College Applauds Esteemed Alumni

September 14th, 2011

The Ohio State College of Engineering honored an elite group of alumni at this year’s Excellence in Engineering & Architecture Alumni Awards ceremony.

Monte Ahuja is the 2011 recipient of the the Benjamin G. Lamme Meritorious Achievement Medal, the college’s highest honor. Ahuja is chairman and CEO of MURA Holdings LLC and chairman of the board of directors for University Hospital System of Cleveland and a board member for BioEnterprise Corp. Ahuja received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1970 from Ohio State.

Jackie Marshall DiMarco, Ford Motor Co.’s chief engineer of the F-150, Expedition and Navigator, received The Texnikoi Outstanding Achievement Award, one of the college’s premier awards. A two-time Ohio State alumna, DiMarco earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1995 and a master of science degree in the same discipline in 1996. While attending Ohio State, she was active in student vehicle projects through the Center for Automotive Research (CAR).

“As an undergraduate student, I did not really have a concept of what I was going to do with my degree,” DiMarco said. “My adviser told me about the student project teams at CAR and I got involved with the Formula Lightning team. In that process, I found what I was really passionate about, and that was the automotive industry.”

Robert J. Shaw of Cleveland received the Meritorious Service Citation for his support of the college as chair of the aerospace engineering department’s advisory board. He has also participated in task forces charged with examining and enhancing the role of aerospace engineering and education at Ohio State. Shaw is the chief of the Business Development and Partnership Office at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Glenn Research Center. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Ohio State in 1970 and 1979.

David B. Williams, dean of the College of Engineering, presented the awards at the ceremony Friday, Sept. 9.

“It is wonderful to see so many present and past distinguished alumni in the audience to share in this special annual celebration,” Williams said. “You are all very important to our future as we strive to be the premier engineering college in the nation and continue to educate ‘true winners’ in our field.”

Recipients of this year’s Distinguished Alumni Awards are:

• Gregory B. Comfort, B.S. 1978, civil engineering, who is president of EMH&T in Columbus, Oh. Comfort has worked for EMH&T for nearly 30 years. During that time, he was the critical force in growing the firm’s site development services through Ohio as well as expanding into Indiana, North Carolina and Georgia.
• Brian P. Kinzelman, B.S. 1977, landscape architecture, is president and founding principal of Kinzelman Kline Grossman in Columbus, Ohio. Kinzelman serves as adjunct faculty in the landscape architecture program at the Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State and also serves on the board of directors for the Neighborhood Design Center in Columbus.
• Bob Loversidge, B.S. 1974 and M.A. 1976, architecture, is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and president and CEO of Schooley Caldwell Associates in Columbus. He is also founder, past president and honorary trustee of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation; past chairman of the advisory group of the National Historic Resources Committee of the AIA; and past president of the Ohio Preservation Alliance.
• Steve May, M.S. 1992 and Ph.D. 1998, computer and information science, is chief technology officer at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. May has worked on films such as “Toy Story 2”; “Monsters, Inc.”; “Finding Nemo”; “Cars”; and “Up.” • Jeff Rittichier, B.S. 1982, mechanical engineering, is president and CEO of NanoStatics Corp. and is a member of the company’s board of directors. He has been instrumental in the deployment of the company’s “Fiber on Demand” technology and business model.
• Surendra Saboo, M.S. 1984 and Ph.D. 1986, industrial systems engineering, is president and CEO at Neutral Tandem, a provider of global interconnection services. Saboo has also held positions at Comcast, Teledigm and AT&T.
• Christina Sistrunk, B.S. 1982, chemical engineering, is vice president of producing assets, deepwater, Gulf of Mexico, for Shell Oil Co. Her most recent position was in the Netherlands as the asset integrity program manager, where she led a global effort to improve process safety across Shell’s upstream business.
• Richard Treharne, B.S. 1972, metallurgical engineering, is vice president, clinical research and regulatory/quality affairs for Active Implants Corp., a startup orthopaedic device company. Treharne is also a recognized expert on global regulatory matters, medical device research and clinical study process management.
• Lucia Tsaoussi, M.S. 1984 and Ph.D. 1989, geodetic science, is deputy associate director for earth science research at NASA Headquarters. Her main duties are planning, implementing and managing a broad-based research program that contributes to an improved understanding of the Earth’s fully coupled physical, chemical and biological climate system, its interactions and predictability through the multidisciplinary exploitation of space-based, airborne and ground observations, numerical modeling and climate impact assessment studies.
• Marvin White, Ph.D. 1969, electrical engineering, is a professor in Ohio State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Previously, White worked at Westinghouse Space and Defense Center as advisory engineer, and he was the Sherman Fairchild Professor of Electrical Engineering at Lehigh University. He is also the Electron Devices Society’s distinguished national lecturer and vice president of awards.
• Duran N. Yetkinler, M.S. 1991 and Ph.D. 1994, biomedical engineering, is the president of Skeletal Kinetics LLC, a Colson Associate Co. and a leading provider of calcium phosphate-based implants used in orthopaedic fracture repair and reconstruction. Yetkinler is also a faculty member for the San Jose State University biomedical engineering graduate program and is an advisory board member for Ohio State’s biomedical engineering program.