ASME NEWS
New Governors, Society Honor Announced
A roundup of recent Society events.
KOTB RECEIVES RALPH COATS ROE MEDAL
Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb, a Canadian mechanical and consulting engineer who served as ASME’s 132nd president, has been named the 2024 Ralph Coats Roe Medal recipient. The award, established in 1972, is one of the Society’s highest honors and recognizes outstanding contributions toward a better public understanding and appreciation of the engineer’s worth to contemporary society.
Past recipients include astronomer Carl Sagan, automobile executive Lee Iacocca, and Gwynne Shotwell, chief operating officer of SpaceX.
In an ASME interview that announced the news, Kotb explained that her father, also an engineer, was the driving force in her decision to pursue that line of work. Like him, Kotb understands that engineers “fix things” and “find solutions” to life’s challenges. With that mindset, Kotb became a driving force for Engineering for Change (E4C), a platform that empowers engineers to collaborate with other innovators to find solutions to global challenges and make a positive impact on communities worldwide.
Thomas Costabile, ASME executive director/CEO said E4C has become a pivotal hub for driving positive changes worldwide and “stands as a testament to Mediha Kotb’s visionary leadership and commitment to utilizing engineering for social good.”
Born in Giza, Egypt, Kotb is graduate of Concordia University in Montreal. She has worked at Régie du bâtiment du Quebec, where she eventually headed the Pressure Vessel Technical Services Division. Kotb has also served on the Canadian National Board of Boilers and Pressure Vessels Inspectors.
Ralph Coats Roe Medal recipient Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb was a driving force behind Engineering for Change.
FOUR PROMINENT ENGINEERS JOIN BOARD OF GOVERNORS
At its annual meeting, ASME’s Board of Governors (BOG) welcomed four new members: Nicole Kaufman Dyess, William P. King, Lester K. Su, and Janis P. Terpenny. Each is now eligible to serve a three-year term ending in 2027.
ASME members are tasked with picking those who serve on the BOG, which oversees the Society’s activities in accordance with its constitution, bylaws, and policies.
Also announced were this year’s governor nominees: Carlos Alberto Beatty Jr., Nelia Mazula, Parisa Saboori, and Scott Smith.
The following are the newest BOG members:
Nicole Kaufman Dyess currently works as a consultant. Her 24-year career includes strategic program management and product development leadership positions at for-profit, non-profit, and government organizations. Dyess earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University and a master’s in public administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An active ASME volunteer since her undergraduate studies, Dyess recently completed her service as ASME’s senior vice president for student and early career programs.
ASME Fellow William P. King is a professor and the Ralph A. Andersen Endowed Chair in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton and master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, all in mechanical engineering. His work focuses on advanced manufacturing, microsystems and nanotechnology, heat transfer, and materials. King is active in ASME’s Heat Transfer Division, Manufacturing Engineering Division, and Microelectromechanical Engineering Division.
Lester K. Su is a lecturer in the mechanical engineering department at Stanford University. His areas of expertise are experimental fluid mechanics, thermal sciences, and turbulent flows. Su earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Chicago and did his graduate work at the University of Michigan, where he earned a master’s in mathematics and engineering and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering. As an active volunteer with ASME for over 20 years, Su was the senior vice president of the Public Affairs and Outreach Sector and a member of the Philanthropy Committee.
ASME Fellow Janis P. Terpenny is a program director at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation, where she directs the Manufacturing Systems Integration program and works with other related programs focused on integrated digital environments for manufacturing and design. She is also a professor at George Mason University in systems engineering and operations research and in mechanical engineering. Her research focuses on smart integrated manufacturing systems, engineering design, and design education. She earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Virginia Commonwealth University and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in industrial and systems engineering from Virginia Tech. Terpenny has been actively involved with ASME for more than 20 years. She has chaired the Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Group and served on the Fellows Review Committee.
© 2024 The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.