Engineers Honor Distinguished Alumni

The College of Engineering honored its top alumni Friday, April 20 with a banquet and reception at the Kingsgate Conference Center. The awardess were:

William E. Lower (Distinguished Alumni Service Award)
Lower received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1963 and his master's in 1965. His first position was as Chief Project Engineer at American Laundry Machinery, Inc. In 1968, Bill moved to Rotex, Inc., a leading manufacturer of industrial screen equipment that was founded in 1844. He moved steadily through the ranks at Rotex, holding the positions of Product Engineering Supervisor, Vice President, and President. He has been Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer since 1997.

Under Lower's leadership, Rotex has furthered its development as an international company. Rotex serves major industries such as food and chemical processing, agriculture, forest products, mining/mineral processing and primary metals. Its equipment, which is used in sizing granular materials, is now manufactured in England, Belgium, South Africa and Australia as well as in Cincinnati. Rotex is a past recipient of the Governor's Export Award for Ohio.

Lower is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma and an active supporter of UC. He serves on the boards of the UC Alumni Association, and of UCATS. He was honored with the University's Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1996. He has served as President of the Engineering Alumni Association and has been on Dean's Advisory Council since1994.

Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Awards

Michael J. Fister:
Fister received his B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from the College of Engineering in 1977 and 1978. He is currently the Vice President and General Manager of the Enterprise Platforms Group at the Intel Corporation. He leads the organization that develops, markets and supports building blocks for enterprise computing including the design of IA-32 and IA-64 processors, chipsets and platforms for workstations and servers. Prior to his current role, Fister was Vice President of the Microprocessor Products Group, and General Manager for the Performance Microprocessor Division. He was responsible for the design, development and marketing of IA-32 processors, including Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Celeron, Pentium II Xeon and Pentium III Xeon processors.

Prior to joining Intel, Fister held Executive and Engineering Management positions at Wyse, Machine Vision International and Cincinnati Milacron. In addition to work, Michael has been a key note speaker of Industrial Product introductions and computer shows in the United States, Europe, Middle East, and Asia. He also a member of the Board of Trustees at Harvy Mudd University and is recognized as an influential technical leader by the officers of the major computer manufacturers.

Jerry VanDierendonck:
VanDierendonck graduated from University of Cincinnati in 1966 with his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering. After graduation, he continued to work for his co-op company Avco Electronics before moving to Texas Instruments where he began work on a team to develop the first microprocessor. He also became one of a few individuals worldwide that could create programmable chips for calculators at Texas Instruments and several patents were awarded in his name. VanDierendonck has also worked for Litronics, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Monosil.

In 1982, VanDierendonck began his own custom integrated circuit business, JVD, Inc. He prides himself on never having to make a "cold call" to drum up business and the company monthly revenues now exceed $600,000 a month. JVD, Inc. produces more hearing aid circuits and grocery store shelf tags than any other company, as well as dominating the market in LED stock market signs. He has remained a strong supporter of UC over the years, establishing the Jerry VanDierendonck Scholarship and providing significant support to the 1st-5th Year Scholarship in Engineering.

Corbett D. Caudill:
Caudill is Vice President and General Manager for Engineering at GE Aircraft Engines. He directs the research, design, certification and in-service support of all engine programs for governmental, commercial and industrial customers. He joined GE in 1968 and has spent 32 years designing products and leading engineering teams to create the worlds number one aircraft engine product line.

A native of Kentucky, Caudill earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from UC and an MBA from Xavier University, as well as completing extensive graduate work in engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Corbett heads an engineering organization consisting of over 4,000 people. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the University Executive for GE at UC, and an advisory board member for the College of Engineering.

Dr. Joseph S. Alford Jr.:
Alford joined Eli Lilly and Co. in 1972 after earning a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Purdue, serving two years in the U.S. Navy as an Engineering Officer on an aircraft carrier, and then earning his master's and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from UC. During his 29-year career at Lilly, he has helped establish Lilly as the pharmaceutical industry leader in the automation of biological processes (e.g. fermentations) and is currently both the Senior Research Scientist and Senior Engineering Consultant.
He has successfully applied several advanced technologies to develop novel bioprocess control strategies which daily help optimize fermentations at Lilly manufacturing sites worldwide. He has earned several major awards, including Lilly's Career Engineering Excellence Award, and is widely recognized both within and outside Lilly for his pioneering work in these fields as well as in the areas of mathematical modeling, data analysis, spectrometry, computer systems validation, and for successfully applying artificial intelligence technologies to solving real-world problems. Alford is also actively involved in the administration of the national MathCounts competition.

Donald E. Sundgren:
Sundgren holds both a bachelor's and master's degree in civil engineering from the College of Engineering where he began his career in construction as a co-op student. He was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Dillingham Construction Holdings, Inc. in November 1998 and Chairman in January 1999. He has also served as President of Dillingham Construction International, Inc. and President of Watkins Engineers & Constructors, Inc.

Prior to Dillingham, his experience includes various project assignments with the J.A. Jones Construction Company, teaching positions at Purdue University and University of Cincinnati, and two years of active duty with the US Army Corps of Engineers in the United States and Europe. Sundgregn is a member of the Civil Engineering Honorary Fraternity, Chi Epsilon. He is involved with the Construction Industry Institute where is serves on the Education and Research Committees and also on the Board of Directors.

The Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award was established to honor those College of Engineering graduates whose professional accomplishments place them in the forefront of their respective technical fields. To be eligible, candidates must have graduated from the College of Engineering at least fifteen years before their nomination.