Dougherty Award Winners

Ralph D. Heath

President, Lockheed Martin (retired)

Education

• BS 1970, Electrical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• MBA 1975, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Ralph D. Heath is a recognized leader in the aerospace and defense industry, having concluded a nearly 40-year career at Lockheed Martin. He held a wide range of positions in design, development, production, and sustainment. He was president of Lockheed’s Aeronautics Company for seven years, a $15 billion business with 26,000 employees spread across nine locations. Products included the F-16, F-22, and F-35 fighters, the C-130 and C-5 transports, and both manned and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

Heath was a leader in international business, personally engaging in more than 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, South America, and the Pacific Rim. He led the company’s transition into process-based management and was an agent of change throughout his career.

Heath is a member of boards of the Textron Corporation and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He also serves on the advisory boards of the University of Tennessee’s Tickle College of Engineering and Haslam College of Business.

Heath is an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Fellow and was the recipient of the 2005 Reed Aerospace Award. He was named the National Management Association Executive of the Year in 2007.

An Army veteran, Heath served nearly four years on active duty and was qualified as an airborne ranger. He holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and an MBA from the University of Tennessee, and an FAA commercial pilot’s license.

Leslie Benmark

Six Sigma Black Belt for DuPont (retired)

Education

• BS 1967, Industrial Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• MS 1970, Industrial Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• PhD 1976, Information Systems, Vanderbilt University
• JD 1984, the University of Delaware

Leslie Benmark has enjoyed a long and successful career as an engineer and corporate leader in public service since graduating from the University of Tennessee.

She worked for 37 years with the DuPont Company in Old Hickory, Tennessee, and at its corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. As Six Sigma Black Belt for DuPont, Benmark was responsible for identifying and implementing customer satisfaction and productivity improvement projects. Prior to the Six Sigma assignment, she was the IT&S corporate quality manager, leading managing processes between DuPont and its IT Alliance partners, Computer Sciences Cooperation and Accenture.

Benmark’s other positions at both the corporate and plant levels included planning manager and executive consultant for the Global Services Business, supply chain systems manager, Dacron®/Qiana® financial business manager, plant planning and cost supervisor, plant industrial engineering supervisor, plant engineering design supervisor, systems analysis supervisor, and computer systems analyst.

Benmark was born in Illinois during World War II. Her family moved around following the war, finally settling in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, where she lived until starting college at UT. She received numerous job offers after receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1967, and accepted a position at the Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri.

When she became engaged to her future husband, Gary Benmark, the couple moved back to Tennessee. She had received an offer from the DuPont Company at the manufacturing facility near Nashville after graduation. When she inquired with the company to see if the job was still open, she found that it was. She earned her master’s degree while working there, and later a PhD from Vanderbilt.

Benmark was inducted into the elite National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 1993, in two areas: Industrial, Manufacturing, and Operational Systems Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering. At the time that she was inducted into NAE, there were only twenty-seven female members. In comparison, the membership in 2015 included one hundred and twenty-eight women.

Benmark was also the president of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) in 1990–91, the first female president of this organization in sixty-six years. She was also the Directorate for Engineering Advisory and Chair for Presidential Faculty Fellow selection and the Engineering Education Coalition Selection Panels for the National Science Foundation; she served on the Manufacturing Studies Board for the National Research Council; was a member of the US delegation of the US Council for International Engineering Practice, charged with defining inter-country engineering professional licensing requirements between the US, Canada, and Mexico; and served as the Group Vice President for Professional Enhancement, on the board of directors, and in many other positions with the Institute for Industrial Engineers.

In addition to her work and activities as a professional engineer, Benmark has also been extensively involved with the Civitan organization, including serving a term on the International Board.

Edwin G. Burdette

(1934-2018)

Professor Emeritus of civil and environmental engineering

Education

• BS 1957, Agricultural Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• MS 1961, Civil Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• PhD 1969, Civil & Structural Engineering, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Born on a farm outside of Martin, Tennessee, Ed Burdette attended the University of Tennessee at Martin for two years and transferred to UT Knoxville in the fall of 1954. He worked co-op while at Knoxville and graduated in agricultural engineering in March 1957. He and Patsy Hill were married one week after graduation, March 23, 1957. Both returned to UT Knox­ville in the fall of 1958, and Ed became an instructor in civil engineering, receiving his MS degree in civil engineering in June 1961, three months after their first of five children was born. He was named assistant professor of civil engineering beginning September 1961.

In August 1965, he enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Illi­nois in Urbana-Champaign and received his PhD in civil/structural engineering in February 1969. He returned to UT on February 1, 1969, and remained on the faculty until his retirement in 2016, holding the rank of professor since 1974. Burdette’s research has been primarily in two areas: field testing of highway bridges for the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and test­ing anchors in concrete to support TVA’s nuclear power program. For the work in bridge testing, he and David Goodpasture received the K.B. Woods Award from the National Academy of Science for Best Paper in Design and Construction at the 1972 meeting of the Highway Research Board. Then, in 1984, based primarily on his work in the area of anchor testing, he was named a Chancellor’s Research Scholar at the University Honors Banquet.

Burdette’s primary interest throughout his long career was teaching. He has received numerous teaching awards in the department, college, and university, being named an Engineering College Teaching Fellow twice. On two occasions he received Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards, and in 2001, he received the University’s Alexander Prize.

Among numerous meaningful honors, Burdette cites five which were particularly meaningful: (1) being granted the first Fred Peebles Professorship in 1981, a title that he held until his retirement in 2016; (2) in 1991, being named University Macebearer, the university’s highest honor; (3) having a Fellowship created in his honor in 1994 by former student Ted Winstead and wife Linda, the Edwin G. and Patsy H. Burdette Fellowship in Structural Engineering, which has grown in value to allow partial support of several graduate students each year; (4) In 2011, having a lab in the new John D. Tickle Engineering Building named in his honor through donations made by several former students and Dayakar and Marie Penumadu; and (5) in 2015, the establishment of the Edwin G. Burdette Professorship in Civil Engineering by virtue of a generous gift from former student Charley Hodges and his wife Lynn.

Burdette’s last day on the faculty was July 31, 2016, more than fifty years after becoming a member of that faculty. He looks back on a career touched and helped by many people, too many to name. But one person stands above all the rest: his wife, Patsy, who not only played the major role in raising their five children, but also through her insistence on striving to be the best one could be. This attitude served as both inspiration and motivation throughout his long career. The impact of Burdette’s presence at UT is deep and unmistakable.

Hashem M. Hashemian

President and Chief Executive Officer, Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS)

Education

• MS 1977 Nuclear Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• DEng 2008 Electrical Engineering, Lamar University
• PhD 2009 Nuclear Engineering/Applied Physics, Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden)
• PhD 2011 Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western University (Canada)

H.M. Hashemian is a University of Tennessee Tickle College of Engineering alumnus and the President and Chief Executive Officer of Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS), a nuclear engineering consulting firm headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and operating in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Hashemian’s technical and operational vision and leadership has enabled AMS to play a key role in ensuring the safe and cost-efficient operation of virtually every US nuclear power plant, as well as many in Europe and Asia, through the development and application of industry-leading instrumentation and control testing and analysis equipment and services.

A globally recognized expert who lectures frequently in nuclear power plant instrumentation and control areas, Hashemian holds a PhD in nuclear engineering, a Doctor of Engineering degree in electrical engineering, and a PhD in computer engineering. He has worked for the nuclear, aerospace, and other industries, as well as the US government, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Air Force, Navy, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Hashemian is the author of three books: Sensor Performance and Reliability (ISA, 2005), Maintenance of Process Instrumentation in Nuclear Power Plants (Springer Verlag, 2006), and Monitoring and Measuring I&C Performance in Nuclear Power Plants (ISA, 2014). His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. In addition, he is the author or co-author of twenty US patents (fourteen awarded and six pending) and has written more than three hundred papers and reports. This includes seventy peer-reviewed journal and magazine articles, over two hundred conference papers, nine book chapters, and numerous reports, guideline documents, and standards for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the International Society of Automation (ISA).

Hashemian is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), a Fellow of the International Society of Automation (ISA), a Fellow of the International Society of Engineering Asset Management (ISEAM), a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), as well as a member of the European Nuclear Society (ENS). He has served as a keynote speaker, chairman, and co-chairman of numerous national and international conferences and committees.

James B. Porter, Jr.

Founder/President, Sustainable Operations Solutions, LLC

Chief Engineer and Vice President, Engineering and Operations, DuPont (retired)

Education

• BS 1965, Chemical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

James B. Porter, Jr., graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1965. In 1966, Mr. Porter joined DuPont and remained with the company, aside from a stint in the US Army, until retiring in 2008 as the company’s Vice President for Engineering and Operations.

In addition to his work with DuPont, Porter served on the college’s Board of Advisors—including as its president—as the chairperson for the Construction Industry Institute and the of United Negro College Fund of Delaware, and on the boards of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, FIATECH, the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative, the Argonne National Laboratory and the Fieldbus Foundation, as well as the advisory board of AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety.

He received FIATECH’s inaugural award for technology leadership in 2008, which was named in his honor, as well as the 2007 Society of Women Engineers Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award, the 2005 Engineering and Construction Contracting Association Achievement Award, and CII’s 2004 Carroll H. Dunn Award of Excellence.

Porter currently serves as founder and president of Sustainable Operations Solutions, which helps promote safer, more efficient, more productive work environments.

A native of Knoxville, he and his wife, Deborah Grubbe, have one daughter, Alyson.

W. Dwight Kessel

Knox County Executive (retired)

Education

• BS 1950, Industrial Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

W. Dwight Kessel received the Nathan W. Dougherty Award in 2014 in recognition of his achievements and contributions to Tennessee. He has supported key Tickle College of Engineering decisions and stood as an advocate for the college.

After a three and a half year stint in the Navy during WWII, he came to UT, graduating in 1950 with a BS in industrial engineering. After working as an Engineer (1950-1963), he entered political office as a Knoxville City Councilman (1963-1966), as Knox County Clerk (1966-1980), and served as the first Knox County Executive (now County Mayor) from 1980-1994.

His various business interests have included real estate investments; the conversion of the Farragut Hotel into office space; Chapman Drug Company, which he built into a multi-state chain; and the startup of one of the nation’s first local Internet companies: U.S. Internet.

His community involvement includes time with the Boy Scouts of America, the Greater Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, the Girls Club, Knox County Health Council, Development Corporation of Knox County, Juvenile Court Advisory Board, East Tennessee Foundation, and many more. He also has been a member of the West Knoxville Kiwanis Club for sixty years and was a board member of the Fairview Technology Center and the Tennessee Center for Research and Development. He was a member of the 1982 Knoxville Expo World’s Fair board of directors, an advisory board member of the Knoxville College President’s Roundtable, and a member of the East Tennessee Minority Purchasing Council, Inc. board.

Due to his commitment to the Knoxville community, several buildings have been named after Kessel, including the Wallace Dwight Kessel Girls Club Gymnasium, Dwight Kessel Pavilion, Dwight Kessel Metropolitan Parking Garage, and the Dwight and Gloria Kessel Auditorium in the Science and Engineering Research Facility at UT.

He has been extensively involved with the UT National Alumni Association, serving as treasurer, secretary, vice president, and president as well as participating as a member of the scholarship committee. He also served on the UT Tickle College of Engineering Board of Advisors, and was a previous chairman of the UT Chancellor’s Associates and the UT Development Council.

In 2013, he received the UT’s prestigious Alumni Service Award.

John D. Tickle

Chairman, Strongwell

Education

• BS 1965, Industrial Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

John D. Tickle (BS/IE ’65) is the owner and chairman of Strongwell Corporation, headquartered in Bristol, Virginia.

He received his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering in 1965 from the University of Tennessee. He served in positions with Owens Corning Tech Center, Justin Enterprises, and Krueger Metal Products before returning to his hometown of Bristol to assume the presidency of Morrison Molded Fiber Glass Company (MMFG). Mr. Tickle stayed with MMFG after its acquisition by Shell in 1985.

In 1997, Mr. Tickle renamed the company Strongwell and began developing the technology that has made it a world-wide leader in pultrusion manufacturing, with the Bristol division serving as Strongwell’s largest facility and corporate headquarters.

The materials manufactured at Strongwell can be found around the world in high-end construction. If you have been to a resort on the ocean, there is a good chance the railings and fittings are made from Strongwell product–they don’t corrode in the salt air and look beautiful. If you own one of the orange ladders commonly sold at local home improvement stores, that’s Strongwell material.

Mr. Tickle has also been the recipient of a host of local, regional, and national business and philanthropic awards, including receiving the UT Distinguished Alumni Award (with his wife, Ann); having the Mall at Bristol Regional Medical Center named for him in 2004; being named a Laureate in the Junior Achievements Business Hall of Fame in 2000; Virginia Chamber of Commerce Torchbearer Award for Western Virginia in 1999; and the Bristol Regional Hospital Chairman from 1987 to 1992.

Mr. Tickle, who earned the rank of Eagle Scout, received the Heroism Award from the National Court of Honor of the Boy Scouts of America in June 2012. He also recently received the 2013 ACMA Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA), the industry’s largest trade group in the world.

Anthony R. Buhl

President/CEO, EnergX LLC

Education

• BS 1963 Nuclear Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• MS 1964 Engineering Science, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• PhD 1967 Engineering Science, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Anthony (Tony) R. Buhl was born and grew up ten miles outside of nearby Clinton, Tennessee. He was the youngest of eight children in a family that lived in a two-room house. No one in the area had gone to high school, much less college, and Buhl changed everything.

At the Southern Appalachian Science Fair which Buhl participated in at his high school, Buhl met Pete Pasqua and Isbell Tipton (both UT professors co-chairing the science fair). Pasqua suggested Buhl think about a career in engineering, which he ultimately followed through on.

During his senior year, Buhl’s high school chemistry teacher suggested that he should apply for scholarships at the University of Tennessee. Although Buhl knew little about higher education, he applied for the scholarship, got it, and enrolled at UT in the Nuclear Engineering Department.

Buhl received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees, all in nuclear engineering and engineering science, from UT. He then enlisted in the Army, where he was commissioned as an officer upon receiving his bachelor’s degree and served active duty as a captain. After his military service, Buhl went to work as an Instrumentation and Controls Engineer at ORNL for three years.

Buhl later served as a senior executive at both the DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and was the first Director of Risk Assessment at NRC. He has led many complex independent oversight assessments of high-risk projects and activities that led to major safety culture modifications.

Buhl led many successful turnarounds of major projects and organizations, with special emphasis on facilitating changes in their safety cultures. He served as the corporate site-wide ESH&Q Vice President at Rocky Flats and Hanford, two large high-risk DOE closure sites; as president and CEO of a public company that provided management consulting, engineering, and software development; and as CEO of a private company that offered environmental restoration and risk assessment products and services. In addition, Buhl was in the control room throughout the recovery from the accident at the Three Mile Island (TMI) power plant in Harrisburg, PA in 1979.

During the years following the TMI incident, Buhl managed the Industry Degraded Core Rulemaking (IDCOR) Program, the power industry’s response to the accident at TMI. IDCOR established comprehensive, integrated, well-documented and technically sound positions on all issues related to severe accidents in commercial nuclear power plants and thus provided the basis for industry participation in their resolution. Buhl served as the industry spokesman with the NRC to resolve severe accident issues. In all, Buhl has traveled to 39 countries in relation to nuclear safety issues.

In 1997, Buhl co-founded EnergX, LLC, based in Oak Ridge, which provides solutions in hazardous and radioactive waste management, environmental services, and energy technology to the DOE and electric utilities. He is still president and CEO of EnergX, and looks forward to further development within his company.

The American Nuclear Society elected Buhl as a Fellow for his special expertise in nuclear safety and risk assessment. He is also a Professional Engineer (PE).

Terry Douglass

CEO, ProNova Solutions, LLC
Chairman, Provision Center for Proton Thearpy
President, ProVision Healthcare, LLC
President, Provision Trust, Inc.
Founder, ProVision Foundation

Education

• BS 1965 Electrical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• MS 1966 Electrical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• PhD 1967 Electrical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Terry Douglass received all 3 degrees in electrical engineering from UT. One of the four cofounders of CTI Molecular Imaging, Inc., Douglass served as Chairman of the Board starting in 1983 for the public company that specialized in the development, production, and distribution of products and services for the medical diagnostic imaging market. Douglass held this position until 2005 when CTI was acquired by Siemens. Douglass also served as president and CEO of CTI from its formation in 1983 until 2003.

During his years at CTI, Douglass played an integral role in the development and commercialization of positron emission tomography (PET) technology and was instrumental in the development of Medicare reimbursement for PET services.

Moving to ProVision, Douglass helped spearhead the company’s primary initiative in healthcare is the development of a world-class cancer care capability, named Provision Health Alliance at Dowell Springs, that will include proton therapy capability and most all other diagnostic and treatment modalities for cancer care. There are only 9 proton therapy centers across the country.

Douglass founded ProNova in 2005. ProNova develops optimal solutions for the needs of the proton market through collaboration with established proton suppliers and providers. Connected to Provision Health Alliance and the Provision Center for Proton Therapy, ProNova is the only “Total Solution” provider in proton therapy. Douglass is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors for ProNova, and is spearheading the company’s success.

Douglass is very active in the community and has shared his expertise in Proton Therapy across a variety of boards including: Provision Foundation, LLC, Provision Healthcare, LLC, East Tennessee Diagnostic Center, LLC, Provision Imaging, LLC, Provision Health Partners, LLC, Provision Properties, LLC, Provision Trust, Inc., Provision Radiation Therapy, LLC, CTI Molecular Imaging, Inc., Cyclotron Systems Inc., PETNet Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., Computational Systems, Inc.

Douglass is also active in some well-known local businesses including: YMCA, Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, Hope Resource Center, Young Life, the UT Medical Center, CTI Biomedical Research Center, UT Chancellor’s Associates, and the UT Tickle College of Engineering Board of Advisors.

Douglass said he was “honored and humbled” to receive the Dougherty Award, and added that he was “blessed by and thankful for all the many contributions made by the university and its staff to his education and career.”

John Prados

Professor Emeritus, Chemical Engineering, the University of Tennessee

Education

• BS 1951 Chemical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• MS 1954 Chemical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• PhD 1957 Chemical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

John Prados was named the 2010 Nathan W. Dougherty award recipient by the UT Knoxville Tickle College of Engineering at the college’s Faculty and Staff Awards Dinner on April 22, 2010.

During his distinguished career at UT, which spans more than five decades, Prados served the University of Tennessee as professor and head in the Department of Chemical Engineering, as Associate Dean of Engineering, Dean of Admissions and Records, Acting Chancellor of both the Knoxville and Martin campuses and Acting Director of Energy Conversion Programs at the UT Space Institute. He also was named Vice President for Academic Affairs and Research of the statewide University of Tennessee system and served in that role from 1973 through 1988. In 1997, he received the coveted Macebearer Award, UT’s highest faculty honor.

Noted for his intellectual vigor and national leadership in engineering education, his professional influence has been felt far beyond the state of Tennessee. Prados is a Fellow of AIChE, ABET, and ASEE and is a registered professional engineer (retired) in Tennessee. He received ABET’s highest recognition for services to engineering education, the L.E. Grinter Distinguished Service Award, in 1993. He also received the James T. Rogers Award of the Commission on Colleges in 2004, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, for outstanding leadership in regional accreditation; and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Chemical Engineering Pedagogy from the ASEE Chemical Engineering Division in 2007. He served at the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1994–1997 as Senior Education Associate in the Engineering Directorate. Prados has also been a consultant to industry, government, and more than 30 universities and state education agencies in the United States and abroad.

In 2009, Prados received the Benjamin Garver Lamme Award from ASEE. Established in 1928, the honor recognizes excellence in teaching, contributions to research and technical literature and achievements that advance the profession of engineering college administration.

Prados was recognized for 50 years of combined service to the University of Tennessee, ASEE, ABET, NSF, and to the nation and the world for his leadership in engineering education reform and innovation.

Joseph C. Cook, Jr.

Principal and Co-Founder, Mountain Group Capital, LLC and The Limestone Fund, LLC

Education

• BS 1965, Industrial Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Joe Cook graduated with High Honors and was named a Torchbearer, UT’s highest student honor given for academic achievement and commitment to others. Cook then began his engineering career at Eli Lilly & Company in Indianapolis, focusing on automated cancer screening research. During his 28+ years with Eli Lilly, he held numerous senior executive positions in manufacturing, engineering, finance, sales and marketing, and general management. In 1993, Cook retired as group vice president for Global Operations.

After retiring from Lilly, he began a new career in biotechnology. He was a founder and Chairman of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a biotech company that recently received FDA approval for a new medicine for people with serious gastro-intestinal disorders. In 1998, he was elected chairman and CEO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a publicly traded company in San Diego. He led Amylin through the development of two new drugs for people with diabetes, BYETTA and BYDUREON, both of which have now been approved by the FDA. Cook retired as CEO Amylin in 2003 but continued to serve as the company’s chairman until 2009.

Following retirement from the Amylin CEO role, Cook and partners formed Mountain Group Capital (“MGC”), a Nashville based investment firm dedicated to investing in and actively guiding transformational businesses in the Life Sciences and Technology sectors.  In 2009, he and partners formed The Limestone Fund which was subsequently chosen by the State of Tennessee as one of the original six TNInvestco award winners. Through various funds, MGC principals have invested in more than 20 companies in their targeted sectors

Cook currently serves as a director of two publicly traded companies, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Cambridge, MA and Corcept Therapeutics, Inc. in Palo Alto, CA. He also serves as chairman of Mercy Ministries International, a faith-based global ministry headquartered in Nashville and on the national board of the American Diabetes Association. Additionally, Cook has been a member of the Tickle College of Engineering’s Board of Advisors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for over 20 years, previously serving as chairman. In 1997, Cook and his wife established the Judith E. and Joseph C. Cook, Jr. Engineering Scholarship Endowment at UT to help deserving engineering students.

In 1999, Cook was awarded the Nathan W. Dougherty Award by the Tickle College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee. The Corporate Directors Forum named Cook its Director of the Year in 2003 and 2006, respectively. He also received the Pinnacle Award for Life Science Leadership from the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego in 2009. For attaining extraordinary distinction and success in his field, Joseph Cook received the 2011 University of Tennessee Distinguished Alumna/Alumnus Award.

J. Don Brock

Chairman & CEO, Astec Industries Inc.

Education

• BS 1961, Mechanical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• MS 1963, Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
• PhD 1965, Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Brock spent four years as Vice President of Chattanooga Systems, Inc., prior to being named Vice President of CMI Systems in Chattanooga. Between 1970 and 1972, he served as President of CMI Systems, President of Textiles Systems, Inc. (a subsidiary of CMI Corporation), and Corporate Vice President of CMI Corporation in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In 1972, upon its founding, he became Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Astec Industries Inc. Astec is the leading manufacturer of equipment for asphalt road building, aggregate processing, pipeline and utility trenching, and wood processing in the United States. Brock holds approximately 100 U.S. and foreign patents on construction machinery and drying equipment.

In 1983, Brock was honored as the “Man of the Year” by the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA). The Chattanooga Area Engineering Societies named Brock “Engineer of the Year” in 1984 and “Inventor of the Year” in 1988. In 1996, he was the first active industry member to be inducted into the NAPA Hot Mix Hall of Fame.

Additional industry honors include the 1996 Engineering Manager of the Year from the American Society of Engineering Management; the 1997 Private Partnership Award/Transportation Science & Ethics from the Alliance for Transportation Research Institute; the 1999 Captain C.D. Mitchell Award from the Chattanooga Manufacturers Association; the 1999 Hall of Fame Award from the Construction Equipment Industry; the 2001 Ronald D. Kenyon Research and Education Award from the NAPA Research and Education Foundation; and the 2003 Norman McLeod Award for Innovation from the Ontario Asphalt Pavement Association. In 2004, he was included in the American Road & Transportation Builders Association Top 100 Private Sector Transportation Construction Professionals of the 20th Century. In 2009, Brock received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and in 2010 Brock received the Engineer of the Decade award during Chattanooga Engineers Week.

On September 11, 2012, ARTBA permanently honored Brock by renaming the yearly Transovation Award which is awarded to foster innovative thinking within the transportation industry to publicly recognize proven innovators. The award is now known as the J. Don Brock Transovation Award in his honor.

Brock serves as Chairman of the Steering Committee for the National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University and as a Board Member of The Dixie Group. Additionally, Brock served on the Tickle College of Engineering’s Board of Advisors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2002 and 2003.

Ronald Nutt

CEO, Advanced Biomarker Technologies

Education

• BS 1961, Electrical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• MS 1962, Electrical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• PhD 1969, Electrical Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Nutt is CEO of Advanced Biomarker Technologies, a company dedicated to developing molecular imaging biomarkers. In 1983, he co-founded and was a member of the Board of Directors of CTI Molecular Imaging. He was vice president of Research and Development from 1983 through 1998 when he became president of CTI PET Systems, a joint venture between Siemens and CTI. In 2002, he became president and CEO of CTI Molecular Imaging, Inc., a NASDAQ public company. Nutt led negotiations with Siemens during the sale of the company in 2005 and assisted in the integration of CTI into Siemens through May of 2006. Nutt has more than 30 patents in the field of molecular imaging, authored and co-authored a large number of technical publications, and has presented at many conferences. Prior to founding CTI Molecular Imaging, Nutt was co-founder of other companies including Technology for Energy Corporation, Radio Systems Corporation, and Delta M Corporation. As vice president of EG&G ORTEC between 1969 and 1979 he was responsible for developing many innovations in the field of nuclear physics instrumentation. Prior to ORTEC, he was a researcher at ORNL and taught electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee.

Nutt is an IEEE Fellow. In 1999, IEEE named him Outstanding Engineer for the Eastern U.S. for his contributions to molecular imaging and the Academy of Molecular Imaging named him Scientist of the Year. In 2000, the PET/CT invention, which Nutt co-created, was named Medical Invention of the Year by Time. Additionally, he was awarded an honorary MD by the University of Essen in Germany in 2008.

Nutt served as a UT Chancellor’s Associate and is a member of the Tickle College of Engineering’s Campaign Executive Committee. The Nutt family established three major endowments at UT. In 1998, the Randall Keith Nutt Engineering Scholarship Endowment was established in honor of Nutt’s son who passed away after completing his freshman year in electrical engineering. The Nutt family also established the Ronald Nutt Fellowship in Image Formation and Processing and the Ronald Nutt Family Engineering Scholarship. Nutt, in conjunction with fellow alumni and former CTI Inc. founding partners Michael Crabtree, Terry Douglass, and Kelly Milam, established the CTI Chair in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science.

Ron F. Green

Chairman, Advatech, LLC

Education

• BS 1970, Engineering Physics, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• MS 1978, Engineering Administration, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

While an undergraduate, Green played varsity baseball and participated in student government, serving as a student senator from the Tickle College of Engineering. In 1970, after working his way through school as a co-op student at Union Carbide, he accepted a job as a test engineer with Union Carbide in Oak Ridge.

Later, while working with U.S. Nuclear, Inc., he became the youngest plant manager in the country at age 26. Green later served as manager of quality assurance and interface control for the U.S. Department of Energy. After three years with the Department of Energy, he joined the System Development Corporation as southeast regional manager.

In 1982, Daniel International, a subsidiary of Fluor Corporation, offered him a job as a division vice president. Green worked for Daniel International for 16 years supervising the construction of power plants in China, Saudi Arabia, South America, Jordan, Thailand, and others countries. In 1989, Fluor launched a new company with Duke Power called Duke/Fluor Daniel. Green served as its founding president and served as president of the Power Generation Operating Company for Duke/Fluor Daniel. Under Green’s leadership, Duke/Fluor Daniel saw revenues rise to $4 billion a year. Green departed Duke/Fluor Daniel to become president of Shell Oil’s Power Division; however, he returned in 1999 as president and CEO of Duke Engineering and Services, Inc. Before his passing in 2011, Green was the chairman of Advatech, LLC, a provider of technology to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions as well as engineering, design, and construction services for the power market.

As an original member of the Tickle College of Engineering’s Board of Advisors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, he recognized the need to update the engineering curriculum and improve the communications skills of engineering students. Green helped to develop the Jerry E. Stoneking Engage Engineering Fundamentals Program where freshman students develop communication skills and hands-on engineering skills. He served on the Board of Directors for both Astec Industries and Eagle Energy, Inc. and was also a member of Tau Beta Pi and the American Nuclear Society.

J. Milton Bailey

Education

• BS 1949, Physics, Davidson College
• MS 1952, Electrical Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• PhD 1960, Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Bailey spent three years as an instrument engineer with E.I. DuPont before earning his doctorate from Georgia Tech in 1960. While at Georgia Tech, he received the M.A. Ferst Sigma Xi Award for his dissertation. After receiving his doctorate, Bailey was instrumental in the development of the system engineering approach to missile designs for Martin Marietta.

As manager of Systems Engineering for Martin Marietta, Bailey’s research activities at the Army Missile Command Redstone Arsenal and the Advanced Ballistic Missile Defense Agency focused on guidance and control for the Pershing missile and an anti-ballistic missile. Bailey later supervised the SPRINT Missile System project as manager of the System Analysis Department. He also served as technical director of Martin Marietta’s portion of the SAM-D Missile System, which evolved into the Patriot System.

In 1968, he accepted the ALCOA Chair of Industrial Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Upon beginning a consulting agreement with Union Carbide in 1970, later known as Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Bailey applied his skills to the Gaseous Diffusion Plant where he helped develop the center centrifuge drive system. In 1991, Bailey received a patent on this Axial Gap Permanent Magnet Brushless D.C. Motor. Four years later, this motor was exhibited on the White House lawn at a celebration of the “Partnership for a New Generation Vehicle.”

Bailey was the author or co-author of over 50 technical publications, establishing himself as a recognized leader in the electrical engineering fields of controls and motor design. He was a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Professor Emeritus in electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

James O. Stiegler

Associate Director, Energy and Engineering Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (retired)

Education

• BS 1956, Metallurgical Engineering, Purdue University
• PhD 1971, Metallurgical Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

During his career, Stiegler held various positions with the U.S. Department of Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He started as a research assistant in the Solid State Physics Division and later became director of the Metals and Ceramics Division. In 1991, the U.S. Department of Energy recognized Stiegler for his efforts in transferring technologies from the Metals and Ceramics Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory to the private sector. He served as group leader in electron microscopy prior to retiring as ORNL’s associate director for Energy and Engineering Sciences.

Stiegler has received multiple honors for his work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 1966, he was named one of Tennessee’s three Outstanding Young Men by the Tennessee Jaycees. He received the American Welding Society’s 1975 William Sparagan Award and the 1979 McKay-Helm Award. He is also an ASM International Fellow. In 1988, the University of Tennessee honored Stiegler with the Engineering Alumni Award. Additionally, in 2007, he received the Happy Booker Award from the Knoxville Opera Guild.

His previous memberships include the American Ceramic Society, the ASM International American Welding Society, and the Metals Research Society. Stiegler has served as a board member for the American Welding Institute and served on the advisory boards for North Carolina A&T, North Carolina State University, Tennessee Tech, and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. In 1996 and 1997, Stiegler participated as a member of the Tickle College of Engineering’s Board of Advisors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Rafael C. Gonzalez

Professor Emeritus, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Education

• BS 1965, Electrical Engineering, University of Miami
• ME 1967, Electrical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville
• PhD 1970, Electrical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville

In 1970, Gonzalez joined the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 1984, he was named a Distinguished Service Professor. He also served as head of the electrical and computer engineering department from 1994 to 1997.

In 1982, Gonzalez founded Perceptics Corporation, which became highly successful in image processing, computer vision, and laser disk storage technologies. Perceptics introduced the world’s first commercially available computer vision system for automatically reading the license plate on moving vehicles; a series of large-scale image processing and archiving systems used by the U.S. Navy to inspect the rocket motors of missiles in the Trident II Submarine program; the market leading family of imaging boards for advanced Macintosh computers; and a line of trillion-byte laser disk products. In 1992, Westinghouse acquired Perceptics.

Gonzalez is frequently sought to consult both industry and government in the areas of pattern recognition, image processing, and machine learning. Gonzalez is co-holder of two U.S. patents and has been an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, and the International Journal of Computer and Information Sciences. He is the author or co-author of over 100 technical articles, two edited books, and four textbooks. His books are used in over 1,000 universities and research institutions throughout the world. His academic awards include the 1977 Tickle College of Engineering Faculty Achievement Award, the 1978 Chancellor’s Research Scholar Award, the 1980 Magnavox Engineering Professor Award, and the 1980 M.E. Brooks Distinguished Professor Award. In 1981, he was named an IBM Professor. He was named an IEEE Fellow in 1984, received the 1987 IEEE Outstanding Engineer Award for Commercial Development in Tennessee, and received the 1992 IEEE Region 3 Outstanding Engineer Award. In 1988, he received the Albert Rose National Award for Excellence in Commercial Image Processing. A year later, he received the B. Otto Wheeley Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer and the Coopers & Lybrand Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Gonzalez also received the 1993 Automated Imaging Association National Award for Technology Development.

Robert C. Hart

President, Tennessee Eastman Company (retired)

Education

• BS 1947, Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisville

After graduating from the University of Louisville, Hart was employed by the Kentucky Inspection Bureau and later by North American Rayon Corporation in Elizabethton, Tennessee. In 1949, he enrolled in graduate school at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to study mechanical engineering. Hart left UT, however, in August of 1950 to accept a position with Tennessee Eastman Company.

Hart joined Tennessee Eastman as an assistant mechanical engineer and gained experience in equipment design, facilities design and operation, manufacturing, and administration management. In 1979, he became the sixth president of the Tennessee Eastman Company. Five years later, he was given additional responsibilities as president of Holston Defense Corporation. In 1990, Hart was named vice president of administration for Eastman Chemical Company, Eastman Kodak Company.

In 1983, Hart and Tennessee Eastman were able to design, build, and operate a “Chemicals from Coal” facility. That year, he received the Innovation in Coal Conversion Award from the chemical engineering department at the University of Pittsburgh and was recognized as a University of Louisville Distinguished Alumnus. The American Chemical Society has since designated that facility as a National Historic Chemical Landmark.

Hart was a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a senior member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers and Tau Beta Pi. In 1993, he received an honorary doctorate in Engineering Science from Milligan College.

He served on the board for King College in Bristol, the Northeast State Community College Foundation, the East Tennessee State Foundation, and the Sequoyah Council for the Boy Scouts of America Executive Board. For his service, Hart received the Silver Antelope from the Boy Scouts of America.

Hart had also been a board member for First Tennessee Bank of Kingsport/ Bristol, Tennessee, the Holston Valley Health Care Foundation, and the Greater Kingsport Chamber of Commerce. He served as section president of both the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Instrument Society of America.

Henry C. Goodrich

Chairman, Richgood Corporation

Education

• BS 1942, Civil Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Henry Goodrich began his engineering career with Rust Engineering Company in Birmingham, Alabama, where his responsibilities included design, construction, and management. In 1967, Goodrich left Rust Engineering and became chairman and chief executive officer of Inland Container Corporation and chairman of Inland’s major mill operation, Georgia Kraft, in Rome, Georgia. During his tenure, Inland grew and spread to the West Coast and Puerto Rico and built the first modern recycling mills. In 1979, Goodrich initiated and completed a merger of Inland with Time, Inc. Following the merger, he returned to Birmingham to become chairman and CEO of Southern Natural Gas Company, the largest natural gas company in the South. He led a major transformation of the company under a new name, SONAT, Inc., before retiring in 1985.

After retiring from SONAT, Goodrich served as chairman of Richgood, a venture capital and investment company that he had incorporated in 1972. Richgood makes investments in biotechnology, health care, technology, and financial services, primarily in Alabama. Also in 1972, he and two partners put up the initial funding for BE&K, Inc., now one of the largest engineering and construction companies in the United States.

While with Inland in 1975, Goodrich was named Papermaker of the Year by Pulp and Paper magazine. In 1981, while with SONAT, he was named Best Chief Executive in the Gas Industry. In 1986, he was selected as one of 12 Outstanding Scientists and Engineers from the state of Tennessee and was placed in the Alabama Academy of Honor. Additionally, Goodrich was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 1991 and both the Alabama Business and Birmingham Business Halls of Fame in 2000. Goodrich also received honorary doctorates from Butler University, Marion College, Birmingham-Southern College, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). For his civic involvement, Mr. Goodrich was awarded with the Silver Beaver Award by the Boy Scouts of America in 1987.

Goodrich was a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the Newcomen Society, the oldest society devoted to the study of the history of engineering and technology. Until his passing in 2011, he was an emeritus member of the University of Tennessee Development Council and a senior director of the UAB Research Foundation. He was a registered Professional Engineer in 12 states.