Two Yale professors are among 74 new members elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional distinctions that can be accorded an engineer in the United States.
The two professors are A. Stephen Morse, professor of electrical engineering and computer science and Thomas Graedel, the Clifton R. Musser professor of Industrial Ecology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES) and professor of chemical engineering and geophysics. Morse was elected for “contributions to geometric control theory, adaptive control and the stability of hybrid systems.” and Graedel was elected for his “outstanding contributions to the engineering theory and practice of industrial ecology, particularly for improved methods of life-cycle analysis.”
Both professors will be inducted at the National Academy of Engineering’s annual meeting on October 6. Academy membership honors those who have made important contributions to engineering theory and practice and who have demonstrated unusual accomplishment in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology.
“Professors Graedel and Morse bring the total number of Yale members of the National Academy of Engineering to five,” said Paul Fleury, dean of Yale’s faculty of Engineering. “This recognition of their leadership in their respective fields in highly appropriate and very well deserved. We are particularly pleased that their elections coincide with the 150th anniversary of Yale engineering. Though their areas of research differ significantly, both have made advances of direct benefit to society well beyond the confines of the engineering profession.”
Graedel was a member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell laboratories for 27 years before joining the Yale faculty in 1997 as the country’s first professor of industrial ecology at F&ES. Trained in chemical engineering, physics and astronomy, he has made major contributions to the fields of atmospheric composition and global change, atmospheric chemistry, and the effects of the atmosphere on materials. He has authored or co-authored 11 books and over 250 technical papers in scientific journals on topics such as industrial ecology and atmospheric chemistry. He has served on many prestigious national committees such as the National Science Foundation and the National Research Council. He was recently appointed by the Yale administration to chair the university’s new Advisory Committee on Environmental Management, essentially a first step toward the “greening” of Yale.
“Professor Graedel is a prolific researcher and writer, and has been centrally involved in the establishment of F&ES as one of the world’s foremost centers for industrial ecology,” said F&ES Dean James Gustave Speth.
Morse is an expert in control theory and design. He joined the Yale faculty in 1970 following three years of research assignments with NASA. He has authored over 150 technical papers and has served on several professional society committees and editorial boards. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the 1999 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Technical Field Award for Control Systems. This award is the most prestigious form of recognition one can receive worldwide for research contributions to the field of automatic control.
“Steve Morse has been a leading figure in the field of control theory for over three decades,” said Fleury, “The entire field of geometric control systems stems to a large degree from his seminal papers of the 1970s and he has been leading the way ever since.”
