Engineering faculty promoted; annual awards presented

Dean Kenneth F. Galloway announced May 11 the promotions of seven engineering faculty members at the final faculty meeting of the 2009-2010 academic year and presented four awards at a reception following the meeting.

Seven faculty members have been promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure: Franz Baudenbacher, biomedical engineering; Florence Sanchez, civil and environmental engineering; Julie Adams, electrical engineering and computer science; Aniruddha Gokhale, electrical engineering and computer science; William Robinson, electrical engineering and computer science; Eric Barth, mechanical engineering; and Deyu Li, mechanical engineering.

The Vanderbilt Board of Trust in December named Bob Rosselli, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Emeritus and Professor of Chemical Engineering, Emeritus; and Steve Schach, Professor of Computer Science, Emeritus and Professor of Computer Engineering, Emeritus. Rosselli and Schach were honored by their departments in December.

Dean presents awards

Galloway also presented two faculty awards, one staff award and one research award based on an outstanding paper written by a graduate student.

Gary Walker, Olin Hall building manager, received the Judith A. Pachtman Staff Service Award for his exemplary performance throughout his tenure in the mechanical engineering department. Walker serves as ME safety officer, School of Engineering laser safety officer, and ME lab manager. Walker also was recognized for 35 years of service, a milestone he reached in fall 2009.

The Excellence in Teaching Award was presented to chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Clare McCabe. Nominations for this award are made by School of Engineering faculty and any engineering student group recognized by the University, and it is given to a faculty member who has made significant contributions to excellence in undergraduate or graduate instruction during the past year.

McCabe is mentor to seven Ph.D. students and two post-doctoral students and she supervises a number of undergraduate research projects. McCabe excels in classroom teaching and her student ratings are among the highest in the school. Colleagues say she has had a major positive impact on the department’s undergraduate curriculum.

The Edward J. White Engineering Faculty Award for Excellence in Service was presented to electrical engineering professor A.B. Bonds for his exemplary service to the School of Engineering.

Bonds’ service to the school spans 30 years and a number of titles, including Associate Chair for Electrical and Computer Engineering, Executive Officer of EECS, Director of the Computer Engineering Program, Director of Undergraduate Studies for both electrical engineering and computer engineering, adviser to the Vanderbilt Motorsports team and service on numerous school and university committees.

Galloway recognized graduate student Matthew Gadlage, whose paper – “Temperature Dependence of Digital Single-Event Transients in Bulk and Fully-Depleted SOI Technologies”  –  was published in the December issue of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. Gadlage has completed his Ph.D. and will graduate May 14.