Engineering College Announces Faculty Appointments

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas College of Engineering has appointed  holders of three newly endowed positions within the College of Engineering: the Charles Morgan/Acxiom Graduate Research Chair in Database, the John L. Imhoff Chair in Industrial Engineering, and the James T. Womble Professorship in Computational Mechanics and Nanotechnology Modeling.

Craig Thompson, a professor and International Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow, is the first holder of the Charles Morgan/Acxiom Graduate Research Chair in Database and has been with the university since 2003. His work has impacted several fields - database systems, software architecture, multi-agent systems and human-computer interfaces. Thompson holds six patents with one pending and has published more than 40 papers in books, journals and conferences. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Stanford in 1971 and a Master of Arts and doctoral degree in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977 and 1984 respectively.

C. Richard Cassady is the holder of the John L. Imhoff Chair in Industrial Engineering. Cassady joined the university as an assistant professor in August 2000 and was promoted to associate professor and awarded tenure in August 2004. In 2005, he was named Industrial Engineering Faculty Member of the Year by the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering. Cassady’s primary research interests are in the application of operations research for evaluating, improving or optimizing equipment maintenance policies. His research has been supported by more than $2 million in grants and resulted in more than 20 journal articles, more than 30 conference papers and presentations, three doctoral dissertations and 10 masters’ theses. Cassady received a Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and doctoral degree, all from Virginia Tech.

R. Panneer Selvam, an American Society of Civil Engineers Fellow, is the first holder of the James T. Womble Professorship in Computational Mechanics and Nanotechnology Modeling. Selvam developed a course on structural loading that is now offered across the country, and he has published more than 190 papers in journals and conference proceedings. He has also generated more than $4 million for research grants. He has served on a technical advisory committee for the governor of Arkansas and his input led to the passage of a bill mandating that state and federal buildings in Arkansas be designed to withstand earthquake forces. He received the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Federal Emergency Management Association in 1990; and, in 2003, his work on modeling the forces of tornadoes on buildings was featured in The Washington Post. Selvam received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of Madras in Tamil Nadu, India. He then received a master’s degree in civil engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and a doctoral degree from Texas Tech University.

Ashok Saxena, dean of the College of Engineering, said: “I am pleased that we have the opportunity to recognize the contributions of the three nationally recognized faculty members and also provide them with flexible resources that they will use to develop new ideas that equal or even surpass the value of their previous contributions. I am equally pleased that we will be permanently etching the names of three friends of the college and the university, Charles Morgan, James Womble and John Imhoff, on the walls of the college.”

The Charles Morgan/Acxiom Graduate Research Chair in Database and the James T. Womble Professorship in Computational Mechanics and Nanotechnology Modeling were endowed during the 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. The John L. Imhoff Chair in Industrial Engineering was established prior to the Campaign.