M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, has appointed Dr. Richard Miles (left), Dr. Thomas Overbye (center) and Dr. Zhijian “ZJ” Pei (right) Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Distinguished Research Professors. Pei’s appointment was effective Aug. 27, 2016, Overbye’s was effective Jan. 1 and Miles’s was effective Feb. 15.
Miles is a joint professor in the Departments of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, which he joined on Feb. 15 as part of the GURI grant initiative. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Miles will establish and lead the Center of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Optical and Laser Detection Systems for National Security and Safety at Texas A&M. One application of his innovative research is the development of state-of-the-art instrumentation for remote detection that will identify hazardous gases and dangerous contaminants such as anthrax or the Ebola virus, hidden explosives such as IEDs and/or greenhouse gases and pollutants.
Overbye is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, which he joined Jan. 1 as part of the GURI grant initiative. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His research interests are in the domains of smart grid cybersecurity, renewable electric energy systems, power system visualization, power system analysis by computer methods, power system stability and power systems operation and control.
Pei is a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, which he joined in August 2016. He brings years of experience from working in industry, academia and government environments, and was named a Society of Manufacturing Engineers Fellow and American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellow. He received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Director’s Award for Excellence Program Director and an NSF CAREER Award. His interests include cybermanufacturing systems, additive manufacturing and subtractive manufacturing processes.