FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Alan Mantooth, professor of electrical engineering, has been named to the Twenty-First Century Chair in Mixed-Signal Integrated Circuit Design and Computer-Aided Design at the University of Arkansas. Mantooth is director of the UA National Center for Reliable Electrical Power Transmission, a center for advanced power electronics. He is also chief scientist and co-founder of Lynguent Inc., an electronic design automation company based in Portland, Ore., that focuses on analog and mixed-signal modeling and collaborative design tools.

This Twenty-First Century Chair was established to provide leadership in the area of hardware and software design, creating a crossover between electrical engineering, device physics and computer engineering. In his role as chair, Mantooth will attract and support research and create stimulus for integrated circuit design and manufacturing, and software design cottage industries.

“Dr. Mantooth is a leader in the College of Engineering and in the field of electrical engineering. His dedication and expertise are top of the line. We are pleased to see him fill this leadership role in helping to raise the prominence of the college in this vastly important field of electrical engineering,” said Ashok Saxena, dean of the College of Engineering.

“I am both humbled and excited at the opportunities that the chair position affords our mixed-signal electronics program. These chair funds will be used to attract, support and impact the lives of students, so that through our scholarly contributions the UA’s international reputation as a top-flight engineering school can continue to grow year after year,” Mantooth said.

Mantooth holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Arkansas College of Engineering, and a doctoral degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has received several teaching, research, and service awards since joining the University of Arkansas from industry in 1998. In 2002, he was named to the Georgia Tech Council of Outstanding Engineering Alumni and in 2006 was inducted into the Arkansas Academy of Electrical Engineers.

Under Mantooth’s direction, the Mixed-Signal Computer-Aided Design Laboratory has collaborated with universities in Japan, England and the United States on electronics projects for space applications targeted to upcoming Lunar and Martian missions.

The chair was endowed during the UA Campaign for the Twenty-First Century, which recorded $1.046 billion in gifts and pledges designated toward student and faculty endowments, academic programs, capital improvements and University Libraries when it concluded June 30, 2005.