NAE Board Elects Hellums

NAE Board Elects Hellums
BY LIA UNRAU
Rice News Staff
E-mail: unrau@rice.edu
Phone: (713) 831-4793
March 12, 1998

J. David Hellums, the A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
in the departments of chemical engineering and bioengineering, was elected recently
to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Hellums was among 84 engineers elected to membership in the NAE in February.
Hellums was cited for his work in the application of biofluid mechanics and
cellular engineering methods to biological research and education.

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded
an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made important contributions
to engineering theory and practice, including significant contributions to the
literature of engineering theory and practice, and those who have demonstrated
unusual accomplishments in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology.

"David Hellums has been an outstanding teacher and researcher at Rice
for many years," said Michael Carroll, dean of the George R. Brown School
of Engineering and Burton J. and Ann M. McMurtry Professor of Engineering. "His
service to the university and to his profession has been exemplary. In reviewing
my own tenure as dean, I have come to realize more clearly the importance of
the David Hellums legacy. David is also a role model in that he maintained a
strong research program while he was dean and has continued his scholarly work
over the last decade with strong support from the National Insititutes of Health.
He is an outstanding biomedical engineer and most worthy of election to the
National Academy of Engineering."

Also elected to the NAE was Mary Wheeler ’71, director of the Center for Subsurface
Modeling at the University of Texas in Austin. Wheeler was a member of the Rice
mathematics faculty from 1971-1995.

The NAE was established in 1964 under the charter of the National Academy of
Sciences as an organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its
administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National
Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government.
The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed
at meeting national needs, encourages education and research and recognizes
the superior achievements of engineers. Total members of the NAE as of Feb.
13 number 1,941; foreign associates total 155.

Hellums joined the Rice University faculty in 1960, serving Rice University
as a professor of chemical and bioengineering and as an associate of Wiess College
for 38 years. He was chair of the department of chemical engineering for six
years, director of the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory for 10 years, and dean
of the school of engineering for eight years. He is an adjunct professor in
the Department of Medicine at both Baylor College of Medicine and the University
of Texas Health Science Center.

Hellums was the first engineer to receive the Merit Research Award from the
National Institutes of Health. He has also received the Whitaker Award of the
Biomedical Engineering Society.

For related information please visit the following Web sites:
Rice University Chemical Engineering Department: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~che
National Academy of Engineering: http://www.nae.edu