The National Science Foundation (NSF) has named Richard O. Buckius, Ph.D., as the new NSF assistant director for engineering. He will begin his two-year term on Sept. 15. Buckius, an ASME Fellow and member of ASME since 1972, is a professor of mechanical engineering and former head of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). For the past year, he has served as acting assistant director for engineering at NSF. Having gained an international reputation for leadership in the field of thermal sciences, Buckius has authored more than 80 journal articles and a textbook on thermodynamics. He has been active as both a mechanical engineering educator and editor for the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, the AIAA Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, Microscale Thermophysical Engineering, and Heat Transfer-Japanese Research. He also led NSF's Thermal Systems and Engineering Program and the Division of Chemical and Transport Systems from 2004-2005. Buckius received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Among his many awards and honors, he received the UIUC Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (now called the Luckman Award) in 1980, and won the 2006 ASME James Harry Potter Gold Medal in recognition of his achievement in the science of thermodynamics in mechanical engineering.

Scott Ernst was recently named director of fuel operations at NOCO Energy Corp. in Tonawanda, N.Y. Ernst will be responsible for the oversight of NOCO's bulk plant, terminal operations, and fleet fueling operations. Ernst has more than 12 years of experience in the management consultant, energy services, and engineering industries. He earned his master's in business administration from Temple University's Fox School of Business and Management and has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Ernst has been a member of ASME since 1995.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently appointed Robert F. Sawyer, Ph.D., P.E., as chair of the California Air Resources Board. As head of the board, Sawyer will provide leadership in motor vehicle emissions control and address global climate change emissions. An active member of the scientific and academic communities, Sawyer is Class of 1935 Professor of Energy Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where he conducted extensive research and taught air quality science, emissions control, energy conversion, fire safety, and rocket and jet propulsion since 1966. He is the author or co-author of more than 350 technical publications, including two books, "The Chemistry of Propellants" and "Combustion Sources of Air Pollution and Their Control." A life member of ASME, Sawyer is past president and director of The Combustion Institute. He received the ASME Soichiro Honda Medal in 2003, for his efforts to develop and apply scientific knowledge for the control of air pollution from mobile sources. Sawyer has been an ASME member since 1957.

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