2021 Alumni Hall of Fame
Built upon their common educational foundation at NC State University, The MAE Alumni Hall of Fame was established in 2012 to inspire our current students, and to celebrate the accomplishments of our extraordinary graduates who have used their education to excel in a profession, career or service. This nomination is based on professional and service achievement, entrepreneurship and contributions to professional societies, making this a truly noteworthy distinction.
With over 12,000 MAE alumni, only 150+, including this year’s class, have been inducted into the MAE Hall of Fame. The MAE Department is honored to celebrate this prestigious ceremony with the 2021 class.
“Nobody is bothered more about an institution more than its alumni.” – N. R. Narayana Murthy
Dr. Chris Roy received an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University in 1992, a masters in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M in 1994, and a doctorate in Aerospace Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1998. After spending 5 years as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he moved to academia and is currently a full professor in the Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech. In July of 2006, Dr. Roy was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for his work on verification and validation in computational science and engineering. Dr. Roy has authored or co-authored over 200 books, book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers in the areas of computational fluid dynamics, verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification. He is the co-author of the book Verification and Validation in Scientific Computing published by Cambridge University Press in 2010.
Dr. David B. Hash received a Bachelor of Science in 1990, a Master of Science in 1992, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University. During his graduate studies he worked as an engineering assistant in the Aerothermodynamics Branch at NASA Langley Research Center for five summers supporting such activities as the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) program, the Fourth European High-Velocity Database Workshop, and the AGARD Fluid Dynamics Panel Working Group 18. In 1995, he worked as a National Science Foundation Fellow in Japan with Dr. Katsuhisa Koura at the National Aerospace Laboratory in Tokyo conducting research with the statistical inelastic cross-section (SICS) model for Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) applications. He began his tenure at NASA Ames upon completion of his graduate work as a National Research Council Associate with the Center for Nanotechnology. In 1997, Dr. Hash joined ELORET Corporation as a contractor at NASA Ames focusing of DSMC and CFD simulations of plasma reactors for carbon nanotube growth. He became a civil servant in 2001 and continued his work on characterization of the effect of plasma on heating the growth substrate in plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of carbon nanotubes. In 2005, Dr. Hash left the Center for Nanotechnology and joined the Reacting Flow Environments Branch. He acted as the Orion Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) Advanced Development Project Analysis of Alternatives for Orion TPS Risk Mitigation Lead which laid the groundwork for the TPS and aerothermal objectives development of the first Exploration Flight Test and a new combined convective/radiative heating capability of the Ames Arc Jet Complex. In 2008, he became the deputy chief of the Reacting Flow Environments Branch which was then reorganized as the Aerothermodynamics Branch in 2009. In 2011, he became the acting chief and then permanently took the position in 2012. From September 2012 to September 2013, Dr. Hash served NASA Headquarters as a detailee to the Space Technology Mission Directorate to support its Space Technology Research Grants Program. Upon returning to Ames, he continued to serve as the chief of Aerothermodynamics but took on the additional responsibility as the acting chief of the Thermal Protection Materials Branch from May 2016 to July 2017. In May 2018, he became the acting Chief of the Entry Systems and Technology Division and then took the position permanently at the end of October 2018.
Dr. Hash has authored 37 conference papers and 22 peer-reviewed publications and is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a National Science Foundation Fellow and a National Research Council Fellow. He received a 2007 NASA Ames Honor Award for Mentorship, a 2007 Orion Crew Module Office Sustained Technical Achievement Recognition (STAR) Award, and a 2012 NASA Exceptional Service Medal. Under his leadership, the Aerothermodynamics Branch at Ames was awarded the 2007 NASA Software of the Year Award for DPLR and the 2015 NASA Software of the Year Award for NEQAIR.
Dr. Dick Keltie is a Professor Emeritus recently retired from the NCSU MAE Department. After receiving his PhD in 1978 he joined the Senior Professional Staff of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. There, he initiated a variety of studies regarding signal detection and analysis algorithms for use in submarine sonar data processing. In 1981 he returned to the MAE Department as an Assistant Professor. His research activities included the vibro-acoustic response of submerged shells, structural acoustics, energy propagation in large structures, and the transient response of complex mechanical systems. He was promoted to Full Professor in 1991. He was active in ASME, including serving as Associate Editor of the Journal of Vibrations and Acoustics for 10 years. He was named a Fellow of the ASME in 2003. In addition to his faculty responsibilities, he was also active in various administrative roles. At the departmental level these included serving as Director of the Center for Sound and Vibration and as Associate Department Head. He also served for 10 years at the college level where he was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs. He returned to his faculty role in 2013 until completion of the phased retirement program in 2020. He was recently named as the second recipient of the College of Engineering Faculty Distinguished Service Award.
Robbie Isaac is a mechanical engineer with 27 years of experience in the power industry. She graduated from N.C. State and accepted a position with Duke Power Company. She was involved in planning, executing and project management of capital and outage projects at fossil fuel and nuclear plants. She decided to change directions from project management and moved to design engineering. She worked at Duke/Fluor Daniel, Shaw, Fluor, CB&I and McDermott designing systems for coal and gas fired power plants. She recently began working at Haskell providing engineering and consulting services for industrial and healthcare clients. Robbie is a licensed professional engineer in North Carolina and South Carolina. She is a member of the NCSU MAE Undergraduate Advisory Board. She volunteers with Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation supporting fundraising events for childhood cancer research. Robbie has one daughter, Marnie.
Dr. Antonia Arnold-McFarland is a community advocate and full-time technical professional. Toni is an author, lecturer and scholar in music and arts of the African American Worship Experience. She is originally from Spartanburg, SC where she was raised by educators, along with her two siblings.
Toni received a B.S in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in African American Studies (1996) from N. C. State University, Raleigh, NC while already working full time as a manufacturing engineer. She earned an MBA in Global Management from the University of Phoenix Raleigh Campus (2007). Her engineering experience, project work and successful exam performance earned her the Six Sigma Black Belt Certification (American Society for Quality, 2008).
She received her Doctor of Ministry in Creative Arts from the Graduate Theological Foundation of Mishawaka, IN (2016). Toni has worked full time for Deere and Company since 1998. She is now an Analytics Lead / Sr Quality Engineer in Factory Engineering at John Deere Turf Care in Fuquay-Varina, NC. This role is a result of the newly launched Smart Industrial Operating Model.
Prior to this role, she worked eight years as a Master Process Pro/Six Sigma Master Black Belt at the divisional and corporate levels. She has over 20 years of experience at Deere in various technical roles, including three years of technical troubleshooting for dealer technicians as a product support specialist, manufacturing engineering for six years, supply management for three years, and the remainder in strategic quality (six sigma) and analytics. While in college, she gained engineering experience as an intern with United Technologies, Pratt and Whitney. She worked on the problem history file and in the Controls Group for military fighter jet engines. Toni worked for Nucor Steel from 1996 – 1998 as a facilities and manufacturing engineer full time prior to and after college graduation. Some of her awards and recognitions include: John Deere Collaboration Award (NSBE 2020), John Deere Collaboration Award (NC Inspire Team 2021), RTP NSBE Professional Chapter of the Year 2020 (top ranked out of 85), Region 2 NSBE Professional Chapter of the Year and NSBE JR Chapter of the Year 2021.
After completing his graduate program in mechanical engineering with a special emphasis in acoustics, Dennis Driscoll joined Standard Oil Company of Indiana (a.k.a. Amoco Corporation), which was subsequently acquired by British Petroleum (BP). From 1980-1988 Mr. Driscoll was the Noise Control Engineering Coordinator and managed the corporation’s Hearing Conservation Program. Mr. Driscoll left BP in July 1988 becoming a consultant in acoustical engineering. He founded Associates in Acoustics, Inc. (AIA) serving as company President and Principal Consultant for 31 years. Mr. Driscoll sold AIA and retired from engineering practice 2019.
For 30 years Mr. Driscoll board certified in Noise Control Engineering and was a registered Professional Engineer. During his career Mr. Driscoll took an active role in professional society leadership, standards, and accreditation activities. He was President of the National Hearing Conservation Association, Chair of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) Noise Committee and served a 5-year term as a Board Member of the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation. Mr. Driscoll also spent 20 years as a voting member of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Committees S1 on Acoustics, S2 on Mechanical Vibration and Shock, S3 on Bioacoustics, and S12 on Noise.
Noteworthy Activities:
- >800 noise control engineering and/or noise exposure survey reports written for industrial clients.
- >350 noise control engineering, hearing conservation, and community noise seminars presented at professional association conferences and client locations.
- 67 conference platform presentations, not including workshops or seminars.
- 20 peer-reviewed articles and lay-media interviews on noise-related issues.
- 9 textbook chapters.
- Finally, Mr. Driscoll’s professional career has taken him to all 50 states and 31 countries on 6 continents for noise control engineering and/or hearing conservation services.
Dr. Worth Longest earned BS (1996; valedictorian), MS (1999), and PhD (2002) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from NC State. His PhD research was in computational biofluid mechanics under the direction of Dr. Clement Kleinstreuer. He then completed postdoctoral projects at both NC State and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Exposure Research Lab in the areas of aerosol physics and the respiratory dosimetry of inhaled gases and particles. Dr. Longest is currently a full professor in the Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Department at Virginia Commonwealth University where he holds the Harris Exceptional Scholar Professorship and has a joint appointment in the VCU Department of Pharmaceutics. Dr. Longest directs the Aerosols in Medicine (AIM) Lab, which focuses on improving the treatment of respiratory diseases and conditions. His current research at VCU centers on (i) developing innovative new strategies and devices that significantly improve the delivery and targeting of medical aerosols and (ii) developing numerical and realistic in vitro models to assess and improve respiratory drug delivery. His work is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Applications of his group’s work include developing methods to better target pharmaceutical aerosol delivery to the small airways, developing pharmaceutical-engineering solutions to reduce the cost of inhaled medications, and developing strategies and devices for improved medical aerosol delivery to infants and children.
Elliott received his M.S. in Acoustical Engineering from North Carolina State University as a student in the Center for Acoustical Studies. He began work at the E-A-R Division of Cabot Corporation in the role of Manager of Acoustical Engineering, where he was integral in the development and promotion of the E-A-R™ Classic™ yellow foam earplugs. He worked in that and similar roles for over 40 years as E-A-R grew, was purchased, and eventually was acquired by 3M. He retired from 3M as a Division Scientist in 2018 to establish Berger Acoustical Consulting, LLC. During his career, he studied hearing protection, hearing conservation, and related topics, and authored 20 textbook chapters and over 75 published articles, many in peer-reviewed journals. He chairs the ANSI working group on hearing protector attenuation, served on a National Academy of Science committee on hearing loss in the military, is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Past President of the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA), Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association and Past-Chair of its Noise Committee, a past Board Member of the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation, a recipient of NHCA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and was recognized at ASA’s 2020 conference with a tribute session honoring his career. He collaborated with Professor Larry Royster of NC State in areas of mutual research throughout his career, and supported the NC Chapter of the ASA by participating in presentations at six of their meetings. Among his favorite sounds is the silvery flutter of the leaves of a stand of river birch tickled by a cool evening breeze.
Mr. Jeff Mobley has more than 28 years of experience encompassing design engineering, project management, and engineering management. He has expertise in program planning; technical management; electro-mechanical design; product design and analysis; and failure investigation.
Since joining Sierra Space in 2004, Mr. Mobley has served as a mechanical design engineer responsible for overseeing the technical aspects of numerous aerospace projects through initial proposal, quotation, development, design, procurement, production, and testing. He is Sierra Space’s resident subject matter expert for gear design and analysis. He also serves on the technical advisory board of the American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) Aerospace Gearing Committee.
While serving in engineering management since 2011, Mr. Mobley has been instrumental in growing and developing the Sierra Space engineering team in Durham and has played a major role in developing design guidelines and engineering processes for Sierra Space.
Mr. Mobley’s projects are very extensive and include mechanisms in support of space programs such as Mars Perseverance Rover, Mars Curiosity Rover, Global Precipitation Measurement, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Solar Dynamics Observatory, Mars Phoenix Lander, commercial satellites, and various key electro-mechanical components for the SNC Dream Chaser™ vehicle. These custom designed products perform functions such as antenna pointing, solar array deployment/positioning, robotic arm articulation, flight surface control, wing folding/locking, camera pointing, and descent braking.
Mr. Mobley researched, tested and authored the Lightweight Gearbox Phase II SBIR report, which has become essential reading for JPL Mechanical Engineers. Jeff has also authored and presented multiple technical papers for the Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium. He holds a U.S. Patent, #6667564 “Mechanically-Commutated DC Motor” (co-author).
Dr. Ralph Nelson graduated from North Carolina State University with a PhD in 1970. He was the first student to receive a PhD as a student of Dr. Larry Royster, working on underwater transducer research. After his first couple of jobs, he changed emphasis out of acoustics and spent 36 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory involved in heat transfer and advanced modeling. He has a multitude of published papers.
Dr. Nelson’s professional interests center around the complex interaction of coupled nonlinear phenomena including the interaction of sound with structures, the study of multiphase flow through and around heated structures, and infrastructure systems. He has received numerous awards, including the 2013 ASME Heat Transfer Division 75th Anniversary Medal, 1998, 2002, and two 2004 LANL Dedicated Performance Awards, 1998 Elected Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1993 Executive Science and Technology Council Publication Prize, and the 1992 National Heat Transfer Conference Best Paper.
Posthumous Inductees
Larry Herbert Royster was a dedicated scientist and educator with a rare ability to meld theoretical analysis with practical applications. He began his teaching career as a high school physics instructor while still an undergraduate at NCSU. After working in the aeronautical industry, Larry returned to NCSU to earn his PhD in Engineering Mechanics by modeling underwater acoustic transducers. He then joined the faculty of the MAE department until retiring in 2001. Larry loved teaching as well as stimulating students to solve real-world problems. MAE students recognized his rigor and fairness by giving him the Purple Shaft award not once but five times. His graduate courses in noise and vibration control and the effects of noise on mankind attracted students from other departments and other universities. Larry demonstrated his commitment to education by helping students achieve their goals and by establishing a scholarship fund through the Acoustical Society of America.
He assisted the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in developing noise and hearing conservation regulations, the NC Department of Labor with noise and vibration regulations and enforcement policies, conducted inspector training and instrument calibration, and became the first chair of the NC OSHA Advisory Council. Due to his expertise, Larry was invited by entities in Sweden, China, and Switzerland to visit their countries to advise and educate their personnel. He also did pro bono work in community noise abatement.
Larry was a leader in several professional societies including founding the North Carolina Regional Chapter of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), chairing the noise committee of national ASA, and was active in numerous ANSI standards working groups. ASA recognized his research publications and society contributions by naming him a Fellow and awarding him the Silver Medal in Noise. He chaired the noise committee of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), was an editor and chapter author for two editions of AIHA’s Noise Manual, and received AIHA’s Borden Award. He was recognized by the National Hearing Conservation Association with their Outstanding Hearing Conservationist Award. Larry’s innate curiosity and analytical talent permeated his personal life as well as his professional endeavors and made the world a better place.
Born and raised in Turkey, Tuncer Cebeci graduated from Robert College, Turkey, with B.S. degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering. He came to North Carolina, where he received an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Duke University. After receiving his doctorate in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State in 1964, Tuncer and his family moved west to Long Beach, where Tuncer joined Douglas Aircraft Company as a research scientist. He was promoted to head of the aerodynamics research department in 1974 and eventually became the company’s first senior fellow in 1982.
Tuncer received the prestigious Fluid and Plasma Dynamics Award from the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in 1984. He also became the first distinguished professor in the mechanical engineering department of California State University, Long Beach in 1977, received the distinguished alumni award from North Carolina State in1987, and the Presidential Science Award from the president of Turkey in 1988. In 1993, Tuncer received the Aerodynamics Award from the AIAA, and from McDonnell Douglas, the Distinguished Fellow Award (the company’s highest technical award). In 1998, Tuncer founded the aerospace engineering department at California State University, Long Beach, and became the chairman of the department. In addition to all of his professional accomplishments, Tuncer was a prolific writer, authoring 20 books and publishing over 300 technical journal articles.