Professor Michael G. Pecht Named First George E. Dieter Professor of ME

Dr. Pecht received his B.S. in Acoustics, M.S. in Electrical Engineering, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is a Professional Engineer, an IEEE Fellow, and an ASME Fellow.

Michael G. Pecht was named the first George E. Dieter Professor of Mechanical Engineering in a reception held earlier this month. This endowed professorial chair was established in the year 2000 to honor George E. Dieter's outstanding leadership as Dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering from 1977-1994. Dr. Pecht, a professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the CALCE Electronic Products and Systems Center, began his tenure with the University of Maryland in 1983.

He has written eleven books on electronics products development and five books on the electronics industry in Southeast Asia. He served as chief editor of the IEEE Transactions on Reliability for eight years and on the advisory board of IEEE Spectrum. He is currently the chief editor for Microelectronics Reliability International. He also serves as a consultant for various companies by providing expertise in strategic planning, design, test and risk assessment of electronics products and systems.

Professor Pecht is a leader in the international electronic products development community. He established the Computer Aided Life Cycle Engineering of Electronic Products and Systems Center (CALCE EPSC) on the University of Maryland campus. Today, CALCE EPSC is recognized as a world-class research organization and is sponsored by over 100 companies from all sectors of the electronics industry. It is an exemplary showcase where students, faculty and industry work cooperatively on problems of industrial relevance in order to enhance industrial use of scientific methodologies in electronic product development and problem resolution, to prepare students for industry, and to keep faculty and industry abreast and involved with current developments.

George E. Dieter is a graduate of Drexel University, B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering, 1950, and Carnegie Mellon University, Sc.D, 1953. After military service at the U.S. Army Ballistics Research Laboratory, he joined the DuPont Company in their Engineering Research Laboratory at Wilmington, Delaware, where he was research supervisor of physical metallurgy from 1955 to 1962. He returned to Drexel as head of the Metallurgical Engineering Department and later, Dean of Engineering. In 1973, he joined Carnegie Mellon as Director of the Processing Research Institute, before coming to the University of Maryland as Dean of Engineering in 1977. He served in that position until retiring in 1994. Currently, he is Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering and Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering.

Professor Dieter is known for his pioneering texts in two areas at the interface between materials and mechanical engineering. Mechanical Metallurgy, first published in 1961, essentially defined this field, and Engineering Design: A Materials and Processing Approach, was the first published text in this field; both are now in 3rd editions. He has been chair of the Engineering Deans Council of ASEE, and was national president of ASEE in 1994. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1993.

Published May 15, 2001