Distinguished Alums and Faculty Honored at Awards Ceremony

May 1, 2006

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 Distinguished Service Award.

Henri Gavin, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineeringn received the Klein Family Distinguished Teaching Award.

David Smith, the Augustine Scholar and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering was awarded the Stansell Family Distinguished Research Award. In December, Smith and a team of colleagues won the prestigious Descartes Award from the European Union in recognition for developing "left-handed metamaterials," artificial composites that reverse the usual properties of light.

John Board, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was awarded the Lois and John L. Imhoff Distinguished Teaching Award.

Adam Wax, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, was awarded the Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research. Wax won a Wallace A. Coulter Early Career Award in 2005 to pursue cancer detection research, and recently garnered attention for developing a light-based probe capable of detecting anomalies in epithelial cells lining body surfaces such as skin, lungs and digestive and reproductive tracts.

Linda Franzoni, associate professor of mechanical engineering and associate dean for student affairs, was awarded the Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising.

The Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising also was presented to CEE Assistant Chair David Schaad. Schaad, who is also an adjunct assistant professor, was recently awarded a Leading at Duke Award, sponsored by the Office of Student Activities and Facilities, as an Outstanding Volunteer Adviser for his above and beyond the call of duty efforts to help students launch the Engineering Without Borders chapter, prepare for and fund the trip to Indonesia last August, and for sustained, supportive mentoring.

Those who provided scholarships to engineering students were also recognized at the event.

Hawkins Wins Distinguished Alumnus Award






William A. Hawkins

Hawkins, a native of Durham, is the son of Duke parents, and has a daughter currently attending as a freshman. He graduated from Duke in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering, and in 1982, he received a Master of Business Administration from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Hawkins began his professional career with Carolina Medical Electronics, working with continuous wave dopler ultrasound, used to diagnosie patients at risk for stroke. After graduating from business school, Bill joined the Corporate Development group of Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, Ind. He spent 14 years with Eli Lilly's medical device businesses. During his time at Eli Lilly, he had increasing roles of responsibility culminating as the CEO of IVAC Corporation--a wholly owned division of Eli Lilly. He joined Guidant Corp., a cardiovascular spin-off of Eli Lilly, in 1995 and served as president of U.S. Operations and Devices for Vascular Intervention.

In 1995, he joined Johnson & Johnson as president of Ethicon Endo-Surgery in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1997, he joined American Home Products as the corporate vice president in charge of the medical device group. In 1998, Hawkins became president and CEO of Novoste Corp., a small start-up in Atlanta. With Novoste, he spent four years developing and launching a product to treat restenosis following angioplasty, using vascular brachytherapy.

In 2002, Hawkins joined Medtronic as president of its vascular business, where he was responsible for development of the medical technology company's drug eluting stent. Then in 2004, he was promoted to president and chief operating officer.

Hawkins is a member of the Board of Visitors of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, the Board of Deluxe, the Guthrie Theatre Board, and a trustee of the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation.

Whayne Wins Distinguished Young Alumnus Award





James G. Whayne

Whayne, a native of Lexington, Ky., graduated from Duke in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering. In 1993, he received a Master of Science Degree from the University of Virginia in Biomedical Engineering.

Whayne began his professional career at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, where he conducted basic research in catheter ablation for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Moving into industry, from 1993 to 1998, he worked as a R&D engineer at EP Technologies, which was later purchased by Boston Scientific. While at Boston Scientific/EP Technologies, he teamed with Sidney Fleischman and invented and developed catheter-based systems and surgical devices for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation. Unable to ignore their entrepreneurial passion, Whayne and Fleischman left engineering positions at Boston Scientific to pursue a series of ongoing medical device ventures.

With 148 issued U.S. patents, Whayne has conceived and developed medical devices that have culminated in three venture-funded companies, an incubator, and multiple license agreements.

In 1998, he co-founded Converge Medical where, as director of research, he invented, designed and developed implantable anastomotic couplers for less invasive coronary artery bypass grafting surgery.

In 2004, Whayne co-founded his second medical device company, nContact Surgical. nContact Surgical is developing a unique laparoscopic system for the treatment of all atrial fibrillation patients. As vice president of research and clinicals, he is responsible for intellectual property management, product development, research, and clinical study management.

Although not active today, Whayne also is a partner in Bay Innovation Group, LLC, an incubator focused on designing and developing medical devices for cardiac and orthopedic markets. In conjunction with activities at Bay Innovation Group, he helped establish Cayenne Medical Inc., a company that is developing novel devices in sports medicine aimed at arthroscopic soft tissue reconstruction.

Carr Wins Distinguished Service Award





Robert W. "Judge" Carr

Robert W. "Judge" Carr, Jr. received a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Duke in 1971. While at Duke, he played both freshman and varsity basketball. He participated in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program and was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon social fraternity. Upon graduating from Duke, Judge worked in commercial construction for 18 years as an estimator/project manager. He supervised several projects at Duke, most notably the installation of the Flentrop Organ and Gallery in the rear of the Duke Chapel, the renovations for the Faculty Commons dining area in the West Student Union, and the completion and upfit of the G.D. Searle Center at Duke's Medical Center, the location for this year's (2006) Engineering Alumni Banquet.

In 1990, Carr changed his career path and joined the development team at Duke's School of Engineering as the assistant director of development and the director of the Annual Fund. In 1995, he was promoted to associate dean and director of development, and in 2005 was promoted to senior associate dean of development and aumni affairs. Under his leadership, alumni participation in the Engineering Annual Fund has increased from 30 percent to as high as 46 percent and gifts have increased from $500,000 to over $2.5 million yearly. During his tenure, the number of restricted endowments has grown from 23 to over 100. At the end of the Campaign for Duke in 2003, Pratt had raised a record breaking $210 million. The goal was originally set at $50 million and then raised to $170 million.

Carr has been an active contributor both to Duke and to his local community. He is a member of the endowment and planned giving committee for Christ Episcopal Church in Raleigh and a former member of the Triangle Area YMCA Board f Directors. He is currently serving on the Camp Sea Gull/Camp Seafarer Board of Visitors.

Prior to his position at the Pratt School, Judge served eight years as a member of the Engineering Alumni Council. He is currently the engineering class agent for the class of 1971, and a member of various Duke councils. The philanthropic support Carr and his wife, Muff, include the Fitzpatrick Center, Hudson Center for Engineering Education, the Levine Science Research Center, Swartz-Butters Building, T.A. Langford Professorship, the Iron Dukes and the Annual Fund. They have established a scholarship endowment at the Pratt School of Engineering, an unrestricted endowment at the Divinity School and are members of the James B. Duke Society.

 

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