Three MIT faculty members and 11 alumni have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). They are among the 78 new members and eight foreign associates named to the academy.
Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made "important contributions to engineering theory and practice, including significant contributions to the literature of engineering theory and practice" and those who have demonstrated "unusual accomplishment in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology."
New members from the MIT faculty are:
Professor of Naval Architecture Justin E. Kerwin, recognized "for research and development of computational methods used in propeller design and in the prediction of sailing yacht performance."
Professor of Aerospace Information Systems Nancy G. Leveson, "for contributions to software safety."
Gerald J. Sussman, the Matsushita Professor of Electrical Engineering, "for applications of artificial intelligence and for computer science education."
MIT alumni newly elected to the NAE are Clyde N. Baker Jr. (SB 1952 and SM 1954, civil engineering); Pablo G. Debenedetti (SM 1981 and PhD 1985, chemical engineering); Millard S. Firebaugh (SB 1961 in physics, NE 1966 in naval construction and marine engineering, SM 1966 in electrical engineering and computer science, ScD 1972 in ocean engineering); John P. Holdren (SB 1965 and SM 1966, aeronautics and astronautics); Frederick J. Leonberger (SM 1971, EE 1972, PhD 1975, all in EECS); Peter F. Moulton (SM 1971, PhD 1975 in EECS); Donald R. Olander (ScD 1958 in chemical engineering); Henry H. Rachford Jr. (ScD in chemical engineering, 1950); Alan M. Voorhees (MCP 1949); John J. Wetzel II (SM 1973, Sloan Fellows program); and Dennis F. Wilkie (SM 1980, Sloan Fellows program).
Luis Esteva Maraboto of the National University of Mexico (SM 1959, civil engineering) was elected as an NAE foreign associate.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 1, 2000.