Dear Ole Miss Civil Engineering Alumni and Friends,

Two weeks ago we started another busy semester of instruction. There are a
lot of exciting thongs to tell, such as new students, new faculty, new
curriculum..., but I have to tell you a little at a time. In this issue of
Ole Miss Civil Engineering E-Newsletter (this is the new name I decided to
call this communication), I would like to introduce to you the new faculty
members.

This semester we welcome two new faculty members. Dr. Chung Song is hired as
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering replacing Dr. George, who retired
in the spring, and Dr. Eric Jao is the Director of Off-Campus Engineering
Programs and Associate Professor of Civil Engineering.

Dr. Song did his undergraduate study in one of the best university in Korea.
He then obtained a Master degree from the University of Texas at Austin
doing experimental work in geotechnical engineering. He returned to Korea
and did some teaching. Later he was enrolled in LSU and obtained his
Doctoral degree doing theoretical modeling. He again returned to Korea
worked as an engineer in a large construction company and was involved in
the design and construction of a new airport.  Three years ago he left Korea
and came back to LSU, his Ph.D. alma mater, working in the Civil
Engineering Department as a visiting faculty teaching geotechnical
engineering and mechanics courses. Because of his broad experience and
excellent work, he came out on top of more than 80 candidates who applied.
We are pleased that he accepted to join us. In his first semester at Ole
Miss, he is teaching ENGR 309 Introduction to Mechanics. He has a large
class of 55 students! (The continuing increase of our undergraduate students
is another story I will tell you next time.)

Dr. Jao's position is created as a "joint venture" with the university
Continuing Education Division, in hopes to capitalize the rapid population
and economic growth in DeSoto and Tupelo areas. We feel that engineering has
a big role to play in off-campus and outreach education. Last year we
started a Master program in UM DeSoto and Tupelo campuses, and we hope to
attract undergraduate students in the future. Dr. Jao did his undergraduate
work at the National Taiwan University. He then obtained both his Master and
Ph.D. degrees from MIT, the best engineering school in this country. In
early 90s he taught in this department for 2 and 1/2 years before he decided
to join the industry. He worked for Goodyear Tires and other companies for
10 years. He now decides to return to academia. We look forward to his
leadership using his industrial and entrepreneur background to help building
a successful program.

We also welcome Mrs. Marni Kendricks. Marni obtained a General Engineering
degree from Ole Miss about a decade ago. This May she graduated with a
second BS degree from Ole Miss in civil engineering! In between Marni taught
high school for math, sciences, and introduction to engineering courses.
Marni is highly active in community service. If you remember the "Ladybug
Bridge" project I told you about, you will remember that Marni is the leader
of this project. Marni now is hired as Assistant to the Dean, working for
Dean Lee and Assistant Dean Stacy Holmes. She is also teaching CE 101
Introduction to Civil Engineering, and ENGR 207 Graphics (AutoCAD) for civil
engineering.

I might as well use this opportunity to tell you about the progress of Dr.
Garey Fox, who joined the department a year ago. Garey came freshly out of
school to take this faculty position. He was a 4.0 undergraduate at Texas
A&M. He was an EPA STAR Fellowship holder for his Master work at Texas A&M,
and a USDA National Need Fellowship holder during his Ph.D. work at Colorado
State. He had a perfect GPA and published a few journal papers before he
graduated.  Two weeks ago I ran into a professor of his. He was surprised
that we could get him because he said that Garey showed star quality right
from the beginning at Colorado. So how did he do after one year? Garey
taught several new courses for us, including the fundamental of engineering
course to prepare our students for the FE exam, the fluid mechanics, a newly
established core course, and environmental water resources. All taught for
the first time at Ole Miss. He graduated three master students in one year.
He currently has most graduate students in the department, about half a
dozen. He is getting among the best teaching evaluations and is well liked
by students. He is taking over the Chi-Epsilon Honors Society as faculty
advisor. In the summer, he was granted a Summer Faculty Fellow by ERDC
(formerly Waterway Experiment Station) and spent the summer doing research
there. After winning several internal research grants, he was award an
external research contract from USDA, and more are coming. All these in one
year!

I am very pleased to let you know all these exciting things going around us.
If you are interested in knowing more about the faculty members, you can
visit the department web site at
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/civil_eng/people.html to put a face to the
name. You are certainly welcome to drop in to have a chat.

Best wishes,

Alexander H.-D. Cheng
Professor and Chair
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Mississippi
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677-1848
Tel: 662-915-5362
Fax: 662-915-5523
Email: acheng@olemiss.edu
URL: http://www.olemiss.edu/~acheng/
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/civil_eng/