Kenneth F. Galloway, former dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, has been honored with a Distinguished Service Award by the Nashville Chapter of the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers.
Galloway accepted the award plaque this evening at the 2013 Middle Tennessee All Engineers Banquet at Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville. The banquet is always held on the Friday of National Engineers Week, an annual celebration that recognizes the contributions engineers make to society.
The Distinguished Service Award is an exclusive honor that has been bestowed only four times in the past 20 years. It is given to engineers who have received recognition of their achievements on national and international levels, have held key positions, and have had a long-term and significant impact on the engineering profession.
Galloway accepted the award from Vanderbilt engineering alumnus Jack L. Wood, former chairman and director of Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon, Inc.
Galloway is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He served as dean of the School of Engineering from 1996 until 2012. An alumnus of Vanderbilt, he earned his doctorate from the University of South Carolina and went on to hold professional appointments at Indiana University, NAVSEA-Crane, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NBS, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology), the University of Maryland, and the University of Arizona before returning to Vanderbilt in 1996.
In his final position at NBS, he served as chief of the Semiconductor Electronics Division. At the University of Arizona, he served as professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) and chair of the ECE department.
Galloway is president-elect of the American Society of Engineering Education. He becomes ASEE president in 2014. In his administrative roles he has focused on public advocacy for engineering and engineering technology education. He is a leader among his national peers and an effective spokesperson for engineering and science in Washington, D.C.
Other ASEE service includes chair of the Engineering Deans Council (2009-11) and as a member of the ASEE Board of Directors. Prior to that, he served as chair of the Engineering Deans Council Public Policy Committee (2005-07) and as a member of the Engineering Deans Council Executive Board (2006-11). He recently joined the Journal of Engineering Education Advisory Board (2011- ).
In addition to his election as an ASEE Fellow, he is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Physical Society (APS).
Galloway’s personal research and teaching activities are in solid-state devices, semiconductor technology, and radiation effects in electronics. He has published numerous journal and conference papers in these areas, and his research has received sustained support from several U.S. Department of Defense organizations. As dean, he served as a strong advocate for undergraduate research and curriculum innovation.
In 2002, his technical and service accomplishments were recognized with the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Radiation Effects Award, and in 2007, he received the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Richard F. Shea Distinguished Member Award.
He has served as general chairman of the 1985 IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference and as general chairman of the 1997 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting. He was a vice president of the IEEE Electron Devices Society (2000-05) and a member of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (2003-07).
In his 16 years as dean, Galloway led the Vanderbilt School of Engineering to a new level of accomplishment after the School spent the previous decades showing steady but very slow improvement.
Notable achievements include the rise in research expenditures from $21.5 million in 2000 to $66.5 million in 2012, the addition of 10 endowed chairs, up from two in 2000, increased physical space with the additions of Featheringill Hall, a building on 16th Ave. South for two of the School’s large institutes, research labs in the Keck-FEL Center, and an institute satellite project office in Annapolis, Md.
During Galloway’s tenure, the university’s Shape the Future Campaign netted $85.4 million to the engineering endowment and added 55 new engineering scholarships. Undergraduate engineering applications rose from 1,738 in 2001 to 5,374 in 2012.
The long-lasting heritage of Galloway at Vanderbilt will be his efforts in recruiting and retaining young faculty members who will contribute to Vanderbilt’s success for decades to come. Approximately half of the School’s tenure and tenure track faculty have been recruited since 1996.