.
Elizabeth Bodine, BSEE ’06, works in the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif. as a member of the technical staff of the advanced signal processing projects group in the communication architectures and research section. Having won both a NDSEG Fellowship and an Atwood Fellowship from Caltech, she will begin a master’s/PhD program at Caltech this fall.
Priti Duggal, MSME ’06, is currently pursuing his PhD in physics at Oxford University, UK, under Dr. Laura Herz. His research topic is the “Application of Femtosecond Laser Spectroscopy for Research in the Area of Organic Solar Cells.”
Sameer Kamal, BSChE ’06, is working on his master’s degree at MIT’s CEE department this fall.
Barbara Lucke, BSASE ’06, is returning to school to study pharmacy.
Zac Lampkin, BSME ’06, after graduating, backpacked the world with Chris McMillan, Leila Rashedi and Pam Knoeller. They toured Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Hong Kong, Dubai, South Africa, Greece, Amsterdam, Germany, France and Spain. Upon returning, Zac started work with Chevron in Houston in the subsea equipment group. He recently received an offer to do 28/28 rotational work in Angola, Africa.
Giovanni Ciro Migliaccio, MSCE ’06, has recently completed the requirements for a PhD in civil engineering at the university. In addition, he accepted a faculty position as assistant professor in the department of civil engineering in the Univesity of New Mexico in fall 2007.
Chris Sandilos, BSME ’06, is currently living in Houston and has been working at FMC Technologies Inc., a global supplier of subsea oil and gas completions equipment. He enjoys spending time on his hobbies: cars, unorthodox sports and motorcycling.
Humera Rafique, BSChE ’06, moved to Sugar Land, Texas, to work at Fluor Corporation as a process engineer on a major refinery project. He’s working in both the OSBL and ISBL areas for his current project.
Frank Willmore, PhDChE ’06, has launched an Austin business specializing in the design and construction of fashionable, energy-efficient buildings.
David Wogan, BSME ’06, has been working at National Instruments since graduating in December 2006. He has been accepted into a dual master’s program at the university in mechanical engineering and public policy through the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Corwin Olson, BSASE ’07, is interning at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., working on autonomous navigation systems for future interplanetary missions. This fall he returns to the university to pursue an MS in aerospace engineering as a research assistant at the Center for Space Research.
Elizabeth Quintanilla, BSEE ’07, married Christopher Wells and moved to Duncan, Okla., to begin a new job at Halliburton.
Shobha Vasudevan, PhD ’07, accepted a teaching position at the University of Illinois. Shobha beat out 250 applicants for the job.