Mark Balas, professor and head of the University of Wyoming Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been appointed as the George J.G. Nicholson Professor of Electrical Engineering.
Appointed by Rob Ettema, dean of UW's College of Engineering and Applied Science, Balas will lead the development of the Wyoming Electric Motor Training and Testing Laboratory, a comprehensive laboratory to be established with the renovation of the existing "Nick" Nicholson Power Laboratory.
"The renovated lab is viewed as a critical part of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department's infrastructure," Ettema says. "It will be the only facility available to demonstrate and test electric motors and generators, energy conversion systems and all other electric-power systems relating to energy efficiency."
A UW faculty member since 2004, Balas previously was a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He also served as a senior research scientist with the Air Force Research Laboratory at New Mexico's Kirtland Air Force Base. He is a fellow of both the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Balas received a B.S. (1965) in electrical engineering from the University of Akron, an M.S. (1970) in mathematics from the University of Maryland and both an M.S. in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics (1974) from the University of Denver. He is a past recipient of the Tau Beta Pi teaching excellence award and has actively promoted diversity in engineering.
Posted on Tuesday, July 21, 2009