Colorado State University Award Recipients, left to right: Dr. Narayanaswamy Krishnamurthi, 1975, Civil Engineering; Desi Rhoden, 1983, 1984, Electrical Engineering; Dr. Roland A. Madden, 1978, Atmospheric Science; Dean Sandra Woods; Stephen Light, 1968, Mechanical Engineering; Jason Gentry, 2000, Electrical Engineering; Dr. Kristin Wood, 1985, Engineering Science; and Charles Kovac, 1979, Mechanical Engineering.
Professor Kristin Wood received the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award for the Engineering Science Department, College of Engineering, Colorado State University. Each year, the College of Engineering honors one outstanding alumnus from each of their academic departments. Recipients of their Distinguished Alumni Awards are former students who, by their distinguished career and service to the college, university, state, nation, or world, have brought honor to the College of Engineering, Colorado State University, and themselves. The award ceremony was held in Fort Collins, Colorado on the Colorado State University Campus in the Lory Student Center on April 17, 2010.
Award Citation in Engineering Science: Kristin Wood
Dr. Wood is the Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Professor in the Mechanical Systems division of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Wood's research contributes to the fields of design theory and methodology, computer integrated engineering, design for manufacture (including tolerance design and automation techniques), applied mechanics in the design of mechanical components and assemblies, and the design of micro-electromechanical systems. In particular, his work emphasizes mechanical engineering design and such relevant problems as: representing and manipulating design uncertainties, determining appropriate strategies for solving the inverse or reverse engineering problem, and designing micro-deformable surfaces for journal and thrust bearings.
He currently supervises many graduate students whose research interests fall within these topics. Dr. Wood has received many awards and honors, including the University Distinguished Professor Award, Academy of Distinguished Teachers, and the American Society of Engineering Education Best Presentation Award.
Dr. Wood graduated from Colorado State University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He completed his formal education at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he earned a M.S. in 1986 and a Ph.D. in 1989.
He is married to fellow CSU College of Engineering alumnus, Laurie Wood, and resides in Austin, Texas. The Woods have three children; Katie, Emily and Zach.
Kristin's Wood's Brief Bio
Dr. Wood was born in Burlington, Colorado and moved to the Denver area at the age of 5. He moved to the Boulder area during junior high school and graduated from Ranum High School in Denver in 1981. He chose to study Engineering Science at CSU due to its "new" program in Computing Engineering, graduating Magna cum Laude, in 1985. Dr. Wood completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering (Division of Engineering and Applied Science) at the California Institute of Technology, where he was an AT&T Bell Laboratories Ph.D. Scholar.
In 1989 he became an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1994 and to full Professor in 2000. He has published more than 250 refereed articles and books, and received numerous awards for his research and teaching. He also received one of most prestigious teaching awards given to University of Texas Systems educators, The 2010 Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award. Please read our recent news story for more on this award and his current, innovative work in the area of engineering education.
