Alumni

Alumna and NASA Astronaut Stephanie Wilson will give the keynote address at the 2023 Cockrell School of Engineering Undergraduate Student Commencement Ceremony on May 5.

Researchers behind discoveries that led to vaccines for the virus that causes COVID-19 have identified a potential Achilles heel that exists in all coronaviruses. These findings, led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, could aid the development of improved treatments for COVID-19 and also protect against existing and emerging coronaviruses.

A career is a long, winding road that includes, failures, successes and unexpected turns along the way.

This was the advice to the next generation of students from the panelists at the Cockrell School of Engineering's third annual Black Alumni Panel. The conversation, titled Celebrating Black Excellence, between chemical engineering and aerospace engineering alumni who both ended up in Information Technology shows how different careers can turn out from the plans they made as students.

Cockrell School alumnus, software engineer and Shark Tank finalist Ecleamus Ricks, Jr. has always considered himself a creator. Fascinated with his grandfather’s skills as a carpenter, Ricks knew he wanted to build things using science and numbers.

The National Academy of Engineering has elected Benny Freeman, a professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, to the academy for 2023. Alumnus Fariborz Maseeh, who received a master’s degree in civil engineering from UT Austin, has also been elected.

Earlier this month, the Cockrell School of Engineering, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and the Texas Innovation Center officially kicked off our new space tech entrepreneurial program, Launch Texas. Hundreds of students, faculty, alumni and members of the space tech industry came together in Mulva Auditorium in the Engineering Education and Research Center for the Go For Launch event, which featured alumnus and CEO of Blue Origin Bob Smith, a panel of experts on the future of the space economy and presentations by student founders of space tech startups.

Hundreds of students, faculty and staff members, alumni and friends gathered to celebrate a transformative gift resulting in the naming of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. The department will now be named the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Established in 1957, the Distinguished Engineering Graduate Award is the highest honor that the Cockrell School bestows on its alumni. The five distinguished engineering graduates for 2021 are pioneers, entrepreneurs and highly respected leaders in their fields and in their communities. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and challenges to hosting in-person events last year, the 2021 distinguished graduates were honored this year at a special event on September 9.

Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and North Carolina State University have discovered for the first time a unique property in complex nanostructures that has thus far only been found in simple nanostructures. Additionally, they have unraveled the internal mechanics of the materials that makes this property possible.

In just eight short years, Payam Banazadeh (B.S. Aerospace Engineering 2012) skyrocketed from a passionate high school student sitting in an astronomy class to becoming the founder and CEO of Capella Space, the first commercial space company to launch and operate Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites.

Jerry A. Yang is a PhD student in electrical engineering at Stanford University. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 2020. He currently works on strain engineering in two-dimensional materials in Prof. Eric Pop's lab. In addition, he works on exploring the role of internships in first-generation and low-income engineering students' professional identity development in Prof. Sheri Sheppard's Designing Education Lab. He is a member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers as well as a student member of the American Society of Engineering Education. He is also pursuing his M.A. in Education.

Meet Sepehr Bastami, an aerospace research engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Bastami conducts cutting-edge aeronautics research, serving on two projects related to sustainable aviation and human contributions to safety in aviation.

Thanks to a seed gift from Cockrell School of Engineering alumnus Stuart Lodge (B.S. Mechanical Engineering 1984), a new program in the Texas Innovation Center gives MBA students real-world business experience as they learn from and help faculty- and graduate student-led startups develop their business commercialization plans.

The Cockrell School of Engineering and the UT chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers hosted its second annual Celebrating Cockrell's Black Excellence alumni panel, featuring some of Texas Engineering’s most accomplished and dedicated Black alumni leaders. This year’s panel, moderated by NSBE social chair and civil engineering senior Dorcas Olaoye, featured alumni Darron Anderson (B.S. PGE 1991), David Jones (B.S. ChE 1988) and Khadir Richie (B.S. EE 1997).

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced today that Al Bovik, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Karen Willcox, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at The University of Texas of Austin, have been elected to the prestigious academy for 2022. In addition, alumni Michael Watkins and Ahmad Abdelrazaq have also been elected.

Jodie L. Lutkenhaus (B.S. Chemical Engineering 2002), professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University and alumna of the Cockrell School's McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, is the recipient of the 2022 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering from The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST). She was chosen for her innovation and development of redox active polymers for metal-free energy storage and smart coatings.

William “Tex” Moncrief, one of the first graduates of The University of Texas at Austin’s petroleum engineering program (B.S. 1942) and a pioneer in the oil and gas industry, died Wednesday, Dec. 29, at the age of 101. Moncrief, who served on The University of Texas System Board of Regents, was known for his philanthropy across the state of Texas, including his longtime support of UT Austin.

Hans Mark, a world-renowned aerospace engineer who was in Mission Control during the first moon landing and who served as chancellor of the University of Texas System for nearly a decade, died on Saturday, Dec. 18 at the age of 92. Mark leaves a legacy of exploration and discovery, warmth and inspiration, and leadership and innovation. In addition to being a champion of research and technology, he was known for bringing a personal approach to the UT community.

On December 10, the Cockrell School of Engineering hosted a celebratory event to commemorate the naming of the Sam and Hema Kumar Construction Engineering and Project Management Program (CEPM) in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. The Kumar CEPM program is named in honor of alumnus Sam Kumar and his wife, Hema, for their transformative gift to the program.

The Welch Foundation, one of the nation’s largest private funding organizations for basic chemical research, has established The Peter B. Dervan Distinguished Lecture Series, an endowed lectureship at The University of Texas at Austin. The lecture series honors Peter B. Dervan, who will retire from the foundation's Scientific Advisory Board after 33 years of service, with seven years as chair, for his many contributions to The Welch Foundation and the field of chemistry.