An influential teacher and eight alumni were honored for their professional and philanthropic accomplishments at the 11th Annual MSU College of Engineering Alumni Awards Banquet on May 3 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center.
Receiving the Claud R. Erickson Distinguished Alumni Award was Brian Kent of Dayton, Ohio, acting chief technology officer of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The Erickson Award is the highest honor conferred by the MSU College of Engineering.
First awarded to its namesake, Claud Erikson in 1982, the award is given to an alumnus with at least 15 years of professional experience who has attained the highest level of professional accomplishment, provided distinguished and meritorious service to the college and the engineering profession and has engaged in voluntary service at the local, state, national or international level.
Seven other alumni received departmental honors.
Eric Seger of Birmingham, a principal at Integrated Capital Management and a Certified Financial Planner™, received the Applied Engineering Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award.
Cassaundra Edwards of Omaha, Neb., a research and development manager at ConAgra Foods, received the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award.
Dave Lamp of Dallas, Texas, and Phoenix, Ariz., chief executive officer and president of Northern Tier Energy, received the Red Cedar Circle Award in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.
Kin Keung Lai of Hong Kong, a chair professor of management science at City University of Hong Kong, received the Civil and Environmental Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award.
Doug Zongker of Mountain View, Calif., a senior staff software engineer at Google, received the Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award.
Fred Killeen of Rochester Hills, global chief technology officer for General Motors Information Technology, received the John D. Ryder Electrical and Computer Engineering Alumni Award.
William Resh of East Lansing, senior manager for the Chrysler Powertrain Virtual Analysis Department, received the Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award.
The Green Apple Teaching Award was presented to Lewis Martin (Marty) Caves, a teacher at South Lyon High School in South Lyon. This award was established in 2006 to honor K-12 teachers who have inspired MSU College of Engineering students to study math, science and engineering.
The award is selected from nominations submitted by members of the College of Engineering senior class each year. Caves’ nomination was submitted by his former student Nicholas Evans, who graduated from MSU on May 3 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.