2006 Alumnus of the Year Linda Katehi and
Dean Vijay K. Dhir
UCLA Engineering Celebrates Accomplishments at
Annual Awards Dinner
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
celebrated the accomplishments of alumni, students, and faculty
at this year's annual awards dinner, held on Friday, November
3, at the Four Seasons' Beverly Wilshire Hotel ballroom.
With nearly 450 colleagues and
friends in attendance, awards were presented to 13 individuals,
including provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Linda Katehi,
honored as the 2006 Alumnus of the Year.
KNBC 4 reporter and engineering
alumnus Patrick Healy, along with UCLA Engineering Dean Vijay
K. Dhir, emceed the event.
“We’re proud of the
work our faculty and students do. The work we do today makes
a difference in the world tomorrow,” Dhir told the crowd.
“In the past, they used to say the sun never set on the
British Empire. I say that the sun is always shining on UCLA
Engineering, through its exceptional alumni living and working
all over the world.”
The evening’s big honor was
given to Katehi, Alumnus of the Year, for distinguishing herself
in both academia and in integrated circuits and systems.
“Linda Katehi’s work
has been described as visionary, pioneering, and innovative,”
said Dhir in his introduction. “She is a truly extraordinary
researcher and educator.”
Katehi, provost and vice chancellor
for academic affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
thanked the school for honoring her achievements and talked
of her journey to the United States to attend school early in
her career.
A humble Katehi said she was simply
an average student who had an extraordinary mentor during her
time at UCLA. Her successes at UCLA, she said, led her on to
even greater things.
Dwight Streit, vice president of
electronics technology at Northrup Grumman and Ronald Sugar,
chairman and chief executive officer of Northrop Grumman took
the stage together to present the 2006 Northrup Grumman Excellence
in Teaching Award to computer science assistant professor John
Cho and civil and environmental engineering assistant professor
Steven Margulis. The award honors junior faculty who demonstrate
a commitment to high teaching standards, reflected in the positive
course evaluation scores from students, as well as the professor’s
contributions to the curriculum.
Electrical engineering professor
Behzad Razavi received the 2006 Lockheed Martin Excellence in
Teaching Award from Lockheed’s Aeronautical Engineering
Director Larry Pellett. The award was given to Razavi for dedication
to his students; a vigorous commitment to high academic standards;
and his many contributions to electrical engineering education.
James Plummer (BS ’66), dean
of the Stanford School of Engineering, received the Alumni Achievement
in Academia Award from Associate Dean Steve Jacobsen for his
many contributions to engineering education. Plummer was honored
for his major contributions to the field of silicon devices
and technology, including the integration of CMOS logic and
high voltage lateral DMOS devices on a single chip, the development
of silicon process modeling standards, and designing nanoscale
silicon devices for logic and memory.
Associate Dean Greg Pottie introduced
the Lifetime Contribution Award, which he presented to computer
science Professor Emeritus Gerald Estrin. Dean Boelter recruited
Estrin in 1956 to develop a computer engineering research program.
Estrin was honored for leading substantial research activities
in computer architectures, parallel processing, computer instrumentation
and computer networks, and importantly, for laying the groundwork
for the development of what is now the department of Computer
Science.
Last year’s winner of the
2005 Professional Achievement Award, Jeff Lawrence, founder,
president and CEO of Clivia Systems (BS ’79), this year
presented the 2006 award to the founders of Blizzard Entertainment:
Allen Adham(BS ’90), Michael Morhaime (BS ’90),
and Frank Pearce (BS ’90). The three were honored for
founding Blizzard Entertainment (originally Silicon & Synapse)
in 1991, just a year after they received their bachelor degrees
from UCLA Engineering. The company has since become one of the
most successful game development studios in the world.
Asad Madni, president of the Engineering
Alumni Association, presented the Distinguished Young Alumnus
Award to Ani Garabedian (BS ’99) with a heartfelt introduction.
He cited Garabedian’s exceptional technical skills, as
well as an extraordinary drive to give back to UCLA. She currently
serves as chair of the UCLA Society of Women Engineers Alumnae
Advisory Committee, a member of the electrical engineering alumni
advisory board, and is active in the UCLA Alumni Association.
Friend of the school Edward K.
Rice himself presented this year’s Edward K. Rice Outstanding
Student honors, which recognize excellence both in and outside
the classroom: 2006 Outstanding Undergraduate Student, Baley
Akemi Fong, 2006 Outstanding Master’s student, Christine
Lee, and 2006 Outstanding Doctoral Student, Alireza Mehrnia.
The evening also included a video
showcasing innovative faculty research and new developments
over the past year, featuring mechanical and aerospace engineering
professor Greg Carman and his work with thin film nitinol heart
valves for children, research on beach sand bacteria conducted
by civil and environmental engineering professor Jennifer Jay,
and electrical engineering professor Abeer Alwan’s efforts
to develop a computer speech program for kids whose native language
is not English.
The film shared innovative new
work by computer science professor Majid Sarrafzadeh on computerized
medical treatment devices, and focused on two new interdisciplinary
research centers headquartered at the School, the Western Institute
of Nanoelectronics and the NIH Nanomedicine Center for Cell
Control.
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