| Foundation
Notes — College of Engineering |
| John
H. Morrison, '27 CE, of Helena and Ben F. Hurlbut,
'49 CE, of Billings were the inaugural inductees into
the Montana Professional Engineers Hall of Fame at the
2002 Joint Engineers Conference in Helena this past November.
Plaques honoring these and future inductees will be displayed
at the MSU-Bozeman College of Engineering. Both inductees
have distinguished themselves through their work and service.
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| Morrison
was the chief bridge designer for the Montana Department
of Transportation from 1939 to 1945 and founded Morrison
Maierle, Inc. in 1945. Among his many accomplishments,
Morrison worked to establish the Professional Board of
Engineers and holds the first license in the state. |
| Hurlbut
founded HKM, Inc. in 1970 and was the structural engineer
for private and public buildings throughout Montana including
many high schools and the MSU Brick Breeden Fieldhouse,
which at the time of its construction in 1956 was the
largest clear-span, timber-frame dome in the world. He
was a national director and cofounder of the Montana chapter
of the American Council of Engineering Companies. (See
www.montana.edu/commserv/csnews/nwview.php?article=598
for the full story.) |
| Australian
Michael Oudshoorn, a computer scientist and associate
dean of the engineering faculty at the University of Adelaide
in Australia, has been hired as the new head of the Computer
Science Department and will begin his duties early this
year. Oudshoorn's teaching and research interests are
concurrent and distributed systems, software engineering
and programming languages. He is currently project leader
of the Alchemy Project, an international collaborative
research effort involving scientists from Japan, Wales
and the U.S. Dean of Engineering Robert Marley is impressed
with Oudshoorn's " high level of energy and his vision
of how to take the department to the next level of excellence."
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Richard
Wolff
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| Richard
Wolff, a vice president of research at Telcordia
Advanced Network Systems Research Lab in New
Jersey, has been appointed to fill the new
Gilhousen Endowed Chair in Telecommunications,
housed in the Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department. Wolf, a specialist in adapting
emerging technologies to commercial use, was
selected from a competitive field during a
national search. He brings to this assignment
25 years of industry experience and a technical
background in sciences that range from electromagnetic
spectrum, radio frequency communications and
x-ray astronomy. |
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| Wolff
inaugurates an MSU chair fully endowed by and named for
telecommunications pioneer Klein Gilhousen and his wife,
Karen. Wolff intends to launch a rich, multidisciplinary
program to explore telecommunications systems and network
impacts of emerging technologies, while facilitating the
educational and research mission of MSU. The generous
endowment gift of Klein and Karen Gilhousen has provided
not only for this first fully funded chair at MSU, but
also provides 10 annual undergraduate scholarships in
electrical engineering. |
| Three
chemical engineering graduates from the class
of 1958 reunited after 45 years when they
met in Elmhurst, N.Y. (Queens), in October.
With assistance from the MSU Alumni Association,
they were able to reestablish contact and
meet in New York for a reunion which Dick
Johnson described as "very rewarding." |
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| Ed
Adams, civil engineering professor and one
of a team of scientists internationally renowned
for work studying avalanches and snow dynamics,
was a featured guest on ABC's "Good Morning
America" in December. Adams has received international
publicity for his study of avalanches while
in a shack bolted to a boulder that is being
inundated by an avalanche. |
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| Three
1958 chemical engineering alums reunite
in front of the World Globe in Flushing
Park, Queens. They are (l to r) Kieth
Opprecht, Hla Chi Tin and Richard Johnson. |
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On air he described a recent National Geographic Adventure
magazine article, "Buried Alive and Loving It," (December
2002) that featured his avalanche studies. The article
can be found at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0301/story.html#story_2
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The Western Transportation Institute (WTI) and the Department
of Civil Engineering have been funded to provide outreach
activities to Montana schools and girls clubs. The Engineering
Information Foundation in New York will fund Susan Gallagher,
PI, and Anders Larsson, civil engineering professor, for
the project: Bridges and Dams: Exciting Young Girls about
Engineering through Interactive Exploration with Women
Engineering Students. Graduate and undergraduate women
engineering students from MSU will conduct interactive
workshops to introduce civil engineering concepts to young
girls through hands-on exploration of bridges and dams.
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| The
Center for Biofilm Engineering recently received federal
Department of Defense funding for a new initiative which
uses engineered biofilms in the detection of bioterrorism
agents. This program is based on the well documented observation
that microbial biofilms "trap" organic molecules, viruses,
pathogenic bacteria, and fungal and protozoan cysts. Its
partner in this cooperative project, MSE Technologies
of Butte, has also received extensive support for the
development of a "biofilm trap" that will be installed
in water distribution systems that are considered to be
at risk from bioterrorism. |
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