William Beauchamp, Associate Professor of French in Dedman College, earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he began his teaching career. After joining the SMU faculty in 1974, he designed and taught a wide range of courses, including French, French literature, gender studies, semiotics and religious and philosophical thought. He pioneered the study of gay literature at SMU, teaching the first course in the 1980s. Beauchamp served as area chair of French for many years and as chair of SMU's Department of World Languages and Literatures from 1995 to 2000. He has written essays on semiotics and structuralism and articles on literature and political issues for newspapers such as The New York Times and The Dallas Morning News. In 1993 he was awarded SMU's Perrine Prize, recognizing outstanding teaching and scholarship, and in 2006 he was named an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at SMU. He retires as Professor Emeritus of French.
David Blackwell holds the William B. Hamilton Chair in Earth Sciences in Dedman College. He earned a B.S. in geology and mathematics at SMU, followed by M.S and Ph.D. degrees in geophysics at Harvard University. A member of the SMU faculty since 1968, he served as chair of the Department of Earth Sciences from 1982-1986. Blackwell is best known for his studies of the thermal structure of the continental crust. He is co-discoverer of the relationship between surface heat flow and surface heat production from radioactivity, which is significant for understanding Earth's thermal history. His work on the thermal structure of sedimentary basins is important for understanding the origin of oil and gas and enhanced geothermal systems, a renewable source of future clean energy. A major proponent of commercialization of geothermal energy, Blackwell has served as president of the Geothermal Resources Council and received its Aidlin Award for outstanding contributions to the development of geothermal energy. His leadership in developing the U.S. Department of Energy's National Geothermal Database will facilitate the future development of geothermal energy. Blackwell is a fellow of the Geological Society of America. He retires as Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences.
Robert C. Davis, Associate Professor of Mathematics in Dedman College, earned his B.A. degree in mathematics and philosophy at SMU. He graduated with highest honors and departmental distinction and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his Ph.D. degree in mathematics at Tulane University. After spending a summer as a research associate at the University of Chicago, Davis joined the SMU faculty in 1967. He has taught a variety of courses, including calculus, differential equations, discrete mathematics, theory of numbers, and groups and rings. He has specialized in the area of category theory and has published a number of articles in that area. Davis is a longtime member of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. He retires as Professor Emeritus of Mathematics.
Margaret (Maggie) H. Dunham is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering in Lyle School of Engineering. She received B.A. and M.S. degrees in mathematics from Miami University in Ohio. After earning a Ph.D. in computer science from SMU, she joined SMU's engineering faculty in 1984. She served her department as associate chair and director of both undergraduate and graduate studies. In 1995 she was a Visiting Academic at the University of Queensland in Australia. She served as president of the SMU Faculty Senate during 1996-1997. Dunham's current research interests are in the areas of data mining and bioinformatics. She is the author of a popular text, Data Mining Introductory and Advanced Topics, which has been translated into Chinese and Greek. A Fulbright grant supported teaching based on her book at the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Allahabad. Dunham served as associate editor of the IEEE Transaction on Knowledge and Data Engineering and editor of the ACM SIGMOD Record. She was general conference chair for the ACM SIGMOD/PODS conference held in Dallas. She has published more than 100 technical papers and served as a consultant for numerous companies. She retires as Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering.
Charles (Charley) Helfert, Associate Professor of Theatre in Meadows School of the Arts, earned a B.A. from St. Norbert College and both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He joined SMU's theatre faculty in 1970. In his early years at SMU, he taught in the Meadows School's experimental arts program, which offered innovative children's classes both on campus and in the community. He was co-creator of a television series that won an award for children's programming at the Chicago Film Festival. Helfert served as both associate dean of Meadows School of the Arts and chair of the Division of Theatre. He has coordinated undergraduate recruiting for theatre during most of his tenure at SMU, and he has seen more than 40,000 high school actors in auditions. He helped theatre majors connect as teaching artists to the Dallas community through a collaborative class with Big Thought, a nonprofit organization that brings the arts to young people. He also taught classes on dramatic arts and creative dramatics within SMU's General Education curriculum. Helfert has been honored with SMU's "M" Award for outstanding service and the Meadows Foundation Distinguished Teaching Professorship. He retires as Professor Emeritus of Theatre.
As Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at SMU since 2001, Robin W. Lovin has written and taught about moral theology across several disciplines. He previously served for eight years as dean of SMU's Perkins School of Theology. He received a B.A. from Northwestern University, followed by B.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. An ordained minister in The United Methodist Church, Lovin began his career on the faculty at Emory University's Candler School of Theology and later taught at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Before joining SMU in 1994, he was dean of the Drew University Theological School. As Perkins dean, he promoted diversity in the faculty and student body, streamlined the school's committee structure and oversaw the renovation of Perkins Chapel. While fulfilling his administrative and teaching roles, Lovin published three significant books - An Introduction to Christian Ethics: Goals, Duties, and Virtues (2011), Christian Realism and the New Realities (2008) and Christian Ethics: An Essential Guide (1999), in addition to many scholarly articles. He served as president of the Society of Christian Ethics and received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship recognizing his outstanding scholarship. He retires as Cary M. Maguire University Professor Emeritus of Ethics.
Bijan Mohraz is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Lyle School of Engineering. Before joining SMU in 1974, he taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received B.S.C.E., M.S.C.E. and Ph.D. degrees. At SMU, he has served as associate dean of the School of Engineering and as chair of both Civil and Mechanical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering departments. His teaching and research concentrations are in structural and earthquake engineering. On leave from SMU from 1994 to 1998, Mohraz was a Visiting Scholar with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, working to advance knowledge in seismic design guidelines. The author of over 90 publications, he has served as a consultant to OSHA, Mobil Oil, Aerospace Corporation and others and as expert witness on structural failures and intellectual property. Mohraz is a member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Fellow of the Architectural Engineering Institute of ASCE. He is founding editor of the Journal of Architectural Engineering. He has served as president of the Architectural Engineering Institute and on the Board of Directors of the Applied Technology Council. He retires as Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Laurence (Larry) Scholder, Professor of Art in Meadows School of the Arts, received a B.F.A. degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology and an M.A. from the University of Iowa. Since coming to SMU in 1968, he has taught printmaking in the Meadows School. Scholder received an Artist's Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1975. He was awarded the Meadows Foundation Distinguished Teaching Professorship in 1992. Scholder has had 23 solo exhibitions of his work at venues including the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and he has been included in more than 100 group exhibitions. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Houston Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art and other museums throughout the country. He retires as Professor Emeritus of Art.
Linda Brewster Stearns, Professor of Sociology in Dedman College, earned B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New York at Stony Brook. After beginning her career at LSU, she joined the University of California-Riverside, where she served as Sociology Department chair. She came to SMU in 2003 to rebuild the Sociology Department and direct the newly created interdisciplinary markets and culture program. Under her leadership, the Sociology Department grew in numbers of faculty and students, and the markets and culture major became the fifth largest in Dedman College. Stearns holds a joint appointment in the Cox School of Business as research professor of economic policy. She has received funding from the National Science Foundation and Howard Foundation for her research, which focuses on interlocking directorates, mergers and financial decision-making. A scholar of economic sociology, she has published regularly in prestigious journals and co-authored a book, Politics of Privacy. Stearns was twice named as a Russell Sage Foundation Fellow. Her professional contributions include serving as an NSF reviewer and editorial board member for several professional journals. She retires as Professor Emeritus of Sociology.
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