Engineering Alumni News & Profiles

  • Pratt Board of Visitor Chair J. Steve Simon Dies

    Durham, NC -- J. Stephen Simon, chair of the Board of Visitors for the Pratt School of Engineering and a former director and senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corporation, passed away unexpectedly at his home in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday, July 8, at age 66. Simon had a distinguished career of more than 40 years with the corporation. During this time he held a series of increasingly senior roles, culminating in his election to the ...
  • Alumnus Reibman Stalks 3D in the Living Room

    Some day, people will routinely watch 3-D movies in their living rooms just as they now watch movies on their computer monitors. Electrical engineer Amy Reibman (B.S. '83, M.S. '84, Ph.D. '87) has been involved in both of these technologies. During her 18 years at AT&T Labs Research, she has worked to improve the quality of video transmitted over networks, just as she is now in the early stages of making 3-D television readily ...
  • Monserrate Among Four Named Duke Trustees

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Four new members and three new observers will join the Duke University Board of Trustees, the university announced Wednesday. Martha Monserrate E'81, G'82, of Rye, N.Y., Dr. Paul Farmer T'82, of Cambridge, Mass., Peter J. Kahn L'76 of Bethesda, Md., and Ralph Eads III T'81, of Houston, assume their six-year terms on the governing body July 1. Monserrate, 49, is a licensed professional engineer and president and founder of the consulting firm Environmental Excellence ...
  • A New Paradigm in Electrical Sensing

    When a snake is cut in half, it dies. This illustrates how electrical devices can respond to damage. Since they are at their core closed circuits, devices will fail whenever the circuit is interrupted. However, if these devices could be more like earthworms, intriguing new possibilities arise. Unlike their reptilian counterpart, one functioning worm can become two functioning worms when cut in half. The worm-snake illustration helps explain the recent innovation by a Duke engineering alumnus that ...
  • Why Engineers Make Good Business People

    Note: The following represents a speech presented by Sy Sternberg, chairman and CEO of New York Life Insurance Co., at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering on Saturday, Nov. 3, during Parents Weekend. Sternberg is an engineer by education, with bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering. Download his power point slides. It's great to be here this week with so many other Duke parents. My son, Matthew, has just entered his senior year at ...
  • As Founder of Shoeboxed.com, Recent Grad Starts a 'Consumer Revolution'

    The Shoeboxed logo. As an undergraduate, Taylor Mingos ('07) was the first student at the Pratt School of Engineering to officially participate in the Duke-in-Berlin program's special engineering option, in which students take an intensive year of German and enroll in engineering-related courses at the Technical University of Berlin. Immediately after graduating with a triple major in electrical engineering, biomedical engineering and German studies, he led a diverse team of 16 back to the vibrant European ...
  • Duke Engineer Named to 2007-2008 Class of White House Fellows

    WASHINGTON, June 19, 2007 The White House today announced the appointment of 15 outstanding individuals from across the country to serve as White House Fellows, including 1996 graduate in electrical engineering, Kristine Singley, of Celebration, Florida. The 2007-2008 Class of White House Fellows represents a diverse cross-section of professions including medicine, law, finance, media, engineering, education and state government. Additionally, three branches of the military are represented among the Fellows. The White House Fellows ...
  • Startup Advanced Liquid Logic Receives Frost & Sullivan's Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award

    Advanced Liquid Logic, which is developing miniscule fluidic technology that can turn silicon chips into labs, is consulting firm Frost & Sullivan's choice for its 2007 Entrepreneurial Company of the Year award. The rising startup company, founded by former Duke engineering graduate students Michael Pollack and Vamsee Pamula, is a spin-out from Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. The microfluidic technology originated in the laboratoy of the Pratt School's Richard Fair, a professor of electrical and ...
  • Duke Engineers Without Borders Co-Founder Has Career in Concrete Design

    As an undergrad, Deirdre McShane (second from left) traveled to Indonesia with the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter she co-founded. Now, she works as a structural engineer at Thornton Tomasetti and is a professional member of New York City's EWB chapter. Photo credit: Matthew Edmundson Just two years after graduation, CEE alumna Deirdre McShane spends her days designing concrete and steel elements for major academic and commercial buildings around the country as a structural engineer for ...
  • Vote for InnoWorks

    United Innoworks Academy, an organization founded at Duke by recent Pratt graduate William Hwang, is in the running for a Golden BR!CK award worth $15,000 in funding from the not-for-profit organization Do Something Inc. InnoWorks is competing against 11 other finalists for the top prize. The award will go to the organization that generates the greatest number of web-based votes. Vote now. InnoWorks has made it possible for middle-school kids all over the country to attend free, ...
  • President and CEO of Hi-G-Tek, A Pratt Alumnus, Assembled Executive Team

    Source: PRNewswire Hi-G-Tek, a leading developer and provider of radio frequency ID (RFID) solutions for high-value assets and sensitive materials, has assembled an executive team with decades of combined management experience and an impressive list of advanced technology expertise to its credit. Larry A. Blue who was appointed the new President and Chief Executive Officer of Hi-G-Tek, has assembled a U.S. executive team that combines seasoned veterans, with entrepreneurial company builders who have taken former start-ups and ...
  • Reassurance, Advice and Laughs at 2006 Engineering Parents' Weekend

    Brook Byers Brook Byers, a venture capitalist and Pratt parent, kicked off the 2006 Parents' Weekend seminar and barbeque by soothing parents' fears that their child wouldn't get a good job. He described five hot technology areas, and gave seniors advice on how to choose their first position. His presentation to the crowd of 600 parents and students Oct. 27 was followed by an interactive panel of four Duke engineering seniors who provided their own take on ...
  • Rising Startup Sets Sights on Diagnostics for Research Animals

    Advanced Liquid Logic's founders got their start in the lab of ECE professor Richard Fair (above). Advanced Liquid Logic, a startup company founded by two Ph.D. graduates from Duke electrical and computer engineering, is growing by leaps and bounds. The company aims to miniaturize and automate clinical and research laboratory tests by taking advantage of the natural surface tension of liquid drops. "Our vision is to make chemical processing as routine and simple as information processing is ...
  • Duke Engineering Alum Heads Purdue's Civil Engineering School

    WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. M. Katherine Banks, who received her Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Duke University in 1989, has been named head of Purdue University's School of Civil Engineering. Banks, a Purdue civil engineering professor, assumed her new post on Aug. 1. "Kathy's vision, creativity and energy, combined with a stellar research record, set her apart from the rest of the candidates," said Leah Jamieson, interim dean for the Purdue College of Engineering and ...
  • Pratt School Celebrates Graduation of Class of 2006

    Ian Kazi Shakil receives the Pratt School of Engineering Student Service Award from Associate Dean Linda Franzoni Duke University awarded degrees to 346 undergraduate and graduate engineering students on May 14 in ceremonies beginning with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and ending with a Pratt School of Engineering ceremony in Duke Chapel. Pratt Dean Kristina M. Johnson presented Bachelor of Science in Engineering diplomas to 244 students, including 12 who completed their work in ...
  • Distinguished Alums and Faculty Honored at Awards Ceremony

    Three distinguished alumni and six faculty members were honored for their career accomplishments, service to Pratt and excellence in teaching, mentoring and research at the 2006 annual Engineering Alumni Council Banquet held at the Searle Center on April 28. William A. Hawkins III E'76, was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award. James G. Whayne E'90, was awarded the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. And Pratt Senior Associate Dean of Development and Alumni Affairss Judge Carr was awarded the ...
  • Prolific Alum Offers Students Roadmap for Success

    George Truskey, Robert Fischell and Dean Kristina Johnson A prolific innovator and entrepreneur who Dean Kristina Johnson calls "one of Duke's most successful alumni" offered Pratt School of Engineering students a roadmap for finding fun and profit while also benefiting humanity at a Distinguished Alumni Seminar held in the Fitzpatrick Center on Jan. 11. Robert Fischell ('51) invented drug-eluting stents that keep heart vessels open in those prone to heart attacks and a series of other ...
  • Alumni, Faculty Honored at Engineering Banquet

    Duke's Engineering Alumni Association Saturday night honored 1974 graduate Capers McDonald of Potomac, Md., with its Distinguished Alumnus Award and 1990 graduate Edward L. Trimble of Atlanta with the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. Professor F. Hadley Cocks of the Pratt School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), received the Distinguished Service Award for 33 years of service to the School of Engineering, joining the school in 1972 as assistant professor after six ...
  • Questions about this page? Contact:

    Deborah Hill, Director of Communications, 415 Teer Engineering Building, 919-660-8403, dahill@duke.edu