Adrian Bejan, an ASME Fellow, received an honorary doctorate from the Azerbaijan Technical University in Baku. He is the J.A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University. Bejan has received several ASME awards, including the W. Reed Warner Medal in 1996, the Heat Transfer Award in 1994, the James H. Potter Gold Medal in 1990, and the G.L. Larson Memorial Award in 1998. He has been a member since 1973.

Sushil K. Chaturvedi was named the Virginia Outstanding Engineering Educator of the Year 2000 and received the accompanying 2000 Pletta Award. ASME's Central Virginia Section, the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers and three other professional engineering societies sponsor the award. It recognizes a Virginia engineering educator who has exhibited outstanding teaching and public service. Chaturvedi, who has earned numerous teaching honors, considers it his personal responsibility to educate his students so that they become outstanding engineers. His innovations include videotaped "help sessions" for his thermodynamic classes, engineering classes broadcast via satellite, creative technological contributions to NASA, and internationally recognized research in solar energy. Chaturvedi has been a member of ASME since 1990.

Joe R. Fowler, P.E., became the new president of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) during the group's board of directors meeting in Atlanta in October. Fowler, an ASME Fellow, is president of Stress Engineering Services in Houston. He has served as board representative to the executive committee and represented ASME on the ABET board of directors since 1994. Fowler has also served as chair of the Educational Policy Committee and a member of ABET's Executive Review Committee and the Industry Advisory Council. He has been an ASME program evaluator since 1984 and was a member of ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission from 1989 to 1994. Fowler, a former division chair of ASME's Petroleum Division, has been an ASME member since 1968. He received the ASME Dedicated Service Award in 1994.

ASME Honorary Member Yuan Cheng B. Fung, of the University of California, San Diego, was selected to receive the National Medal of Science for Engineering. Established by Congress in 1959 and administered by the National Science Foundation, the National Medal of Science honors individuals for contributions to the present state of knowledge across a variety of science frontiers. Including Fung, the medal has been awarded to 286 distinguished scientists and engineers. Fung's theory of aeroelasticity formed the defining ideas in how aerostructures interact with aerodynamic flows, an important contribution to aerospace engineering. Applying analytical methods of mechanics to the study of biological tissues, he contributed new concepts to the field of biomechanics in which engineering principles are used to solve important biomedical problems. Fung has been an ASME member since 1965.

ASME member Dean Kamen was selected to receive the National Medal of Technology. The National Medal of Technology, established by Congress in 1980 and administered by the Department of Commerce, recognizes technological innovation and advancement of the United States' global competitiveness, as well as groundbreaking contributions that commercialize a technology, create jobs, improve productivity, or stimulate the country's growth and development in other ways. Kamen, who is president of DEKA Research and Development Corp. and founder of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, was honored for inventions that have advanced medical care worldwide, and for innovative and imaginative leadership in awakening America to the excitement of science and technology. Kamen has been an ASME member since 1993.

ASME Past President Winfred M. Phillips received the 2000 Linton E. Grinter Distinguished Service Award during the annual meeting of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) in October. Phillips, an ASME Fellow, is vice president for research and the dean of the graduate school at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The award acknowledges his contributions to ABET and the engineering educational community. As the 1995-96 president of ABET, he championed the adoption of Engineering Criteria 2000, the major reform effort in engineering accreditation. He has been an effective proponent for ABET's involvement in international educational activities, serving as program evaluator and later as chair of ABET's International Activities Committee, and as an ABET representative on the board of directors of the United States Council for International Engineering Practice. Phillips, who was the 1998-99 president of ASME, has been an ASME member since 1994.

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