University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Delores Etter, of the department of electrical and computer engineering, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, joining nine other faculty from the campus who have been elected since the Academy's formation in 1962.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made "important contributions to engineering theory and practice, including significant contributions to the literature of engineering theory and practice," and those who have demonstrated "unusual accomplishment in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology."
Etter was honored for her authorship of textbooks on computer applications in engineering, contributions to digital signal processing and service to the profession.
She joined the CU-Boulder faculty in 1990, after serving as the associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico.
Etter is currently on leave, serving as U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for science and technology, a position she was appointed to by President Clinton in June 1998. She manages the $7 billion budget of the Department of Defense Science and Technology Program and serves as the U.S. representative to the NATO Research and Technology Board.
Her responsibilities include developing technologies for the U.S. military and oversight of all federally funded research and development centers.
Other CU-Boulder faculty who are members of the National Academy of Engineering, and their years of election, are: Martin Mikulas, 1999; Valerian Tatarskii, elected a Foreign Associate in 1994; Earl Gossard, 1990; Don Hearth, 1989; Richard Strauch, 1989; Jacques Pankove, 1986; Richard Seebass, 1985; Klaus Timmerhaus, 1975; and Max Peters, 1969.