College Names New Department Chairs
New ECE Chariman
Dr. Ian Ferguson has been named the new chairman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in the Lee College of Engineering. He will begin his new position in August 2009.
Dr. Ferguson has most recently been a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also brings valuable administrative experience to UNC Charlotte as a former Research Development Director at EMCORE Corporation.
Dr. Ferguson is a leading scholar in the area of wide bandgap materials and devices. His work on GaN and ZnO materials has applications in nanotechnology and energy production, and he has had very significant funding in illumination, solar, spintronic, and nuclear detection. He is particularly well-known in the area of solid-state lighting and he has done pioneering work on solar cell technology.
He is author of more than 140 journal articles and many more conference and proceeding papers. In the past five years, he has supervised and graduated 15 M.S. and Ph.D. students, and he is currently supervising 10 graduate students. Dr. Ferguson is a Fellow of the SPIE.
New Mechanical Engineering Chair
Dr. Kevin Scott Smith has been named the new chairman of the Lee College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science.
Dr. Smith has had a very productive research and teaching career at both UNC Charlotte and the University of Florida. He joined UNC Charlotte in 1997 from the University of Florida, where he served as Associate Director of the Machine Tool Research Center.
He holds the rank of Fellow in the ASME, SME and CIRP (International Academy for Production Engineering Research). He is also Chairman of the CIRP Scientific and Technical Committee on Machines and is President of the North American Manufacturing Research Institute (NAMRI).
Dr. Smith has published extensively and received both the Charles F. Carter Advancing Manufacturing Award and the Pinckney Award. He is very well known for his research on machine tool dynamics and advanced machining. His impressive record as an educator garnered him the SAE Ralph R. Teetor Award for outstanding engineering education. Dr. Smith has also demonstrated considerable entrepreneurial spirit and leadership skill as president and founder of OpSource, Inc. and vice president and founder of Manufacturing Laboratories Inc.