Alumni News and Awards

Biography at time of award:

2012 – Thomas J. Murray (1967, B.S. Electrical Engineering) retired as an executive at Sargent & Lundy (1967-2007), a global consultant to the electric utility industry, as a member of their Corporate Executive Team, member of the Board of Directors, and an owner from 1993 to 2007. In his position, Mr. Murray was responsible for strategic planning, risk management, policy development, financial planning and annual budgeting, and broad corporate issues, including succession planning. He also served as Managing Director of the Power Delivery Services Group (PDS), one of three principal profit-loss centers of the company. Mr. Murray has extensive experience in all phases of project management, design, engineering and construction of substations and transmission lines. His experience includes domestic projects and international projects in many countries, where he traveled extensively worldwide. Mr. Murray has authored many technical publications. Tom is a member of the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers, the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, and the University Club of Chicago. Mr. Murray was past Chairman of the Board of the Special Olympics of Illinois and is currently Chair of the Nominating Committee. Mr. Murray resides in Lisle, Illinois.

Biography at time of award:

2011 - Laurie K. Landgraf (1982, B.S. Journalism; 1985, B.S., Electrical Engineering) is a Senior Counsel at The Boeing Company, focusing on intellectual property. Ms. Landgraf graduated with a B.S. in Journalism in 1982. She then went on to earn a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1985. Ms. Landgraf began working for then McDonnell Douglas as an electrical engineer; designing equipment used to test the avionics in the F/A-18 fighter jet. While working there as an electrical engineer, she enrolled in St. Louis University Law School in 1990 and received her J.D. in January 1995. She was offered and accepted an attorney position in the McDonnell Douglas Law Department in 1996. Boeing then acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997, where Ms. Landgraf currently provides legal advice to Boeing's Defense, Space and Security business unit in all areas of intellectual property. She advises on a broad range of matters involving contracts with the federal government, international customers and suppliers, contract terminations, mergers and acquisitions and patent, copyright and trade secret disputes. She is a member of the Intellectual Property Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of Public Contract Law.

Biography at time of award:

2010 - Suneel Kodambaka (1997, M.S. Mechanical Engineering) is an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to joining UCLA, he worked as post-doctoral researcher at the IBM - T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York, and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology -Madras, with a Bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering and also has a Doctor of Philosophy from UIUC in Materials Science and Engineering. Dr. Kodambaka's research is in the fabrication and in situ characterization of nanoscale structures. Dr. Kodambaka's research has been recognized by the AVS Paul Holloway Young Investigator award, the Best Paper award from the IBM Materials Research Community, the UIUC Ross J. Martin award for outstanding doctoral thesis in Engineering, the MRS Graduate Gold award, and the UIUC Ivan Racheff award for outstanding graduate research. Dr. Kodambaka resides in Los Angeles, California.

Biography at time of award:

2009 - M. Slade O'Keefe (1991, B.S., Civil Engineering) initially joined Abbott Contractors in Northbrook, Illinois, in September 1991 as a project estimator. He moved up within the company to become a project engineer and senior project estimator. In 1997 he moved to Bluff City Materials, Inc., a sand and gravel operation with locations in northern Illinois. He began with the company's aggregate mining and real estate development division where he rose to become the Engineering Manager in charge of engineering, planning and construction. In 2007, he was named the Vice President of Engineering and Construction for Bluff City Materials. Mr. O'Keefe holds a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Southern Illinois University. He also holds a Master's Degree in Project Management from Keller Graduate School of Management. Mr. O'Keefe resides in Naperville, Illinois.

Biography at time of award:

2008 – Necip Sayiner (1988, M.S. Electrical Engineering) is president and CEO of Silicon Laboratories in Austin, Texas. Dr. Sayiner earned his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from SIUC in 1988. He joined Silicon Laboratories in his current position in September 2005. Prior to that, Dr. Sayiner was vice president and general manager of the enterprise and networking IC division, and held several senior design management roles in the storage division. He also previously worked in research and development within Bell Laboratories. He is a senior member of the non-profit Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Dr. Sayiner holds several patents related to data detection schemes. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and physics from Bosphorus University in Turkey, and a doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Sayiner resides in Texas.

Biography at time of award:

2007 - Dan Korte (1985, B.S. Electrical Engineering) is vice president of Supplier Management and Procurement for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, based in St. Louis. He is responsible for all subcontract and procurement matters, including policymaking and implementation, subcontract oversight, and process improvement. Korte joined then McDonnell Douglas in 1984 as an electronics engineer and has more than 20 years of experience in Design and Systems Engineering, and Integrated Product Team leadership as well as Supplier Management and Procurement, and Program Management. He has completed the Boeing Executive Development Program. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1985 from Southern Illinois University, and holds a MBA from Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Mo. In addition, he is a 1999 graduate of the Strategic Thinking and Management for Competitive Advantage Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, Pa. Korte is past chairman of the Arts Commandos, a not-for-profit organization with more than 450 volunteers focused on supporting arts and cultural organizations in the St. Louis metropolitan area. He is also a board member of the United Way and St. Louis University's School of International Business.

Biography at time of award:

2006 - Howard Lo (1987, M.S. Engineering) is a software engineer and founder of Mastersoft Inc., a business process software company. Born in Hong Kong, China, Mr. Lo immigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of six. Today, Mastersoft serves companies such as Network Appliance, Symantec and Xilinx. Mr. Lo earned his Master of Science degree in Engineering at Southern Illinois University in 1987. At SIU, Howard applied his passion for computer software by completing research in composite material stress analysis using numerical methods. Prior to founding Mastersoft,Inc. Mr. Lo was employed by General Dynamics in Fort Worth (now Lockheed Martin) where he won the Extraordinary Achievement Award for creating a series of computer aircraft analysis technologies. In the early 1990's, Mr. Lo's innovations led to the development of "Webucator", an Internet-based training system for SGI's worldwide sales force. The application was developed in record time and proved vital in saving SGI millions of dollars in a major product launch. An experienced veteran of both aerospace and commercial emerging technologies, Mr. Lo applied his skills and passion when he founded Mastersoft in 1997. He also supports his community as a volunteer for charities and advises one of the Industrial Advisory Board's in the College of Engineering. Mr. Lo enjoys mountain biking, hiking, classical piano, architectural design and gourmet cooking. He resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Sutton received his B.S and M.S. degrees in Engineering Mechanics and Materials at Southern Illinois University. After four years in industry, he joined the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at the University of Illinois under the guidance of Prof. Charles E. Taylor, receiving his Ph.D. in 1981. Dr. Sutton joined the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Carolina in 1982 and is currently a Carolina Distinguished Professor. Prof. Sutton, a past-president of the Society for Experimental Mechanics (2001-2002), has received numerous honors for his scientific contributions, including election to the grade of Fellow in both ASME and SEM, selection for an honorary doctorate by ENS-Cachan in Paris, France in 2011, designation as the 2012 recipient of the Governor’s Award for excellence in scientific research and selection for the Murray Medal and Lecture in 2013. Prof. Sutton has published 180+ archival articles, 8 book chapters and the only book on image correlation in solid mechanics in 2009. His work has been cited by 5500 investigators with an h-factor =38 (Google Scholar metrics) for his research contributions. His current areas of research are experimental and analytical fracture mechanics, applications of computer vision for high rate events and biomechanics. Prof. Sutton married Elizabeth Ann Severns (they met at SIU in 1972) in 1973 and they have two married daughters, Michelle Mary Katherine Sutton Spigner born at Carle Clinic in Urbana, IL in 1979 and Dr. Elizabeth Marie Rosalie Sutton Gosnell born in Columbia, SC in 1982. Their first two grandchildren, fraternal twins Mary Frances and Fletcher Robert Spigner, were born in 2011.