Three professors from the Dwight Look College of Engineering and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) recently were named Regents Professor for 2007-08. M. Sam Mannan from the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, K.R. Rajagopal from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Jennifer L. Welch from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering were recognized by The Texas A&M System Board of Regents. Mannan, who is the holder of the T. Michael O’Connor I Chair as well as the director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, joined the Texas A&M staff in 1997 as an associate professor of chemical engineering and has served as the director of the process safety center since that time. Other awards he has received include TEES Research Fellow (2002), George Armistead Jr. ’23 Fellow (2004-05), the Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching (2003) and the Quality Recognition Award from PPG Industries Inc. Rajagopal is the Forsyth Chair Professor in mechanical engineering and has a joint appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He joined the engineering faculty in 1996. In 2003 he was named a University Distinguished Professor and in 2004 he was awarded the Bush Excellence Award for Faculty in International Research. He has published more than 290 papers in archival journals, written three books, edited three others and given more than 200 lectures and seminars at university and national labs. Welch holds the Chevron Professorship II in computer science and is a professor in the department’s Parasol lab. She joined the computer science faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor and served as interim department head in 2001-02. She received the Charles W. Crawford Service Award in 2007, was named a TEES Fellow in 2003 and received the Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award in 2000. Additionally, she received the IEEE Education Society Hewlett-Packard Harriet B. Rigas Award for outstanding women engineering educator in 2004. The board established the Regents Professor Award program in 1996 to recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to their university or agency and to the people of Texas. To date, 105 faculty members have been named Regents Professors. Each recipient of the award receives a $9,000 stipend, a commemorative medallion and a certificate.
