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<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>To
view online, visit http://egr.uh.edu/newsletter/deansmemo/1010.html</span></i><span
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<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Dear Cullen College Faculty and Staff,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Over the past few months, we have welcomed perhaps the
largest cohort of incoming faculty we've had in a single academic semester.
With the strategic goal of growing our faculty 30 percent by 2013, we have
made great progress with the addition of these eight researchers and
scholars:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Haleh Ardebili</span></strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>, Assistant Professor, ME<br>
<strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Craig Glennie</span></strong>,
Assistant Professor, CEE<br>
<strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Reagan Herman</span></strong>,
Instructional/Research Associate Professor, CEE<br>
<strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Megan Robertson</span></strong>,
Assistant Professor, ChBE<br>
<strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Debora Rodrigues</span></strong>,
Assistant Professor, CEE<br>
<strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Badrinath Roysam</span></strong>,
Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor and Chair, ECE<br>
<strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Navin Varadarajan</span></strong>,
Assistant Professor, ChBE<br>
<strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Kaspar Willam</span></strong>,
Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor, CEE</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Last week, we welcomed a new chair of the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Badrinath "Badri" Roysam. He
joins us from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he served as
professor of electrical, computer and systems engineering and professor of
biomedical engineering. He also served as associate director of the Bernard
M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems, a National
Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, and co-director of the
Rensselaer Center for Open Source Software. Badri received a B.Tech in
electronics engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1984 and
a M.S. and D. Sc. in electrical engineering from Washington University in
St. Louis in 1987 and 1989, respectively. His research interests include
the study of algorithms and high-speed computing for imaging and image
analysis with applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. Please join me
in welcoming Badri to the Cullen College!</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>This semester, we were also fortunate to add two National
Academy of Engineering members to our faculty roster. Kaspar Willam joined
us from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was inducted into the NAE
in 2004 for contributions to constitutive modeling and computational
failure analysis of concrete and quasi-brittle materials and structures.
Anestis "Andy" Veletsos joined us as an adjunct professor. He is
the Brown and Root Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice
University. He was inducted into the NAE in 1979 for contributions to
advancements in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering,
particularly inelastic behavior and soil-structure interaction. Again,
please join me in welcoming these two scholars to the Cullen College!</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>In addition to announcing our new faculty, here are some
other developments and upcoming events that I'd like to share with you:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Professorships: </span></strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Recently, three of our
tenured faculty received university professorships. I'd like to congratulate
Vermuri Balakotaiah and Demetre Economou in the Department of Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering for both being named a Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz
Cullen Distinguished University Chair. I'd also like to congratulate Jack
Wolfe in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for being
named a Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University
Professor. Jack served as interim chair of the ECE department over the last
year, so I would also like to thank him for his leadership and service.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Petroleum Program</span></strong><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>: Our undergraduate
program in petroleum engineering continues to expand. This semester, more
than 70 students have enrolled in our program. Tom Holley, our program
director, is aggressively recruiting prospective students throughout the
Houston area and has launched a new <a href="http://petro.egr.uh.edu/"
target="_blank">petroleum program website</a>.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>NRC Rankings</span></strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>: Last week, we received
the long-awaited results of the National Academies' National Research
Council rankings of doctoral programs. Though five years old, the data
placed our chemical engineering doctoral program in the top 20 nationally.
Congratulations for a job well done! For specifics on the ranking, be sure
to visit our <a href="http://www.egr.uh.edu/news/1010/?e=nrc"
target="_blank">online story</a>.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Commissioning: </span></strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>This Thursday at 1 p.m. in
the Engineering Commons, Lawrence Schulze from the Department of Industrial
Engineering will be commissioned as the Naval Campus Liaison Officer for
the region. Please join us at the event.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>ELB</span></strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>: The Engineering Leadership Board will
convene on Friday, October 29 to review the college's strategic initiatives
and provide suggestions on how we can achieve our objectives and goals.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Texas Deans Meeting: </span></strong><span
class=style21><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>UH will host the deans of Texas engineering programs on
October 18.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span class=style21><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Once again, thank you for your continued support and
dedication.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Warm regards,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='mso-line-height-alt:0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Joe Tedesco </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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