Illini Abound at NAE Investiture

10/17/2006 Brad Petersen, ECE Illinois

The prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE) inducted 76 members at its annual meeting in Washington DC on Sunday, October 15, 2006. The ceremony featured a plethora of engineers with ties to the ECE Department.

Written by Brad Petersen, ECE Illinois

Ilesanmi Adesida
Ilesanmi Adesida

The prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE) inducted 76 members at its annual meeting in Washington DC on Sunday, October 15, 2006.  The ceremony featured a plethora of engineers with ties to the ECE Department.

The proceedings were presided over by NAE President William A. Wulf (MSEE ’63) who earned his master’s in electrical engineering at Illinois.  Ralph J. Cicerone (MSEE ’67, PhD ’70), president of the National Academy of Science and an ECE alumnus, and W. Dale Compton, home secretary of the NAE and alumnus of the Physics Department, former Physics professor, and previous director of the Coordinated Science Laboratory, were also on hand. These men have proudly carried on the Illinois leadership tradition started by former ECE Department head and College of Engineering Dean William L. Everitt, who was part of the group that founded the NAE in 1964.

The inductions began with College of Engineering Dean and ECE Professor Ilesanmi Adesida and ended with alumnus Dusan S. Zrnic (MSEE 1966, PhD 1969).  Provost Linda Katehi, who is a member of the ECE Department, and alumni Daniel W. Dobberpuhl (BSEE ’67), and Admiral Archie Clemins (BSEE '66, MSEE '72) were announced in between.

Ilesanmi Adesida, a Donald Biggar Willett Professor of Engineering, was cited for his contributions to the nanometer-scale processing of semiconductor structures and applications in high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Clemins served as commander of the United States Pacific Fleet from 1996 to 1999 and commander of the Seventh Fleet from 1994 to 1996. Clemins is credited with bringing Naval operations into the electronic age.

Dobberpuhl, an Illinois native, is the CEO and co-founder of P.A. Semi, Inc., a semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, CA.

Linda P B Katehi-Tseregounis
Linda P B Katehi-Tseregounis

Linda P B Katehi-Tseregounis, who came to Illinois earlier this year after serving as Dean of Engineering at Purdue, was cited for her contributions to three-dimensional integrated circuits and on-wafer packaging and to engineering education.

Zrnic earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the University of Belgrade in his native Yugoslavia prior to coming to Illinois, to complete his master's and PhD. Zrnic is the leader of the Radar and Remote Sensing Research group at the National Severe Storms Laboratory. He played an instrumental role in the design of the national Doppler Weather Radio system.

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

Adesida and Katehi join ECE Professors Tamer Basar, Richard Blahut, Bruce Hajek, Nick Holonyak Jr, Tom Huang, and Pete Sauer as members of the NAE.  Emeritus ECE Professors Floyd Dunn, Karl Hess, Shung-Wu Lee, and George Swenson are also members.  With this year’s induction the total number of NAE members climbs to 2,371.


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This story was published October 17, 2006.