Luck and El Kadiri appointed to endowed professorships

January 11, 2016

Two mechanical engineering faculty members have been honored with endowed professorships from the Bagley College of Engineering.

Dr. Rogelio Luck

Professor Rogelio Luck received the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Professorship in Energy Systems and the Environment, while Associate Professor Haitham El Kadiri was awarded the Coleman and Whiteside Professorship.

“Both Dr. Luck and Dr. El Kadiri are very talented and enthusiastic faculty members who have established national and international reputations for their scholarly contributions to the engineering community and are very deserving of these honors,” said Pedro Mago, the mechanical engineering department head at Mississippi State.

The TVA Endowed Professorship was created in 2000 by the Tennessee Valley Authority, a U.S. government-owned corporation that provides electricity for more than nine million people in seven southeastern states.  The professorship will support Luck’s educational, research and outreach efforts as he represents TVA’s energy concerns, such as energy distribution, generation and storage, as well as reducing their environmental impact.

With a doctorate degree from Penn State University in 1989, Luck has 22 years of experience in energy systems research. His work includes more than 100 publications, including journal articles, book chapters and peer-reviewed conference publications, and more than $6 million in funding, with the majority dedicated to energy research.

El Kadiri

The Coleman and Whiteside Professorship was created by the generosity of two MSU alumni, Edward Coleman and Jim Whiteside. Coleman, a 1935 graduate, was named an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering. Whiteside, a 1941 graduate, established the endowed position to honor the memory of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Whiteside. The professorship gives El Kadiri the ability to significantly impact the future of materials research in the BCoE’s mechanical engineering.

With a doctorate degree in materials science and engineering from the prominent French engineering school Mines ParisTech, El Kadiri has gained both national and international prominence for research in mechanical and physical metallurgy of hexagonal closed-packed (hcp) metals as well as oxidation of metals. His research was included in the White House’s recent Materials Genome Initiative, a key program for U.S. economic development and competitiveness. With a research record including over 80 publications, alongside receiving more than $8 million in research funding, El Kadiri has earned wide recognition for his work on the crystallography of deformation twinning and the multiphysics of selective oxidation of metals.

For more information about Luck or El Kadiri, visit the ME website at www.me.msstate.edu.

By: Amanda Meeler