Six alumni and a former fund-raiser for the University of Colorado at Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science were honored with the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award at the 39th annual Engineering Awards Banquet on April 16.
The awards recognize alumni and special friends of the college who have distinguished themselves through outstanding personal qualities, knowledge and significant contributions in their fields.
Dean Robert H. Davis presented the 2004 awards in the categories of education, government service, industry and commerce, research and invention, and a "special" category honoring non-alumni who have provided outstanding service to the college. The recipients were nominated by their colleagues and selected for the awards by the Engineering Advisory Council.
Enid M. Ablowitz, vice president and director of advancement for the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, was recognized in the special, non-alumni category for her work as a fund- and friend-raiser while serving as the college's director of engineering development and then assistant dean for advancement, from 1989 to 2001. Her impact is visible in the more than $100 million in gifts for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, endowed chairs and building additions for the Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory and the Discovery Learning Center. She also helped to cultivate the $250 million gift that created the CU Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities.
Lori A. Clarke, professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts, was recognized in the research and invention category for her innovative research in software engineering. Clarke has been recognized by the Association for Computing Machinery, which elected her Fellow in 1998, and by the University of Massachusetts, which awarded her its Chancellor's Distinguished Faculty Award in 1991.
Gregg A. Jacobs, head of the Naval Research Laboratory's Ocean Modeling and
Prediction Branch at Stennis Space Center in Missouri, was recognized in the research and invention category for his contributions as an ocean modeler and researcher in satellite oceanography. Jacobs is a world-recognized expert in the use of satellite altimeter data for modeling and monitoring ocean circulation.
Vern Norviel, lead attorney of the Patents and Innovations Counseling Group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, Calif., was recognized in the industry and commerce category as one of the top intellectual property attorneys and high-tech corporate leaders in the country. In 1996, he was named senior vice president and general counsel of Affymetrix, a biotechnology company that pioneered the "DNA chip" technology. He then played a role in and joined a spinoff of Affymetrix, Perlegen Sciences, a company developing methods for rapid scanning of the human genome for the development of therapeutic and diagnostic products.
Lucinda M. Sanders, executive-in-residence for CU's Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) initiative, was recognized in the industry and commerce category for her outstanding technical and management contributions to the computer science industry. She led a successful career with AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies and Avaya Inc., where she retired as vice president for research and development. She holds four patents in communications software and is a recipient of the prestigious Bell Labs Fellow award.
Marshall L. Silver, chief technical adviser for natural disaster risk reduction for the United Nations Development Program in Vietnam, was recognized in the government service category for his contributions in both education and international service in civil engineering. He was a professor of civil engineering at the University of Illinois, Chicago, for 25 years and later served as chief technical adviser for the United Nations Development Program in India and Pakistan before taking his current position in Hanoi.
Stein Sture, associate dean for research in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, was recognized in the education category as an outstanding educator in the field of civil engineering. Sture has been a civil engineering professor at CU-Boulder since 1980, and has served in various capacities from department chair to associate dean. He is an active member of 13 professional and scientific societies and a Fellow of both the American Society of Civil Engineers and the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics.