Engineering Leaders, September 2013

Vistap M. Karbhari, Ph.D. (CA Y ’84), was recently named president of the University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Karbhari was the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He has also served as professor and vice chairman of the structural engineering department at the University of California-San Diego. Read the news release

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Earlier this month, Ray M. Dolby passed away at the age of 80. Dolby, Ph.D. (CA G ’57), “revolutionized the recording industry with the invention of the Dolby noise-reduction system” and his contributions to audio engineering. He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

He founded Dolby Laboratories, was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (1997), and helped India set up a new national laboratory to develop scientific and industrial instruments. Click here to read the obituary from The New York Times

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The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the University of Illinois at Chicago has received a donation for the bioengineering department “to fund new ways of preventing, diagnosing and treating diseases by applying engineering to the field of medicine.” The gift was made by UIC alumnus Rick Hill, retired CEO of computer-chip manufacturing equipment company Novellus, Inc.

According to the article and Dimitri Azar, Ph.D., dean of the UIC College of Medicine, “the donation will be transformative in allowing the department to create new cures for diseases that require engineering approaches.”

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