Thomas D. Burton, former chair of the mechanical engineering department at Texas Tech University, has been named head of New Mexico State University's mechanical engineering department. He began his duties on June 1. Burton, a member-at-large of the ASME Mechanical Engineering Department Heads Committee, received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania. Burton spent eight years working as an aerospace engineer with GE's Missile and Space Division in Valley Forge, Pa., before joining the faculty of Washington State University in 1977. After 18 years at Washington State, he joined the faculty at Texas Tech University, where he served as head of the mechanical engineering department from July 1995 until August 2004. He has worked with researchers at the national laboratories to develop simplified structural dynamics simulation methods that could shorten design/analysis cycles for missiles and other types of aerospace structures. In his new position, Burton will be responsible for launching New Mexico State's new aerospace engineering program this fall. NMSU has received $275,000 from the state legislature to start the program, which will be the only one of its kind in New Mexico. Burton has been an ASME member since 1996.

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