November 28, 2000
ENGINEERING PROFESSOR PETER RAAD NAMED DIRECTOR OF HART E-CENTER AT SMU
DALLAS (SMU) -- Mechanical Engineering Professor Peter E. Raad, currently associate dean of Southern Methodist University's School of Engineering, has been named the Linda Wertheimer Hart Director of the Linda and Mitch Hart E-Center at SMU. The Center will focus on Internet technology research and applications across a wide range of academic disciplines, including business, law and engineering. It will be located at the SMU-in-Legacy facility in Plano and will also have a presence on the main SMU campus in Dallas.
A detailed proposal for the new E-Center is currently being developed with faculty input from all schools of the university. Ross C Murfin, SMU provost and vice president for academic affairs, will present this plan to the university's Board of Trustees for approval at its December 8 meeting.
"Peter Raad is an extraordinary scholar, administrator and all-around individual," said Murfin. "His knowledge of technology, appreciation for the needs of business and outgoing personal style make him the perfect person to launch the Linda and Mitch Hart E-Center."
Raad has been honored with the Engineer of the Year Award from the North Texas Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Faculty Research Award of the SMU Chapter of Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. His teaching has been recognized with three Outstanding Undergraduate Faculty Awards and three Outstanding Graduate Faculty Awards.
Murfin outlined the following goals for the E-Center director:
• To develop and deliver courses in the area of electronic business and other Internet- related emerging technologies.
• To provide research opportunities for SMU students and faculty.
• To create an incubator for new ideas and technology initiatives enhancing business and overall economic development.
• To mix legal issues into a discourse usually driven by technology and markets.
• To guide the center in serving the region's intellectual and corporate communities through conferences, colloquia and symposia.
Nortel Networks has committed $2 million in technology, equipment and services for the Hart E-Center.
Raad, who earned his Ph.D. degree from the University of Tennessee, has been a member of the SMU engineering faculty since 1986. He is founding director of the SMU Submicron Electro-Thermal Sciences Laboratory, in which he developed cutting-edge thermal measurement capabilities for thin-film materials used in integrated circuits. Several Dallas-based companies use this lab to test new materials or new ways of using existing semiconductor and dielectric materials.
Raad has received more than $2 million in research grants and contracts. His research has produced several innovations of interest to industry. Earlier this year, SMU received a patent on a modeling algorithm Raad developed that can help reduce from weeks to minutes the time required for the thermal analysis of integrated circuits. As computer chips become smaller and more powerful, they generate additional heat that can degrade their performance and limit their useful life. SMU is seeking funding to make the interface with the simulation algorithm user-friendly so it will have more commercial value.
The Linda Wertheimer Hart Directorship is made possible by a gift of $1 million from Milledge (Mitch) A. Hart, III of Dallas in honor of his wife, Linda Wertheimer Hart. The Harts gave SMU $5 million in May to establish the Linda and Mitch Hart E-Center.
"We are deeply grateful for this gift from Mitch Hart to endow the directorship of the new E-Center that both Mitch and Linda Hart are helping to establish," said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. "Through their vision, dedication and generosity, the Harts will enable the university to bring interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on advancements in Internet-related technologies and their impact on society."
The Harts' support for the E-Center and its directorship counts toward SMU's $400 million capital campaign launched in 1997. This five-year campaign is the most ambitious fund-raising effort in the university's history, with the largest goal ever sought by an institution in North Texas. The campaign seeks endowment and other support to continue strengthening the quality of students, faculty, academic programs and selected facilities at SMU.
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