Although this year looks different given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our faculty continue to enhance their education and mentorship of students and the department’s reputation by obtaining major research grants in areas of national importance and earning recognition from their peers as recipients of prestigious awards.
I extend my sincere gratitude to our faculty and staff for their tireless efforts in preparing for this unusual semester. With their hard work, we welcomed students back for a hybrid of face-to-face and remote classes. No matter what the future holds, I am confident that our department will adapt and continue to provide an exceptional education to our students.
During the last few months, Dr. David Staack, Dr. Michael Moreno, Dr. Zheng O’Neill and other faculty have used this as an opportunity for innovation and collaboration to help meet unexpected needs and new challenges. Their contributions have already helped with combatting the virus and I look forward to seeing the impact of their continuing research.
We welcome several tenured/tenure-track faculty, including Dr. Heng Pan (associate professor), Dr. Jacob McFarland (associate professor) and Dr. Zohaib Hasnain (assistant professor). The department also extends congratulations to several faculty who have been successful in their tenure and promotion.
Our faculty are responsible for the great strides our department has made in research and academia. This year they helped our undergraduate program achieve a No. 11 ranking and our graduate program reach No. 9, both maintaining their top ranking among public institutions by U.S. News and World Report. Our department also maintains its high ranking worldwide at No. 10 internationally in mechanical engineering, according to the ShanghaiRanking’s global ranking.
We are proud to induct Ralph Schmidt ’68 – retired CEO of Western Refining, Inc., William (Bill) Sims ’89 – CEO of Accent Family of Companies, and Starlee Sykes ’98 – president, Gulf of Mexico at BP, into the department’s Academy of Distinguished Graduates. Sykes was also honored with the Outstanding Alumni Award by the Texas A&M College of Engineering. We are certainly proud of all of our stellar current and former students’ contributions in all corners of the world.
And of course, our success would not be possible without the ever-generous support of our donors, whose contributions to scholarship and development funds help us continue to advance the quality and breadth of education we provide.
Sincerely,
Dr. Andreas A. Polycarpou
Department Head
James J. Cain Chair in Mechanical Engineering