Whitacre College of Engineering Maddox Chairs Hosting Symposium of Scholars

The symposium will feature nine members of the National
Academy of Engineering, who will discuss the future of
engineering and science research.

by: George Watson

The Whitacre College of Engineering at Texas Tech University will conduct a symposium with some of the top members of the National Academy of Engineering to discuss the future of engineering and science research.

"A Symposium of Scholars" is scheduled for Sept. 3-4 and will honor Chau-Chyun Chen, a professor of chemical engineering, and Danny Reible, a professor of chemical and civil, environmental and construction engineering, who are the Jack and Donovan Maddox Chairs in Engineering.

The symposium will be held 8:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday (Sept. 3) and 7:45-11 a.m. on Friday (Sept. 4) at the Texas Tech Student Union Building Ballroom.

"This is a wonderful celebration with our Whitacre College of Engineering community of scholars," said Al Sacco Jr., dean of the Whitacre College of Engineering. "We will bring some of the world's most well-known and prolific scholars and industrial engineers here to Texas Tech University to celebrate with our community the contributions of the Maddox chairs, Danny Reible and Chau-Chyun Chen."

Nine members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) will comprise the panel, including university professors and some of the industry's leading engineers. Among the panelists will be Fazle Hussain, the President's Distinguished Chair in Engineering and Science in the Texas Tech Department of Mechanical Engineering.

"This Symposium of Scholars is a wonderful extension of the benefits the foundation had hoped would develop from the establishment of the Jack and Donovan Maddox Chairs," said Jim Maddox, president of the J. F Maddox Foundation. "The current chairs, Dr. Chau-Chyun Chen and Dr. Danny Reible, represent the level of academic and research achievement, past, present and future that was our goal in funding the endowments that support these chairs. We applaud the administration and Dr. Sacco for their continuing efforts to leverage these chairs to enhance both the reputation of Texas Tech on a national and international basis and add to the quality of educational experiences available to the Tech community."

Attendance for the symposium is free and open to the public.

"To my knowledge, this is a first for such a knowledgeable group to assemble in such a symposium at any university within the United States," Sacco said. "We are excited to hear what the world's top scientists and engineers see as the direction of scientific and engineering research in the decades to come. We are honored the J. F Maddox Foundation has given Texas Tech University and the State of Texas this extraordinary opportunity."

About the panelists
Fazle Hussain is the President's Distinguished Chair in Engineering and Science in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas Tech and a senior adviser to the president. He is a professor of chemical, mechanical and petroleum engineering with research interests in vortex dynamics, holography, flow noise and control, cardiovascular dynamics, modeling cancer growth and nanomedicine and nanotechnology.

Charles T. Driscoll is a professor of environmental systems and a distinguished professor of civil and environmental engineering at Syracuse. His research focus is on environmental chemistry, biogeochemistry and water quality modeling with a focus on response by ecosystems to various disturbances. He is particularly interested in the effects of pollution on the environment around the Adirondack region in New York and New England.

Davis L. Ford is an adjunct professor and environmental engineer at the University of Texas. In addition to lecturing throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia, Ford is the author of numerous technical papers, has co-authored 10 textbooks, written two biographies and one children's book. He also has served as president of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and chairman of the NAE Ethics Committee.

Larry B. Evans is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Rive Technology, which promotes advanced technology for clean energy applications. He previously founded Aspen Technology, which provides software and solutions for chemical process manufacturing, and served as chairman and CEO of the company until 2002. Prior to that, he was a professor of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1962 to 1990.

Liang-Shih Fan is a distinguished university professor and the C.J. Easton Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Ohio State University. He developed one of the leading clean-coal technologies in the United States – a chemical looping process for electricity, hydrogen, fuel and chemical production – as well as the Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography, producing three-dimensional imaging of multiphase flows and reactor systems.

Michael Kavanaugh is a civil and chemical engineer and one of the country's top consultants with more than 35 years of experience in the areas of water quality, water treatment and groundwater remediation. He has served as a testifying expert or fact witness on engineering and hydrogeologic issues regarding hazardous waste sites and other issues on more than 60 occasions. He also has served as mediator, arbitrator or on numerous mediation panels.

Ralph Yang is the Dwight F. Benton Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He served as the chair of chemical engineering at Michigan from 1995 to 2000. His research focus is on gas adsorption, which is the adhesion of atoms, ions or molecules from a gas to a surface. He studies gas adsorption for the purpose of separation and purification as well as studying new adsorbent materials with the hope of synthesizing new sorbants.

Richard G. Luthy is the Silas H. Palmer Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University and a senior fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment. He serves as the director of the Engineering Research Center for the National Science Foundation. His focus is on water quality, specifically the country's urban water infrastructure to solve the pressing problems facing urban water systems, such as water shortage and vulnerability.

Stanley Sandler is the H.B. DuPont Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware who authored the popular "Chemical and Engineering Thermodynamics" textbook in 1977. He has also authored 10 other books and more than 300 scholarly articles. His areas of research include thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, computational quantum mechanics, phase equilibria, separation processes and biochemical separations.