Vanderbilt engineering alumni Kendall Card and Perry E. Wallace Jr. will be inducted into the School of Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni at a special event in April. S. Shankar Sastry will be inducted as a member of the school’s Circle of Distinguished Friends.
“The newest members of the Academy of Distinguished Alumni and the member of our Circle of Distinguished Friends are ‘influencers’ with tremendous insight and impact,” said Dean Philippe Fauchet. “They have broken barriers, lead and built outstanding careers, and guided and shaped engineering education while enriching the lives of those in their communities and beyond.”
The Distinguished Alumnus Award recognizes notable achievement, significant service and excellent character. The Distinguished Friends Award recognizes non-alumni whose professional, civic and philanthropic pursuits reflect the high standards and values associated with the school. Honorees are chosen by an awards committee that comprises the dean, faculty members and alumni representatives.
Vice Admiral (Ret.) Kendall Card (BE’77) concluded a 35-year global career in the U.S. Navy in 2013 and is now the director of Department of Defense programs for the Global Security Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. A naval aviator with more than 3,900 flight hours, his tours at sea included Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
He served as commanding officer of the USS Rainier and the USS Abraham Lincoln during Operations Enduring Freedom, Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom. as part of a record setting nine-and-a-half month deployment, as well as Operation Unified Assistance in support of the Tsunami relief efforts in Sumatra, Indonesia. Kendall was later promoted to Rear Admiral.
In his final Pentagon assignment he concurrently served as deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance and the 64th director of naval intelligence. His decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, three Legion of Merit awards, Bronze Star, and various personal, service and campaign awards.
A native of Fort Stockton, Texas, Card received a degree in mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt and a master’s degree in national strategic studies from the Naval War College.
Perry E. Wallace Jr. (BE’70) is a tenured professor of law at the Washington College of Law of the American University and serves as the director of the JD/MBA Dual Degree Program. Earlier in his career he was a senior trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration and served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology.
As a member of the Commodores’ basketball team, Wallace has received numerous honors for his contribution as the first African American varsity basketball player in the Southeastern Conference. He is a member of the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame and his jersey is retired. He was named a “Legend” by the SEC and was elected to the Silver Anniversary All-America team by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Vanderbilt University is establishing the Perry E. Wallace Jr. Scholarship to honor his achievements. The scholarship will provide financial support based on need for deserving undergraduates at the School of Engineering.
A Nashville native, Wallace earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and engineering mathematics. He received a law degree from Columbia University in 1975, where he was awarded the Charles Evans Hughes Fellowship. He has written many chapters, articles and scholarly works on environmental issues, corporate governance and other issues.
A Circle of Distinguished Friends award recognizes those who reflect the high standards and values associated with the school but who are not alumni of the school.
S. Shankar Sastry is the dean of engineering at University of California, Berkeley and the faculty director of the Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies. He also is professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, bioengineering, and mechanical engineering.
From 2004 to 2007 he was the director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, a University of California interdisciplinary center spanning the campuses of Berkeley, Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz. He served as chairman, department of electrical engineering and computer sciences, University of California, Berkeley, from January, 2001 through June 2004. From 1999 to early 2001, he served as the director of the Information Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. From 1996 to 1999, he was the director of the Electronics Research Laboratory at Berkeley.
Among his numerous awards and honors, Sastry is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of IEEE. He is currently on the corporate boards of C3-Carbon and HCL Technologies (India). He is on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Interwest LLC, GE Software, and Eriksholm.
Sastry received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He has served on the faculty of MIT and Harvard University.
Contact:
Brenda Ellis, (615) 343-6314
Brenda.Ellis@Vanderbilt.edu
Twitter @VUEngineering