By James Irwin
Six George Washington University alumni, including an aeronautics vice president at Lockheed Martin, the head of a leading Internet company in China and a dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, were honored Thursday night at the 2014 GW Engineering Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony.
Jennifer Byrne, Ph.D. ’12, vice president of engineering and technology for aeronautics at Lockheed Martin, Ya-Qin Zhang, D.Sc. ’90, president of Baidu Corporation in Beijing, and Ian Waitz, M.S. ’88, dean of the School of Engineering at MIT, were joined by Pradman Kaul, B.S. ’67, Laird Moffett, D.Sc. ’76, and Nayereh Rassoulpour, M.S. ’90, as 2014 honorees at the induction ceremony, held at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. The event, which highlighted the university’s Making History campaign, featured remarks from School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean David Dolling, GW Provost Steven Lerman and university Trustee Terry Collins, D.Sc. ’76.
“This magnificent venue is a fitting one, I think, for an event that celebrates the achievements of leaders in engineering and technology,” Dr. Dolling said.
Established in 2006, the GW Engineering Hall of Fame recognizes and honors distinguished alumni, faculty, staff and friends of SEAS who have contributed to engineering, technology, management or public service in a sustained and significant way during their careers. The inductees represented a range of industries in the applied sciences. All took time during their brief acceptance speeches to explain how their GW experience played a role in their career accomplishments.
“The doctoral program taught me to make sure that if I did something, I did it right the first time,” said Dr. Moffett, now chief scientist at Envisioneering, a company that provides support and technology development for U.S. national security.
Ms. Rassoulpour, president and chief executive officer of NSR Solutions, called her SEAS degree “essential” in learning how to be a successful business owner. She used her education and business acumen to launch and grow her information technology company from one employee in 1990 to more than 300 today. Dr. Zhang and Dr. Waitz, the Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, both recorded video messages in which they also spoke of GW providing them with the tools to succeed in their careers.
“When I came to the United States in 1986 I was a 20-year-old young man,” said Dr. Zhang, who went on to lead Microsoft’s R&D efforts in Asia-Pacific and is now president of a 40,000- employee Internet services corporation in China. “What I had was a dream, passion and hope. It was GW that gave me the opportunity.”
Dr. Byrne, who at Lockheed Martin is responsible for leading design, development, operation and sustainment of F-35, F-22, F-16 and several other aircraft, focused her remarks on the growth of women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Women, Dr. Dolling said, make up of 38 percent of SEAS undergraduate students, more than twice the national average.
“Young women now getting into engineering and applied sciences because of GW are the ones who inspire me,” Dr. Byrne said. “That’s our future.”
Mr. Kaul, a 2004 inductee of the National Academy of Engineering, recalled the unusual path he took to GW from India, by way of his father’s job at the International Monetary Fund. The family moved to D.C. in early September 1963, and Mr. Kaul had to begin classes right away.
“I had just completed about a month of school work at an engineering school in Bombay when my dad got transferred to the IMF,” he said.
Now the president and chief executive officer of Hughes Communications, Mr. Kaul recalled his college days fondly.
“I value the years I spent at GW,” he said. “And it’s really humbling to receive this honor. When you get recognized, it makes the [hard work] worth it, and I think this is one of those recognitions I truly treasure.”
Fifty-three alumni have been inducted into the SEAS Hall of Fame. The school also recognized Clark Construction on Thursday with a Distinguished Industry Partner Award. Clark has built or renovated several buildings on campus and currently is completing construction of the university’s 460,000-square-foot Science and Engineering Hall, scheduled to open this winter. Clark established the first endowed professorship at SEAS, the A. James Clark Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering—a professorship currently held by Dr. Lerman. The company also has established the Clark Engineering Scholars program and Clark Construction Engineering Scholarship.
“I’ve always believed that engineering provides an incredible foundation for doing great things in society,” Dr. Lerman said. “What we see from these inductees is skills that translate and transfer into leadership, into creating companies and creating value and generating economic benefits very broadly.”
