Circle of Distinguished Friends

Degree: BA'87

Induction Year: 2023

Degree: BA'62

Induction Year: 2015

Kenneth F. Galloway is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Vanderbilt University. An alumnus of Vanderbilt, he earned his doctorate from the University of South Carolina and has held professional appointments at Indiana University, NSWC-Crane, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (chief of the Semiconductor Electronics Division), the University of Maryland and the University of Arizona (head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department) before returning to Vanderbilt as dean of Engineering in 1996. He served as dean from 1996 until 2012.

Galloway’s personal research and teaching activities are in solid-state devices and semiconductor technology, radiation effects in electronics and engineering policy. He has published numerous technical papers, and much of his research activity has been supported by U.S. Department of Defense organizations.

He has served as general chairman of the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference and general chairman of the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting. He was vice president of the IEEE Electron Devices Society (2000–2005) and a member of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (2003–2007). For his work, Galloway has been elected a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society. In 2002, he received 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. In 2013, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers.

Galloway served as chair of the American Society for Engineering Education Engineering Deans Council (2009–2011) and was elected as a fellow of the ASEE in 2011. He is a member of the ASEE board of directors, served as president of the American Society for Engineering Education in 2013–2014, and in 2014–2015, is serving as immediate past president.

Degree: BA'64

Induction Year: 2023

Induction Year: 2020

Maj. Gen. Eugene J. LeBoeuf is professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University. He joined the faculty in 1997, and has served as associate department chair and director of undergraduate studies.

His research involves the analysis of surface water and groundwater resources, to include the fate and transport of emerging contaminants in the environment, and multi-objective optimization of hydropower generation. He has been awarded four U.S. patents.

Prof. LeBoeuf is a recipient of a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development award and he has been a faculty research fellow with the Environmental Science Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and he serves as the chair of the awards committee for the Environmental Council of the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute. Prof. LeBoeuf is a Distinguished Alumnus of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and serves on the Board of Advisors for their Department of Civil Engineering. 

Outside academia, Prof. LeBoeuf is a major general in the U.S. Army Reserve, where he has received numerous awards including the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award. Prof. LeBoeuf currently serves as the Commanding General for the 79th Theater Sustainment Command headquartered in Los Alamitos, Calif., and as the modernization subcommittee chair for the Army Reserve Forces Policy Committee.

Prof. LeBoeuf earned his bachelor of science in civil engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, master of science in industrial engineering and management science from Northwestern University, master of science in civil engineering from Stanford University, Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan, and master of strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

Prof. LeBoeuf and his wife, Teresa, have two children, Lauren and Nathan, and reside in Franklin, Tenn.

Induction Year: 2021

Pastrick is active in the Washington, D.C.-area community. She has served in leadership roles with several local non-profit organizations, including as former chair of the Board of Trustees for the Washington Jesuit Academy, a middle school for at-risk boys in D.C. and as a trustee for Collegiate Directions, Inc., a college access program for low-income, first generation-to-college students in Maryland.

She is a board member of DC-CAP, a college access program for public and charter school students in D.C. and on the board of Clark Enterprises, the private investment firm founded in 1972 by her father.

Pastrick resides in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband, R. Scott Pastrick, president and CEO of Prime Policy Group. They have two daughters and a son. She holds a JD from the Catholic University of America and a bachelor’s degree from Duke University.

Induction Year: 2022

Jonathan B. Perlin, M.D., Ph.D., became the seventh president and CEO of The Joint Commission on March 1, 2022. Previously, as president of clinical operations and chief medical officer of HCA Healthcare, Jonathan led clinicians, data scientists and researchers in developing a learning health system model for improving care at the system’s 185 hospitals and 2,200 other locations. His team’s work achieved national recognition for preventing elective preterm deliveries, reducing maternal mortality, increasing sepsis survival, and developing public-private-academic partnerships for improving infection prevention and treating COVID-19.

Before joining HCA Healthcare, he was undersecretary for health in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he led the Veterans Health Administration to national prominence for clinical performance. Signal accomplishments included implementation of the first national electronic health record. He is a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a Congressional Budget Office health advisor, immediate past chair of the National Quality Forum and the Department of Veterans Affairs Special Medical Advisory Group. As an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, he has co-chaired action collaboratives on digital health, combating opioids, and climate change.

His board service includes Meharry Medical College, Columbia University’s Health Policy and Management program, Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering and the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation. He maintains faculty appointments at Vanderbilt University as clinical professor of medicine and health policy and at Virginia Commonwealth University as adjunct professor of health administration.

Induction Year: 2019

Jaret C. Riddick, Ph.D., is the director of the Vehicle Technology Directorate (VTD) of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. As director, he leads the establishment of the strategic vision for new science to enable future Army manned and unmanned, ground and air platforms. He manages and directs organizational efforts focused on fundamental and early applied research associated with autonomy, robotics, mobility, propulsion, aeromechanics and reliability.

Prior to becoming VTD director, he served as acting chief of the VTD Mechanics Division, where he supervised research efforts to reduce the logistics burdens. Before that, he was division chief and performed a detail assignment as staff specialist in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (OUSD). Prior to joining OUSD, Jaret was detailed to the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research and Technology.

Jaret first joined the ARL Mechanics Division of VTD in 2002, at NASA-Langley Research Center. In 2012, he was promoted to lead of the Structural Integrity and Durability Team at APG, where he directed PhD-level researchers in establishing and maturing concepts for reliable, lightweight, adaptive vehicle platform technologies. His most recent research interests focus on novel mechanics for future vehicle platforms to enable revolutionary mobility and maneuver in support of the new Army Operating Concept for multi-domain operations.

Jaret holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Howard University; a master of science in mechanical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University; and a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech. In 2017, he was awarded the Office of Secretary of Defense Award of Excellence. He has served as a member of the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering Board of Visitors since 2014.

Induction Year: 2016

S. Shankar Sastry is currently the dean of engineering at University of California, Berkeley and the faculty director of the Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies. From 2004 to 2007 he was the director of CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society) an interdisciplinary center spanning the UC campuses of Berkeley, Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz. He has served as chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley from January 2001 through June 2004. From 1999 to early 2001, he was director of the Information Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). From 1996 to 1999, he was the director of the Electronics Research Laboratory at Berkeley.

Sastry received his Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of California, Berkeley. He was was an assistant professor MIT from 1980 to 1982 and at Harvard University as a chaired Gordon McKay professor in 1994.

Research Interests

Areas of research are resilient network control systems, cybersecurity, autonomous and unmanned systems (especially aerial vehicles), computer vision, nonlinear and adaptive control, control of hybrid and embedded systems, and software.

Most recently he has been concerned with critical infrastructure protection, in the context of establishing a 10-year NSF Science and Technology Center, TRUST (Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technologies).

Induction Year: 2018

Harold Smethills grew up around ranching before beginning his business career in banking, finance and investments. From executive positions at United Banks of Colorado, Smethills became executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Adolph Coors Company while also serving on its board. He led the development and implementation of a major restructuring program to spin off Coors' non-brewing businesses into a new Fortune 500 company, ACX Technologies, of which he became co-president with Jeff and Joe Coors. Smethills subsequently formed his own investment management company managing a privately held real estate portfolio. He was recruited as CEO of American Stock Exchange, a New York Stock Exchange listed company, and later served as CEO of Menasha Corporation, a large, privately held manufacturing business. In 2004, he returned to his native Colorado to pursue development of Sterling Ranch, a 3,400-acre, master-planned community in Northwest Douglas County. As chairman and founder, Smethills oversees all aspects of Sterling Ranch. His son Brock, BE’13, is also involved with the project which has been named as one of Vanderbilt’s Trans-Institutional Programs. Vanderbilt faculty and students are involved in the project’s design and implementation.

Smethills earned a bachelor’s degree in finance, as well as MBA and JD degrees from the University of Denver. He is a retired colonel from the Colorado Air National Guard, and received the Legion of Merit among other awards for his service.

Smethills is a trustee on the Denver Botanic Gardens board of directors and chairs the Sustainability Committee. He serves on the Board of Regents of Pepperdine University and as chair of the investment committee. He and his wife Diane are also involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Research.

Induction Year: 2015

Named an Innovation Agent by Fast Company, James Truchard, president and CEO, cofounded National Instruments in 1976 and has pioneered the way scientists and engineers solve the world’s grand engineering challenges.

As one of Forbes’ America’s Favorite Bosses, James Truchard, commonly known around National Instruments as Dr. T, has led the company from a three-man team to a multinational organization recognized as a Fortune 100 Best Places to Work and one of the top 25 “World’s Best Multinational Workplaces” by the Great Places to Work Institute.

Under Truchard’s leadership, the company’s long-term vision, known as the 100-year plan, and focus on improving the world by providing tools that accelerate productivity, innovation and discovery, has led to strong, consistent company growth and success of its broad base of customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders.

Elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, Truchard has also been inducted into Electronic Design’s Engineering Hall of Fame and has earned the distinction of being elected an IEEE fellow.

Additionally, Truchard has been recognized with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship for his community involvement with organizations including the Engineering Foundation Advisory Council, The University of Texas at Austin Chancellor’s Council, Austin Software Council and FIRST Robotics.

Truchard’s personal passion for gardening and photography has led him to writing a gardening book that he has donated to nonprofits for their fundraising use.

Truchard holds a doctorate in electrical engineering, as well as a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in physics, all from the University of Texas at Austin. Truchard earned his master’s and doctorate degrees while working full time as the managing director of the acoustical measurements division at the UT Applied Research Laboratories.