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</v:shape><![endif]--><![if !vml]><img width=120 height=150 src="cid:image003.jpg@01CC417B.E692B960" align=right hspace=9 alt="http://egr.uh.edu/newsletter/deansmemo/images/tedesco.jpg" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_2"><![endif]><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Dear Cullen College Faculty and Staff,</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>It's definitely an exciting time at the Cullen College. Though it's the middle of the summer, faculty and staff around the college are working diligently on many significant initiatives that will materialize this fall. That's in addition to routine grant funding opportunities currently being pursued as well as many academic and industrial partnerships being established through a variety of endeavors. The scholarly activity at our college continues to move forward—a critical component of becoming a competitive Tier One engineering program. Thank you for all your hard work!</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Over the last couple of months, there were many distinguished accomplishments earned throughout the college. Join me in congratulating the following faculty and staff for these high honors and service:</span><o:p></o:p></p><div align=center><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellspacing=10 cellpadding=0 width=540 style='width:405.0pt;border:none;border-bottom:dotted #333333 1.0pt'><tr style='height:153.0pt'><td width="50%" valign=top style='width:50.0%;border:none;padding:.75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt;height:153.0pt'><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Prof. Betty Barr </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>(ECE) retired after 41 years of service to UH as a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. <a href="http://egr.uh.edu/news/0511/?e=barr">Read article</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Prof. Charley Dalton </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>(ME) retired after 51 years of service to UH as a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. <a href="http://egr.uh.edu/news/0511/?e=dalton">Read article</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Prof. Vincent Donnelly </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>(ChBE) is the recipient of the American Vacuum Society's 2011 John A. Thornton Award, an honor recognizing outstanding research or technical innovation in the fields of thin films and plasma processing.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Engineering Communications </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>received a bronze Excalibur Award from the Public Relations Society of America for <em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Parameters</span></em> magazine.</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td width="50%" valign=top style='width:50.0%;border:none;padding:.75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt;height:153.0pt'><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Zulie Flores </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>(ME) received a 2011 UH Staff Excellence Award.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Prof. Kirill Larin </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>(BME) has been named a senior member of SPIE, the international society of optics and photonics.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Prof. Jim Richardson </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>(ChBE) received an Excellence in Applied Catalysis Award from the Southwest Catalysis Society. <a href="http://www.egr.uh.edu/news/0511/?e=richardson">Read article</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Prof. Wei-Chuan Shih </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>(ECE) received a Best Paper Award at the Optics for Biotechnology, Medicine and Surgery Conference. <a href="http://www.egr.uh.edu/news/0611/?e=shih">Read article</a></span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></table></div><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Here are also a few announcements and updates that I'd like to share with you:</span><o:p></o:p></p><div align=center><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellspacing=10 cellpadding=0 width=540 style='width:405.0pt;border:none;border-bottom:dotted #333333 1.0pt'><tr><td valign=top style='border:none;padding:.75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>NAE in Petroleum:</span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> Dr. John Lee, an acclaimed member of the National Academy of Engineering and the L.F. Peterson Endowed Chair at Texas A&M University, has accepted an appointment to join our Petroleum Engineering Program as its first tenured faculty member. Lee will hold the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. After receiving his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Georgia Tech, he held a number of positions in the petroleum engineering industry before entering academia. In addition to the NAE, Lee is an elected member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is an honorary member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. In fact, he has received nearly every honor given by the society. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Lee to the University of Houston!</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>IE Chair:</span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> I'm pleased to announce the appointment of Gino Lim, Hari and Anjali Agrawal Faculty Fellow and associate professor, as the new chair of our Department of Industrial Engineering (effective May 16). I'd like to thank Fritz Claydon for serving the department in the interim.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>ABET:</span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> Preparations for the upcoming ABET visit in September have been underway and the required documentation for the re-accreditation of our undergraduate programs in chemical, civil, computer, electrical, industrial and mechanical engineering has been submitted. I'd like to thank Dave Shattuck and each of the department chairs and their faculty for their diligence in preparing for this very important review.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>ConocoPhillips Gift:</span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> As you may have heard, ConocoPhillips has given $1 million to UH, with proposed future gifts of $1 million each year in 2012 and 2013, in support of the UH Energy Research Park. Our new petroleum engineering building has been renamed the <a href="http://egr.uh.edu/news/0711/?e=petrodedication">ConocoPhillips Petroleum Engineering Building</a> in recognition of this generous gift.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Executive Retreat Reports:</span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> Breakout reports from our Executive Retreat have now been uploaded to our <a href="https://www.egr.uh.edu/intranet/" target="_blank">intranet site</a>. These reports focus on issues relating to our undergraduate and graduate programs, our research enterprise and overall alumni cultivation.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Faculty Assignment Guidelines:</span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> The newly generated faculty assignment guidelines, which will be implemented in the upcoming fall semester, have been approved. That document has been uploaded to our <a href="https://www.egr.uh.edu/intranet/" target="_blank">intranet site</a>.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Subsea Engineering Industry Day:</span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> We held our first industry day for our subsea engineering program to generate feedback from industry professionals about the direction of our proposed master's degree option and to promote our current certificate program. We received a great amount of positive feedback and interest in this program.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Virginia Tech Research Park Visit:</span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> Joe Meredith, president of the Virginia Tech park, will be visiting the UH Energy Research Park in early August to discuss strategic planning and development.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Grant: </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Efforts are well underway for a university-wide effort, led by the Cullen College, to obtain a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Grant. The purpose of the funding is to increase participation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>NSF MRI: </span></strong><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Several Cullen College faculty were recently awarded a $400,000 Major Research Instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation. Civil engineering professors Kaspar Willam, Ashraf Ayoub, D.J. Belarbi, Mina Dawood, Craig Glennie, Thomas Hsu, Y.L. Mo and Vipu, along with Gangbing Song and David Zimmerman of mechanical engineering, will use the funding to develop a digital image correlation instrument to monitor and model failure mechanisms in materials and structural components.</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></table></div><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Thank you, as always, for your continued dedication and support!</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Warm regards,</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><img border=0 width=251 height=71 id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:image004.png@01CC417B.E692B960" alt="http://egr.uh.edu/newsletter/deansmemo/images/Tedesco_Signature.gif"><o:p></o:p></p><p style='mso-line-height-alt:0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Joe Tedesco </span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td width=30 valign=top style='width:22.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></table><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><hr size=1 width="98%" noshade style='color:gray' align=center></div></td></tr><tr><td valign=top style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=600 style='width:6.25in'><tr><td width=28 style='width:21.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></td><td width=572 style='width:429.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=5 cellpadding=0><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'><a href="http://www.egr.uh.edu" target="_blank">EGR HOME</a> | <a href="http://www.egr.uh.edu/news/" target="_blank">EGR NEWSROOM</a> | <a href="http://www.egr.uh.edu/alumni/" target="_blank">EGR ALUMNI ASSOCIATION</a> | <a href="http://www.egr.uh.edu/communications/?e=pub" target="_blank">PARAMETERS</a></span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>