November 8, 2005

2005 outstanding electrical and computer engineering alumni honored

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering recently honored six alumni with its 2005 Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award.

"Since 1992, just 141 alumni out of our more than 20,000 graduates have received this award," said Mark J.T. Smith, the Michael J. and Katherine R. Birck Professor and head of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "These alumni represent Purdue at its best – leaders whose personal achievements within the engineering field demonstrate the immense impact of a Purdue education."

This year's award recipients are:

• William W. Canfield of Kirkwood, Mo., who received a bachelor's degree from Purdue in 1961. He is president and CEO of TALX Corp., an application service company based in St. Louis that provides human resource and employee self-service solutions. He also serves on the board of The Magic House, a children's museum ranked among the top five in the nation.

• Dennis C. Cooke of Pleasanton, Calif., who received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Purdue in 1986 and 1988, respectively. He is president for Homeland Protection, General Electric Co. In that capacity, Cooke oversees security-space problems for business and government. His wife, Beth, earned a bachelor's degree from Purdue's College of Science in 1988.

• Donald J. Esses of San Jose, Calif., who received a bachelor's degree from Purdue in 1973. He is executive vice president of Worldwide Operations, LSI Logic Corp., a company that designs and produces high-performance semiconductors for consumer, communications and storage applications. Esses currently serves as the company's key executive to Purdue and served as the company's Purdue recruiter for a decade.

• Uzia Galil of Haifa, Israel, who received a master's degree from Purdue in 1953. He is chairman and CEO of Uzia Initiatives and Management Ltd., a company he helped found in 1999 that helps regional innovations become global successes. He received the Solomon Bublick Prize Laureate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Prize for his contribution to the development of Israel's high-tech industry.

• Barry K. Gilbert of Rochester, Minn., who received a bachelor's degree from Purdue in 1965. He is a staff scientist and professor in the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering at the Mayo Clinic. He also founded and directs the 60-person Special-Purpose Processor Development Group at the Mayo Clinic. His research entails applying engineering, computational and physical methods to the processing and analysis of signal and imagery data for medical and military applications.

• Jai N. Gupta of McLean, Va., who received a doctoral degree from Purdue in 1974. He is retired as president of L-3 Communications Government Services Group. Prior to heading up the L-3 group, he was president of Government Services Inc., which he founded in 1979. His career highlights include the development of small launch vehicles and payload recovery systems, which benefited both the communication and pharmaceutical industries.

Writer: Cynthia Sequin, (765) 494-4192, csequin@purdue.edu

Source: Mark Smith, (765) 494-3539, mjts@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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