February 2017

Dr. M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, has appointed Dr. Richard Miles, Dr. Thomas Overbye and Dr. Zhijian “ZJ” Pei 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.

The Polymer Nanocomposites Laboratory at Texas A&M University, directed by Dr. Jaime Grunlan, is working with scientists at the Sandia National Laboratory to reduce or eliminate arc faults and corrosion in solar cells. Corrosion in photovoltaic cells, which convert light into electricity, can damage connections and reduce or destroy the ability to generate electricity.

Th Turbomachinery Lab is offering three continuing education courses that will be held in Houston in late March. Each short course offers continuing education unit (CEU) credits and is taught by one or more field experts with broad industrial knowledge.

Dr. John Valasek, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University and director of the Center for Autonomous Vehicles and Sensor Systems (CANVASS) in the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), has been selected by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) as a 2017 AIAA Fellow. The AIAA confers the distinction of Fellow upon 1 percent of its members in recognition of their notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences or technology of aeronautics and astronautics.