2024 Academy of Distinguished Alumni Announced
The Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering has announced the 2024 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:
Fred Buckingham
Distinguished Mechanical Engineer
B.S.M.E., The University of Texas at Austin, 1975
M.S.M.E., The University of Texas at Arlington, 1980
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Arlington, 1993
Fred Buckingham has almost fifty years of mechanical engineering and engineering leadership experience. Fred’s professional career is focused in the electric power generation industry sector. He has worked with clients and engineering teams in over thirty countries around the world.
Past employers include Southwestern Public Service Company, Texas Instruments, Forney Engineering Corporation, Triconex Corporation, Electric Power Technologies, Inc., Clean Fuels Technology, Inc., MPR Associates, and NAES Corporation. Fred has served in roles ranging from design engineer to executive management as well as on boards of directors in organizations that produce electric power, design and manufacture equipment and systems for power plants. He also continues to serve as a senior consultant to power plant operators.
Fred has authored numerous technical papers that have been published in refereed journals and trade publications. He also has delivered numerous technical presentations and speeches including the Fall 2012 commencement address for the University of Texas at Arlington College of Engineering.
At every stage of his career, Fred has volunteered his time and talent to support industry and professional associations and events. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code Committee which recently published ASME PTC 53, Performance Test Code for Mechanical and Thermal Energy Storage Systems. He is a member of the Texas Education Agency 2024 career and technical education (CTE) Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) review work group. This work group develops and revises courses for a new high school career cluster in engineering.
Since the early days of his career, Fred has supported professional development of practicing engineers, engineering students, and high school students considering engineering as a profession. He served as a judge for the Formula SAE Student Design Competition for mechanical engineering students from 1980 through 1990. He also was an officer in the North Texas Section of ASME from 1986 through 1989 and served on its Industry Advisory Board from 1989 until 1998. He was a member of the Dallas Student Engineer’s Banquet Organizing Committee which awarded scholarships to area high school students on behalf of local professional society chapters from 1987 through 1991. Fred also was a member of the UT Austin Mechanical Engineering Department External Advisory Committee from 2006-2013 and was most recently a member of the University of Texas at Arlington Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Industry Advisory Board. He recently served as a Mentor in the National Science Foundation 2021 Spring Cohort for the UT Arlington Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Team.
Fred met his wife, Cathy, during his tenure at SPS. Fred and Cathy moved to Dallas in 1976 where they raised their daughter, Claire. They relocated from Dallas to Houston in 2008 and moved to San Antonio in 2021. When he is not consulting or volunteering, Fred enjoys photography, fishing, and golf.
Ashley Durand
Outstanding Young Mechanical Engineer
B.S.M.E., The University of Texas at Austin, 2008
M.S.M.E., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012
Ashley Durand (née Browning) is an aerospace engineering leader designing rockets at Relativity Space, a launch vehicle startup in California. She is the Senior Manager of Avionics Integrated Design, which includes electronics mechanical packaging, structural hardware, wire harnessing, and instrumentation for the Terran R rocket.
She spent nearly 10 years at SpaceX where she managed crew interfaces avionics hardware development on the Dragon 2 spacecraft. She was responsible for the mechanical design, analysis, and test of the control panel and touchscreen displays, which are the primary astronaut user interfaces for the vehicle. She drove the control panel from a piece of cardboard with post-it notes to a team of engineers delivering flight hardware. Ashley also supported the Dragon 1 spacecraft trunk upgrade and helped quantify, develop, and deliver training as a technical training engineer.
Ashley joined SpaceX after graduating with her master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as a member of both the Mechanics of Solid Materials and Nanomechanics of Structural Biological Materials laboratories. She researched bio-inspired composites and helped develop flexible protective coatings inspired by nature for defense applications. She earned her undergraduate in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, where she researched engineering design under Dr. Carolyn Seepersad in the Part, Process and Materials Design Lab and was active in Tau Beta Pi. She previously worked as a product design co-op at Apple.
When she’s not designing in aerospace aluminum, Ashley’s favorite materials are clay and textiles, a hobby she calls “spacecrafting” with her side project Altaire Design. She loves watching rocket launches with her husband James, a fellow Longhorn mechanical engineer and Disney Imagineer, and their daughter Violet. They live in Los Angeles with their cat.
Gerardo Pinzon
Mechanical Engineering Hall of Fame
B.S.M.E., The University of Texas at Austin, 1987
M.B.A., Texas A&M International University, 1995
M.S.E.E., Texas A&M University Kingsville, 2002
Gerardo “Gerry” Pinzon is a first-generation immigrant born and raised in Laredo, Texas. As the second oldest of six siblings, he was the first in his family to graduate from college.
Upon graduation from the University of Texas, his engineering career began at Texas Instruments (TI) in Austin, after completing three co-op tours while studying at the University. At TI, he was introduced to Statistical Process Control and other World Class Manufacturing techniques.
He then secured a position with a newly merged entity between G&O Manufacturing and Daniel Radiators, working at a manufacturing plant (Maquiladora), just across the border from Laredo. Initially hired as a plant engineer, he quickly advanced to the role of corporate engineer after implementing various process improvements that increased production from 100 to 1,200 radiators per day. He also oversaw environmental compliance, becoming the first US plant in Laredo to properly dispose of waste byproducts in full compliance with NAFTA requirements.
Mr. Pinzon furthered his education by obtaining an MBA and his Professional Engineer License. He then joined the City of Laredo as the Water Manager and later served as the Assistant Utilities Director. This experience ignited his interest in the environmental field, leading him to enroll in a graduate engineering program at the nearest university.
Gerry is deeply passionate about promoting STEM education among young Hispanics. When the local university launched its engineering program, he began teaching as an adjunct instructor. This role enabled him to spearhead numerous STEM initiatives, including summer programs such as Upward Bound, Gear UP, FIRST Tech robotics, and volunteering at high engineering magnet schools, Catholic schools, and with the Boy Scouts of America.
During his tenure at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU), Gerry taught over eighteen courses across various disciplines, including Engineering, Calculus, Physics, and Astronomy plus being very instrumental in assisting TAMIU becoming ABET Accredited. But his passion was teaching young students robotics and the engineering profession, he helped initiate a dual enrollment program for college credit courses between Laredo College and Laredo Independent School District (LISD).
Mr. Pinzon recently retired from the City of Laredo, where he served as the Building Official in the Building Development Services department. Retirement, however, was short-lived. He now works with AOKA Engineering as a consultant, providing Building Official services to various cities in South Texas. In addition to his consulting role, he serves as the Academic Director for them. In this role, he is currently procuring and implementing a Learning Management System (LMS) to enhance certification and education for building development professionals.
Stephen N. Smith
Distinguished Mechanical Engineer
B.S.M.E., The University of Texas at Austin, 1990
Stephen Smith, a native of Longview, Texas, is a proud third-generation engineer, following in the footsteps of his family’s rich engineering legacy and the University of Texas (UT) tradition. Inspired by his parents, Pam and Ned Smith, he enrolled at UT in the Fall of 1985 and graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Thermal/Fluids—a field he continues to excel in today. His brother, Greg, also graduated from UT with a degree in mechanical engineering, further solidifying the family’s commitment to the discipline.
With a remarkable 35-year career at Boeing, Stephen has established himself as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in thermal design solutions, spanning from circuit board levels to comprehensive vehicle systems. His expertise in thermal design, analysis, testing and issue resolution have been instrumental in several high-profile programs, including the International Space Station (ISS), Space Shuttle, Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), Mobility and Surveillance (M&S) Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C), and the Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) 777-X. Currently, he leads design efforts for innovative Space Exploration vehicles, such as the Mars Transit Habitat, Lunar Surface Habitat, Lunar Rover, and Lunar Surface Fission projects. Stephen was the thermal designer for the next generation of deployable solar arrays recently installed on the ISS, ISS Roll Out Solar Arrays (IROSA).
Stephen is a driving force for innovation and process improvement at Boeing. His pioneering processes and tools during the ISS design phase were adopted across multiple Boeing sites, significantly enhancing Earth orbiting vehicle analysis and increasing throughput by an impressive 100-fold. At the corporate level, he has authored process guides that define essential analyses for thermal, and environmental control systems, which have become company standards for Model Based Engineering.
Passionate about mentoring, Stephen has guided dozens of engineers throughout his career enabling them to become more proficient. He has established company-wide training programs to promote best practices and knowledge sharing in the use of thermal processes and tools.
His contributions have earned him prestigious accolades, including NASA’s Space Flight Awareness Launch Honoree, the Silver Snoopy, the RNASA Stellar Award, and multiple Boeing awards for outstanding innovation.
Residing in Friendswood, TX, with his wife Shelley, Stephen enjoys spending time with their daughter, Caitlin, and her husband, Thomas McHenry. In his leisure time, he finds joy in playing golf and fishing, embracing the balance of work and personal life.
Yuntian Zhu
Distinguished Mechanical Engineer
B.S. Met., Hefei University of Technology, 1983
M.S.M.S.E., Oregon Graduate Inst. Sci. Tech., 1991
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 1994
Yuntian Zhu joined the City University of Hong Kong in 2020 as a Chair Professor, before which he was a Distinguished Professor in North Carolina State University, where he worked from 2007 to 2020. He worked as a postdoc, staff member and team leader in Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) until 2007 after obtaining his Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994. In recent years he has focused on the deformation mechanisms at dislocation level and mechanical behaviors of heterostructured materials and nano/ultrafine-grained materials. He is an experimentalist with a primary interest in fundamental aspects of materials research and also in designing materials with superior strength and ductility. He and his colleagues are pioneers of the emerging field of heterostructured materials. He recently received the Institute of Metals Lecture and Robert Franklin Mehl Award , ASM International Albert Sauveur Award, IUMRS Sômiya Award, TMS SMD Distinguished Scientist/Engineer Award, and TMS Leadership Award. He has been elected to the Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors (US), as well as Fellows of five academic societies: TMS, MRS, APS, ASM, and AAAS.