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COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Dr. Karen Butler-Purry, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named recipient of the 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mentor Award. The award recognizes Butler-Purry for her "efforts for increasing the number of African Americans, Hispanic Americans and women with Ph.D.s in electrical engineering and computer sciences." She will receive the award during the AAAS Annual Meeting in St. Louis Feb. 16-20. Butler-Purry joined the Dwight Look College of Engineering faculty in 1994. In addition to being a professor, she is assistant director of the Power System Automation Laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a researcher in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Division of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), the engineering research agency of the State of Texas and a member of The Texas A&M University System. Her research interests are in the areas of distribution automation and intelligent systems for power quality, equipment deterioration and fault diagnosis. Butler-Purry received the National Science Foundation Faculty Career Award in 1995 and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 1999. She is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Power Engineering Society, the American Society for Engineering Education and the Louisiana Engineering Society. She is a registered professional engineer in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern University at Baton Rouge, a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. from Howard University, all in electrical engineering.