Virginia Tech Faculty Honored

BLACKSBURG, Va., March 14, 2003 – Several Virginia Tech faculty members have been honored or have received awards recently.

Warren Stutzman became the interim head of the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) in January. Stutzman replaced Robert Trew, who is now head of the North Carolina State University ECE department.

Three faculty members from engineering science and mechanics (ESM) received recognition during the American Society for Composites (ASC) 2002 Annual Technical Conference. Michael Hyer, ESM professor, was named a fellow of ASC, received a Best Paper Award as co-author of a paper presented at the conference, and received a Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Testing Materials for his 14 years of contributions to the Journal for Composites Technology and Research. Robert Jones, emeritus professor of ESM, received the ASC 2002 Award in Composites for significant impact on the development of composite materials. Alfred Loos, ESM professor, received the ASC 2002 Outstanding Research Award for his sustained research effort in the field of composite materials.

Michael Karmis, professor of mining and minerals engineering and director of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research, has been selected by the Coal Industry Advisory Board of the International Energy Agency as the first recipient of the Award for Sustainable Coal Development. The award is in recognition for contributions Karmis has made in mining education, improved mining technologies, mine health and safety, and improvements in the environmental performance of coal mining.

The Virginia Horse Council has named Rebecca Splan, assistant professor of equine science in the Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences, "Educator of the Year" for 2003. Splan has also recently been appointed to the board of directors for the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

John Rohr, Center for Public Administration and Policy (CPAP) professor, recently received the Louis Brownlow Award for his book Civil Servants and Their Constitutions. This award is the highest annual award issued for excellence in public administration literature by the National Academy of Public Administration.

Jesse Richardson was lead author of "Is Home Rule the Answer? Clarifying the Influence of Dillon's Rule on Growth Management," which was recently released from the Brookings Institution Center> on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. The paper takes a close look at the important debates surrounding Dillon's Rule and home rule.

Jeff Mann, English department, published Bones Washed with Wine, a book of poetry. This book includes poetry from two of the three chapbooks which Mann has had published, Flint Shards and Bliss.