2008 Academy of Distinguished Alumni Announced
The Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering has announced the 2008 honorees of its Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
As a way of recognizing the accomplishments and careers of our outstanding alumni, the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering established the Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 2004. The Academy’s purpose is to recognize high-achieving mechanical engineers from among the UT Austin community and from the engineering community at large, to champion the mechanical engineering profession and to build a strong community and facilitate interactions among our students, faculty, alumni and corporate partners.
This year’s honorees include:
Walt Benson
Honorary Mechanical Engineer
BSABE, South Dakota State University, 1981
Mr. Benson has been with Schlumberger Limited since June of 1981. He began his career as a Field Engineer working in several of Schlumberger’s drilling site technology centers. He has worked his way through the engineering positions and product development management positions to the position of Mechanical Metier Manager, one of the highest technical positions within Schlumberger. Walt’s current responsibilities as Mechanical Métier for SPC include: recruiting, staffing exempt and non-exempt engineering positions, Metier-specific technical training in ADVANCE, coaching and mentoring all levels of the Schlumberger engineering community, university relations, and working on Global Metier objectives.
Walt’s core values are hard work, knowing his business, being creative, being honest, being efficient, and having fun doing it. These values have made Walt a leader in the fields of Mechanical Engineering and Information Management. Walt strives to produce excellent products through recruiting the best people and providing the best training, work experience, and easy access to engineering knowledge.
Although Walt didn’t earn his Mechanical Engineering degree from The University of Texas at Austin, his tireless support for quality recruitment and the support of engineering education continue to contribute to our department’s success. Walt has been a champion of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, and especially our students, serving on our External Advisory Committee and being a strong supporter of our Senior Design Projects Program. Walt Benson is a most obvious recipient of our Honorary Mechanical Engineer award.
When Walt is not busy working, he enjoys spending time with his family, shooting sports (Sporting Clays, Cowboy, Black Powder Cartridge), hunting (big game and birds) and motorcycles.
Suman Das
Outstanding Young Mechanical Engineer
MSME, The University of Texas at Austin, 1996
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 1998
Dr. Suman Das’s dedication to engineering education, strong record of service to professional societies, and international recognition for his research in manufacturing advancements makes him an obvious choice as Outstanding Young Mechanical Engineer. He is the best of the young professors and researchers in the field of freeform fabrication, and his career points to him becoming a world leader in manufacturing.
Professor Das directs the Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory and Research Group at Georgia Tech. His research interests encompass a broad variety of interdisciplinary topics under the overall framework of advanced design, prototyping, direct digital manufacturing, and materials processing, particularly to address emerging research issues in life sciences, propulsion, and energy. His ultimate objectives are to investigate the science and design of innovative processing techniques for advanced materials and to invent new manufacturing methods for fabricating devices with unprecedented functionality that can yield dramatic improvements in performance, properties and costs. His research has been funded by DARPA, NSF, NIH, NRL, ONR, and Rolls Royce.
In addition to his research, Dr. Das holds two patents for manufacturing innovations. Dr. Das’ background is in Manufacturing, Mechanics of Materials, and Bioengineering. His research is advanced manufacturing and materials processing of metallic, polymeric, ceramic, and composite materials for applications in life sciences, propulsion, and energy.
Karen Nyberg
Outstanding Young Mechanical Engineer
BSME, University of North Dakota, 1994
MSME, The University of Texas at Austin, 1996
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 1998
Karen Nyberg was born and raised in the central Minnesota town of Vining and is the fifth of six children born to Kenneth and Phyllis Nyberg. After graduating from Henning High School, Karen attended the University of North Dakota, studying mechanical engineering. During her time at UND, she gained experience as an engineer in design, operations, and analysis at the Johnson Space Center through the Cooperative Education Program.
After her graduation from UND, Karen moved to Austin to attend The University of Texas at Austin where she worked under Dr. Ken Diller in the BioHeat Transfer Laboratory. Her research, through NASA, focused on regulation of body temperature in the Extravehicular Activity Spacesuit. Following the completion of her studies and research at UT, Karen accepted a position at the Johnson Space Center in the Crew and Thermal Systems Division as an Environmental Control Systems Engineer.
In the year 2000, Karen was selected by NASA as a Mission Specialist Astronaut. Her career as an astronaut has offered a host of incredible experiences, from flying in high performance aircraft, to living and working in the Aquarius underwater laboratory as an aquanaut, testing concepts for future planetary exploration.
Karen made her first trip to space in 2008 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. STS-124 was the 123rd space shuttle flight, and the 26th shuttle flight in support of the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). Discovery launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, carrying the Japanese Experiment Module and spent nine days docked with the ISS as the crew installed and activated the laboratory.
In 2013, Karen made her second trip to space aboard Soyuz TMA-09M, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. As a member of Expeditions 36 and 37, she lived and worked aboard the ISS for nearly six months, conducting research and maintaining the systems of the orbiting laboratory. Over the course of her two spaceflights, Karen has accumulated 180 days in space.
Karen is married to fellow astronaut Doug Hurley and they have a son, Jack. Away from work, she enjoys textile arts, running, and promoting Earth and animal conservation.
Richard Relyea
Distinguished Mechanical Engineer
BSME, The University of Texas at Austin, 1970
MBA, The University of Texas at Austin, 1983
Mr. Richard “Rick” Relyea is a 2008 recipient of the Mechanical Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni Distinguished Mechanical Engineer Award. Mr. Relyea has been a business leader in the Austin community for more than four decades. He served as a member of the External Advising Committee for the Department of Mechanical Engineering from 2001-2004. Mr. Relyea was one of the initial donors and supporters of ME Operation Phoenix, UT’s 6-year renovation program bringing UT’s world-class department much needed facility improvements.
After earning his BSME, Mr. Relyea worked for ten years in the oil and oil drilling support industries, where he had the opportunity to live in many parts of the world (Africa, Asia, South America and Canada). This is where he authored and was awarded his first patent for Blow Out Preventer Controls. He was also a lecturer on oilfield tools and products in China.
Mr. Relyea was the chief engineer on three offshore drilling vessel construction contracts. His first project was a 300-foot Jackup drilling rig designed for the Gulf Coast. The second rig, where he served as the chief engineer during construction, was a semi-submersible rig built for worldwide use. His last project was a drillship named Taineron that was built and fitted while Mr. Relyea lived in Hong Kong. This drillship is currently drilling off the coast of Vietnam and the Philippines.
In 1981, Mr. Relyea returned to UT Austin and in 1983 graduated with an MBA. From this point on, he was an entrepreneur. He started a company and earned a patent for “virtual” reality in motivational exercise equipment. He also began consulting with and assisting companies in financial trouble. In 1987, he started Educare Community Living Corporation of America, a business primarily serving people with mental retardation and foster children. The company grew to 3300 employees and over $50 million in revenue. Educare was named to the INC 500 for three consecutive years, achieving the ranking of number 15 in 1995. Educare was sold to a publicly held company in 1997. Educare still operates coast to coast under its original name.
Since 1998, Rick has worked as an investor in startup companies. He is an ex-officio member of a homeless shelter in Austin, serving the underprivileged. He is a founding member of The Rise School of Austin, and has had a long-term affiliation with UT. He and his wife, Miriam (who serves on the Director’s Council of UT’s Theatre and Dance Department), have provided multiple need-based scholarships to academically qualified students through UT’s Ex-Student’s Association, the Texas Exes. Rick is also a member of The University of Texas Alumni Longhorn Band.
Douglas Suttles
Distinguished Mechanical Engineer
BSME, The University of Texas at Austin, 1983
Doug Suttles’ extensive expertise in the oil and gas industry, his community involvement, his continued support of The University of Texas at Austin and the Cockrell School of Engineering, and his leadership as a mentor and role model to young engineers makes him an excellent addition to our Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
Doug Suttles was named president of BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., taking over the company’s top spot effective Jan. 1, 2007. He also joined the board of BP America and the BP America Operations Advisory Board. At that time, BP, based in London, was the top oil and natural gas producer in the United States and had 40 percent of its assets and workers in North America.
Mr. Suttles previously worked eight years for BP in Alaska in various engineering and leadership roles and has 25 years experience in the oil and gas industry. He has held a number of senior leadership posts in BP.
Mr. Suttles volunteers his time and talents to community organizations. He has served on the boards of The Anchorage Museum Association, The Foraker Group and the Nature Conservancy. He was the first vice president and board member for The Alaska Oil and Gas Association. He supports charitable organizations such as the Texas4000, Anchorage’s City-wide Clean-up, BP’s United Way campaign, Polar Bear Plunge for cancer and BP’s annual Teachers of Excellence awards.
Mr. Suttles is a regular donor to the Friends of Alec Fund and the Cockrell School of Engineering Excellence Fund. He serves as a member of the Dean’s Engineering Advisory Board.
Sam Zamrik
Mechanical Engineering Hall of Fame
BMath, The University of Texas at Austin, 1956
BSME, The University of Texas at Austin, 1957
MSEM, Pennsylvania State University, 1961
Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, 1965
While Sam Zamrik was a freshman at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, he was encouraged by his Texan teachers to pursue mechanical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he enrolled in 1950. In 1954, he married a Texas sophomore by the name Myrna Ragsdale from Jacksonville in east Texas.
After graduation, Sam joined the Texas Pipeline Co in Houston in 1957 and spent two years in the Middle East, Syria and Egypt dealing with Pipeline and Petroleum construction facilities. While in Egypt, he met the Egyptian oil minister, who received his petroleum engineering degree from Penn State University. This led Sam to pursue graduate work in the Penn State engineering mechanics department in 1960, where he was interested in a project dealing with stress analysis of pressure vessels.
At Penn State, Sam was the director of fatigue and fracture research programs supported by NSF, NASA, Oak Ridge National Lab, Allied Signal, Welding Research Council, and DOE. He developed unique research programs on life prediction concepts due to thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF), and fracture mechanics under multi-axial stress system for aerospace and utility gas turbine material using aluminide and overlay coating systems to meet higher temperature operation efficiency. The research programs produced more than 25 undergrads and grad students for MS and Ph.D. degrees.
Sam was very active in professional societies: ASM, ASTM, PVRC, ASME, ICPVT, and United Engineering Foundation (UEF), where he held leadership positions such as vice president of UEF, 2014-2017. At ASME, chair of ASME Pressure Vessels & Piping Division 1992; vice president of structures & materials group, 1999-02; editor of pressure Vessels Technology Journal, 1992-05; board of governors 2002-05; ASME president, elected in 2007; and ASME Honorary Life Fellow Member in 2010, in recognition of his advancing Global Outreach and Technical Innovation throughout Europe, Far East, Middle East and South America. As visiting professor at the American University of Cairo, Egypt in 2008, Sam presented a series of lectures on the “Future of Mechanical Engineer and the Global Economy” and “Engineering — A New Dimension”.
Sam was very fortunate to have been recognized by numerous national and international honors, such as Prince Khalifa of Bahrain Falcon Award, ASME Pressure Vessels & Piping Medal, PVP Robert McGrattan Literature award, Outstanding ESM Penn State Alumni, and ASME Dedicated Service Award.ASME renamed the PVP medal as “S.Y.Zamrik ASME PVP Medal”, which became a society medal.
Grateful for the education he received at UT, Sam and his wife Myrna established an undergraduate scholarship for ME students.