CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Four alumni of the University of Illinois College of Engineering were honored Friday (April 7) at the 36th annual Engineering Awards Convocation.
Each year the college recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding alumni and former faculty members with the Alumni Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering. The award honors leadership, contributions to knowledge and dedication to the professional development of young engineers and scientists.
The award winners:
• Ralph J. Cicerone, chancellor and the David G. Aldrich Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. Cicerone earned a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965, and a master’s in 1967 and a doctorate in 1970 from the UI, all in electrical engineering. He was honored for his leadership in higher education and in recognition of his pioneering studies in atmospheric chemistry and their application to global warming.
• Delon Hampton, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Delon Hampton and Associates, Washington, D.C. Hampton earned a bachelor’s in 1954 from the UI, and a master’s in 1958 and doctorate in 1961, both from Purdue University and all in civil engineering. He was honored for his leadership within the civil engineering profession and for his extraordinary effectiveness in promoting cooperative interaction between the profession and those social and governmental agencies through which the services of the profession are provided to society.
• Tak H. Ning, member of the IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, N.Y. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Reed College in 1967, and a master’s in 1968 and a doctorate in 1971 from the UI, all in physics. Ning, a former UI professor of electrical and computer engineering, was honored for his pioneering development of advanced bipolar and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) devices and for his seminal contributions to the understanding of hot-electron effects in metal-oxide semiconductor devices.
• Raymond Viskanta, the W.F.M. Goss Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Purdue University. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the UI in 1955 and a master’s in 1956 and a doctorate in 1960, both from Purdue and all in mechanical engineering. Viskanta was honored for his contributions to the field of heat transfer through his outstanding research accomplishments, dedication to teaching, and his leadership and service in the international heat transfer community.
