Professors Honored by Students, Benefactors at Investiture Ceremony
"UTD is a relatively young but very ambitious university. When you mention all the best names in the country MIT, Harvard, etc. they all have one thing in common with UTD. They make sustained long-term investments in their professors, and they stick with them," said Dr. William Anderson, with wife, Brittany, and their three children Sam, 7; Claire, 5; and Jack, 8 months.
Dr. Rashaunda Henderson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, recently thanked the McDermott family for her endowed position.
“I want to thank them for their vision and commitment to UT Dallas, and the fact that they have stuck with us over the past 50 years knowing that this University was going to do great things,” she said. “I also want to thank my very first mentor, my mother. She was always someone who kept me grounded. When I was in high school, I made straight A’s for the first time, and I called her to tell her about it. She said, ‘Great, now go clean your room.’ ”
Henderson was among 20 faculty members to receive new appointments during the 2018 University Investiture Ceremony, where they were recognized before their families, colleagues, mentors and students. Eight from the Jonsson School receives appointments.
UT Dallas has more than 120 chairs and professorships that recognize the scholarship and research of senior faculty members.
The honorees were each recognized briefly by a student speaker they selected. They then received a medallion from University President Richard C. Benson and their respective deans.
Dr. William Anderson, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Jonsson School, summed up the spirit of the ceremony by paying tribute to the University as a whole.
“We enjoy a level of professional independence here that is without precedent,” he said. “That is good for the students, good for the University and ultimately good for the country. And it is very much in line for what the McDermotts had in mind for this gift.”
The other Jonsson School Professors recently honored were
- Dr. Leonidas Bleris, Associate Professor of Bioengineering
- Dr. Alvaro Cardenas, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
- Dr. Robert Gregg, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering
- Dr. Kevin Hamlen, Associate Professor of Computer Science
- Dr. Seth Hays, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering
- Dr. Majid Minary, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering