College Celebrates Excellence at Annual Banquet
The College celebrated new University leadership and its position at the forefront of innovation and discovery at its annual banquet, presented by Oncor and Mouser Electronics, on February 24.
Dean Peter Crouch presented the annual Star Partner Awards and the Legacy Awards, and UTA President Jennifer Cowley and Provost and Sr. Vice President for Academic Affairs Tamara L. Brown offered keynote addresses. Additionally, student researchers were on hand to talk to attendees about their research.
The Star Partner Award for a public company was award to the Trinity River Authority and accepted by Glenn C. Clingenpeel, Executive Manager of Technical Services and Basin Planning. The Star Partner Award for a private company was awarded to Bell and accepted by Michael Thacker, Executive Vice President of Commercial Business for Bell Flight.
New this year, the College of Engineering Legacy Award is given to someone who is or was a tenured College of Engineering faculty member in recognition of outstanding career-long performance and dedication to the College. Their service to UTA should include an unbroken span of at least 20 years as a faculty member and/or service as an administrator, they should have a distinguished record of academic accomplishments, including research, teaching and service, and they should demonstrate national and international recognition.
Two individuals, Mo-Shing Chen and Khosrow Behbehani, received the award.
Chen is a professor emeritus of electrical engineering whose power engineering career spanned more than four decades, earned him international recognition in the field of power systems engineering and defined engineering research at UTA. He established the University’s first research center, first international visiting researchers’ program and first international continuing education course and symposium. He also produced UTA’s first Ph.D. graduate and received the Edison Electric Institute’s first power engineering educator award. His philosophy of “How will our students benefit?” resulted in top-tier national rankings and global recognition for UTA and research that continues today.
Electrical Engineering Professor Wei-Jen Lee accepted the award on Chen’s behalf.
Behbehani’s nearly 40-year career in bioengineering leaves a legacy of research excellence, collaborative outreach, and superb leadership. A bioengineering professor, his sleep apnea research led to a culture of patenting and licensing technology at UTA. He defined the model for institutional collaboration by establishing a joint research laboratory for medical imaging research with UT Southwestern Medical Center. As Chair, he led the successful effort to make the small graduate program in biomedical engineering into the Department of Bioengineering, including the later addition of an undergraduate bioengineering degree. As Dean, he built the foundation of top-level fund-raising activities by significantly increasing the number of endowed chairs and professorships in the College.
