State Engineering Hall of Fame Inducts 2014 Class in Ceremony at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame inducted six individuals and honored a corporation during a ceremony Feb. 15 at the Bryant Conference Center at The University of Alabama.

The following individuals will join the 157 who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame over the past 26 years: E. Glenn Bishop, of Birmingham; William A. Craig, of Huntsville; Kimberly S. Greene, of Atlanta; Dr. H. Vincent Poor, of Princeton, N.J.; Jeff Stone, of Birmingham; and Dr. Daniel S. Turner, of Tuscaloosa.

Also, Thompson Engineering, with headquarters in Mobile, was honored in the corporations category, joining 30 other corporations inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame since 1987.

Founded by proclamation of the governor, the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame honors, preserves and perpetuates the outstanding accomplishments and contributions of individuals, projects and corporations/institutions that brought and continue to bring significant recognition to the state.

E. Glenn Bishop, partner and senior principal, LBYD Inc.

Throughout his distinguished career of nearly 50 years, E. Glenn Bishop has been dedicated to the advancement of the engineering profession.

From his innovation to his service in professional organizations to his contributions in the practice guidelines, Bishop has shown his devotion to the field. He is a licensed professional engineer in 17 states and has worked on more than 2,000 projects.

His experience includes engineering for bridges, building structures, commercial, industrial and institutional construction projects. Bishop designed the first arch replacement in the United States to use post-tensioning to enhance crack control. After receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from The University of Alabama, Bishop began his career as a structural engineer at Hudson & Associates.

In 1973, Bishop founded a one-man structural engineering firm, E. Glenn Bishop Associates. Five years later, he joined Chuck Lane and Robert Hodnett to form Lane Bishop Hodnett, which later became Lane Bishop York Delahay Inc.

Bishop has served in various leadership roles and currently serves as senior principal. He was instrumental in the company’s growth into one of the largest providers of civil and structural engineering services in the Southeast. In 2006, LBYD Inc. was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.

Bishop’s service to the profession includes his involvement with The University of Alabama College of Engineering’s leadership board, the board of advisers for the department of civil engineering of The University of Alabama at Birmingham and the board of directors for the Construction Education Foundation of Alabama.

He serves as chairman of the board of advisers for UA’s department of civil, construction and environmental engineering and as engineering adviser for the State of Alabama’s Board of Registration.

Bishop is a past president of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Alabama and past chairman of the Council of American Structural Engineers National Guidelines Committee. He has also served on the board of directors of the YMCA Camp Cosby, the board of directors for the Alabama Concrete Industries Association and as trustee for the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.

Bishop has made significant contributions to engineering by assisting in the development of “A Guideline Addressing the Bidding and Construction Administration Phases for the Structural Engineer,” as chairman of the CASE National Guidelines Committee. As a committee member, he was co-author of the CASE National Guideline Committee’s “A Guideline Addressing Coordination and Completeness of Structural Construction Documents.”

Bishop also participated in the review and recommendations to modify the American Institute Code of Standard Practice. In addition, he authored articles for Engineering News-Record and Civil Engineering Magazine.

In 1992, Bishop was declared a Distinguished Engineering Fellow by The University of Alabama College of Engineering. Bishop was also proclaimed Fellow by UA’s department of civil, construction and environmental engineering and the American Council of Engineering Cos.

Bishop and his wife, Judy, reside in Birmingham. They have three children and six grandchildren.

William A. Craig, director of the Software Engineering Directorate, Redstone Arsenal

William A. Craig, director of the Software Engineering Directorate at Redstone Arsenal, is nationally recognized as a leader in developing and deploying safety critical software technologies for the most advanced weapon systems.

Under Craig’s visionary engineering leadership, the Software Engineering Directorate has grown to be the leading facility of its kind with more than 4,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $1 billion.

A Mississippi State University electrical engineering graduate, he began his career at Redstone Arsenal in 1960. His career spans more than 50 years in government services, beginning with his work in Werhner Von Braun’s Astrionics Laboratory as an Army employee.

He became a charter member to the then Army Missile Command’s Missile System Software Center when it was established in 1975. In 1984, it became the Battlefield Automation Management Directorate and was renamed the Software Engineering Directorate in 1988, two weeks after Craig assumed the director responsibilities.

Under Craig’s leadership, the SED has been involved in the development and fielding of numerous Army systems, including the Joint Battle Command-Platform and the Aviation Mission Planning System. The facility, in partnership with program executive offices, has established numerous Aviation and Missile System Integration Laboratories for the analysis and testing of tactical systems and software.

These laboratories provide the capability for Joint Services Interoperability Certification as well as Intra-Army certification. The organization is also responsible for the development and deployment of the Army’s software program that includes a public game (America’s Army,) weapon systems trainers and Army recruiting applications.

During Craig’s tenure at the SED, the organization attained a Level 4 rating against the Software Engineering Institute’s Software Capability Maturity Model. Less than 10 percent of the software development organizations in the United States have attained this high level of achievement.

The facility has been named as one of only three Life Cycle Software Engineering Centers in the Army. In 2003, it became part of the Army’s newly formed Research Development and Engineering Command.

Craig has implemented a business model for software development and sustainment proven to be an order of magnitude less expensive than comparable commercial models, saving the taxpayer millions of dollars each year.

He is a highly respected leader in the community and a strong proponent of the Huntsville area. In 2004, Craig received an honorary doctoral degree from The University of Alabama in Huntsville where he serves on the advisory board for the department of electrical and computer engineering.

A champion of workforce development, he fosters partnerships with UAH’s College of Engineering Co-op Programs including the Software Engineering Master’s Degree Program and Systems Engineering Doctorate Program.

In 1985, Craig was recognized as Supervisor of the Year by the North Alabama Chapter of Federally Employed Women. He was presented with the Medaris Award by the National Defense Industrial Association in 2010.

Additionally, Craig was inducted into the Order of Saint Barbara and the Ancient Order of Saint Barbara, an honorary military society of the U.S. Field Artillery Association. In 2012, Craig was presented the 2012 Small Business Advocate Award for Excellence by the Huntsville Association of Small Businesses in Advanced Technology, or HASBAT.

Kimberly S. Greene, president and chief executive officer, Southern Company Services

In 2013, Kimberly Greene returned to Southern Co. as president and CEO of Southern Company Services, where she oversees the company’s information technology, human resources, supply chain management and marketing services, as well as SouthernLINC Wireless, Southern Co.’s wireless telecommunications provider, and Southern Telecom, the company’s wholesale fiber optic network provider.

With more than 20 years of experience in the utility industry, Greene is a respected engineer and leader with a long track record of success.

In February, Southern Co. announced Greene will be named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Southern Co.

A native of Tennessee, Greene earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering science and mechanics from The University of Tennessee. She earned a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from The University of Alabama at Birmingham and a master’s degree in business administration from Samford University. In 2011, Greene completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Greene began her career at Southern Co. in 1991 and held positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of engineering, operations and finance. She spent eight years at Southern Co. subsidiary Southern Energy Inc., now GenOn, and worked in the areas of finance, structuring, trading and asset management.

In 2007, Greene joined Tennessee Valley Authority as chief financial officer and chief risk officer. Her responsibilities included overseeing the budgeting, planning and reporting of nearly $12 billion in revenue and expenses, designing and implementing new wholesale rate designs for 155 distribution cooperatives and municipal electric systems and developing enterprise risk management processes.

She also served as group president of strategy and external relations, responsible for directing long-term goals and business strategies and meeting the company’s commitments to external stakeholders.

Immediately prior to rejoining Southern Co., she was chief generation officer, responsible for more than 30,000 megawatts of coal, natural gas, hydro and renewable power generation at TVA.

She serves on the boards of the Alliance to Save Energy and the Georgia Aquarium, and she is chairman of the board for the Electric Power Research Institute. Greene serves on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory Executive Advisory Council and on the advisory boards for the College of Engineering at The University of Tennessee and the Master of Safety Engineering program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Additionally, she is a member of the Tennessee Chapter of the International Women’s Forum and Executive Women in Energy.

At the 40th anniversary of the University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Engineering, Greene was named as a Top 40 engineering graduate. She was also named as a Top 40 Under 40 by Treasury and Risk Magazine and Top 25 Power Women to Watch by Atlanta Woman Magazine.

Greene and her husband, Ted, are the proud parents of two daughters.

Dr. H. Vincent Poor, dean of engineering and applied science and the Michael Henry Strater University Professor at Princeton University

Dr. H. Vincent Poor, the dean of engineering and applied science and the Michael Henry Strater University Professor at Princeton University, is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading educators and researchers. His research interests are primarily in the areas of information theory, statistical signal processing and stochastic analysis, and their applications in various fields, including wireless communications, social networks and smart grid.

Poor’s publications in these areas include 16 books, 12 patents, more than 450 articles in scientific and technical journals and hundreds of conference papers.

He earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering at Auburn University. Poor furthered his education at Princeton University, obtaining a master’s degree in electrical engineering and a doctoral degree in electrical engineering and computer science. After graduation, he began his career as a faculty member at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In 1990, Poor joined Princeton University as a professor of electrical engineering. In the early 2000s, he developed an innovative undergraduate course, “The Wireless Revolution,” which has been hailed as a model for bringing the technical, political, economic and social implications of wireless communications to a broad array of students in engineering and liberal arts.

His graduate-level textbook, “An Introduction to Signal Detection and Estimation,” is considered the definitive reference in this field. Poor became the founding director of Princeton’s Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, now known as the Keller Center, in 2005.

In addition to his skills as an educator, Poor is acknowledged worldwide for his landmark research contributions to the fields of robust statistical signal processing, multi-user detection and non-Gaussian signal processing, which have opened new horizons in wireless communications and related fields.

His innovative signal processing techniques for handling interference in multiple-access networks have impacted some of the most important communications technologies developed over the past 20 years.

Poor’s contributions to multiuser detection and related technologies address the reception of communications signals in the presence of interfering signals from other users in a wireless network. This work is particularly useful for today’s wireless communication systems, which typically involve sharing of the radio spectrum among multiple users to make optimal use of radio resources.

Notably, he has contributed techniques applicable across a broad spectrum of wireless multiple-access systems, including multiple-antenna systems, systems that can adapt to their interference environments, and systems that exploit the redundancy of error-control coding.

Poor is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Academy of Engineering of the U.K. and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 2002, he received the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Director’s Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars, the highest honor bestowed by NSF for excellence in teaching and research.

In addition, Poor received the 2010 IET Ambrose Fleming Medal for Achievement in Communications, the 2011 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award, a Royal Academy Distinguished Visiting Fellowship in 2012 and honorary doctorates from several universities in Europe and Asia.

Jeff Stone, chief operating officer, Brasfield & Gorrie

Jeff Stone has been with Brasfield & Gorrie throughout his professional career. During his 35 years with the company, his drive and dedication helped him progress through the ranks of leadership. He serves as chief operating officer and oversees more than $2 billion in annual revenues with 30 operating divisions and more than 3,000 employees. In 2007, Brasfield & Gorrie was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.

Stone’s leadership ability became evident at Auburn University, where he was elected engineering senator in 1977 and president of the Student Government Association in 1978. He graduated With Highest Honor in civil engineering in 1979 and immediately began his career with Brasfield & Gorrie. Stone quickly progressed to project manager, taking charge of office, retail and hospital projects in Alabama and Florida.

He has served as division manager of Healthcare, vice president of operations and president of the firm’s Central Region. His notable projects include the Colonnade, Bellsouth Services Headquarters, the Kirklin Clinic, the McWane Center and major components of the Airbus production center under construction in Mobile.

Brasfield & Gorrie, in part because of Stone’s leadership, has had a major impact on the economy of Alabama, as well as other states where the firm operates.

Stone has continued to serve Auburn as an alumnus. He is the chairman of the Auburn University Foundation, and is a past chairman of the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council, where he has served for 15 years. He is chairman of the Engineering Campaign Committee, and has been a member of the Civil Engineering Advisory Council for 20 years. He also serves on the Auburn Athletic Advisory Council.

Stone is a member of several philanthropic societies at Auburn including the 1856 Society, Samford Society, Petrie Society, All American Society, Ginn Society and Engineering Keystone Society. Additionally, he personally supports student scholarships, the Stone Fund of Excellence in Civil Engineering and the Stone Leadership Awards.

He was named the Civil Engineering Outstanding Alumnus of the year in 2005, and received the Distinguished Auburn Engineer Award in 2012.

Stone’s professional involvement includes service to the construction industry as well as to the community at large. He has served on the boards of the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame, the Associated General Contractors and the Associated Builders and Contractors, and he is a past co-chair of the Jefferson County Workforce Investment Board.

He is a past president of the Rotary Club of Birmingham Sunrise, he served as corporate division co-chair for the United Way in 2011 and is a member of the United Way’s Tocqueville Society. Stone serves on the Norton Board of Advisors at Birmingham Southern College and the Samford University Board of Overseers.

He has also been a board member of the American Red Cross, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, REV Birmingham and the Monday Morning Quarterback Club. He participated in Leadership Birmingham in 1999 and in Leadership Alabama in 2005.

Stone has been an active member of Canterbury United Methodist Church for 32 years. He has served as a trustee, chairman of the church council, lay leader and chairman of the building committee. He and his wife, Linda, live in Mountain Brook. They are the proud parents of three grown children, and they have recently welcomed their first grandchild into the family.

Dr. Daniel S. Turner, emeritus professor, The University of Alabama

Dr. Daniel S. Turner is a tireless advocate, promoter and leader of the transportation engineering profession. He is widely recognized and called upon to give conference keynote addresses, chair national panels, guide the development of policies and research products and related activities for agencies and industries all levels.

Turner earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The University of Alabama and a doctoral degree from Texas A&M. His deep love for the University is reflected in his instruction and mentoring of undergraduate students to encourage them to become professionals and leaders, and his guidance of graduate students toward highly valued research and publications.

He holds close friendship with many alumni, both those who graduated before his arrival and those who received degrees under his tutelage.

Currently an emeritus professor of civil engineering, he has held positions in teaching, research and service at The University of Alabama since 1976, including director of Engineering Technology Programs, head of civil & environmental engineering and founding director of the University Transportation Center for Alabama.

An Alabama native, Turner has done his state and nation proud through improvements to traffic operations, traffic safety and highway design. During his tenure, he completed 130 research projects for more than $30 million. His clients include the Federal Highway Administration, Alabama Department of Transportation, Transportation Research Board, Alabama cities and many others.

He has more than 300 publications and 600 presentations at technical and professional meetings, and has written or taught more than 75 short courses. An example of his work is the groundbreaking, large-scale, scientifically-controlled study of cost-effectiveness of seat belts on school buses.

The study was closely observed by the National Transportation Safety Board, the National Highway Safety Administration and other national and international safety agencies.

He is a past national president of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Council of University Transportation Center, and he has served on the board of governors of the American Association of Engineering Societies, the board of directors of ABET and the executive committee of the Engineering Accreditation Commission. Additionally, Turner served as chair of the Alabama Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors.

He is vice president of the Southern Zone of the National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors, and he is the incoming chair of the technical activities council of the Transportation Research Board.

Turner is listed in Who’s Who in America and 20 similar programs. He is a National Honor Member of Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Fraternity and a National Associate of the National Research Council of the National Academies. In 1990, Turner became UA’s second recipient of the Blackmon-Moody Outstanding Professor Award.

Within the College of Engineering, he was named to the inaugural class of Distinguished Engineering Fellows, and received the Teacher of the Year award in 1984, the T. Morris Hackney Faculty Leadership award in 1998 and the Outstanding Alumni Volunteer award in 2000.

Turner and his wife, Linda, reside in Tuscaloosa. They have four children and nine grandchildren.

Thompson Engineering

Celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2013, Thompson Engineering is a significant asset to the state and region. The firm is committed to engineering excellence through the planning, design and construction of major economic development projects. Thompson Engineering is an employee-owned, multi-disciplined engineering firm with more than 300 employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas.

Thompson Engineering’s contributions to the state of Alabama began in 1953 under the direction of Vester J. Thompson Jr., and his leadership set the foundation for the multi-service company. Thompson operated an exploration drilling, materials testing, construction inspection and chemistry laboratory firm dedicated to the quality assurance of construction in Mobile and the surrounding areas.

By the 1970s, Thompson Engineering had hired professional engineers specializing in geotechnical engineering and environmental sciences, launching one of the Southeast’s most diverse engineering firms. The company’s work can be seen at major landmarks in Alabama, and its projects stretch from the Gulf of Mexico to the East Coast.

Its legacy includes economic development contributions, sustainable design for industrial and commercial development, environmental stewardship, coastal conservation and recovery projects, a safety program continually lauded for its comprehensive employee training and community service.

At Thompson Engineering, health and safety, community and responsible stewardship of the environment are top priorities. This commitment is proven by the multiple awards given by the Associated Builders and Contractors and Associated General Contractors, including the ABC’s Eagle Award for Alabama’s Safest Company in 2009, 2010 and 2011; Thompson’s recognition by the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce as the only three-time recipient of the Corporate Community Service Award; and Partners for Progress annual environmental stewardship award in 2013.

Also in 2013, the firm was named an American Council of Engineering Companies of Alabama award winner for its lead role in the design of the Austal Cove Reclamation project, which created valuable land area to help Austal increase its shipbuilding capabilities.

In 2009, ACEC recognized Thompson with the Engineering Excellence Award for its contribution to the design and construction of the new Gulf State Park Pier located on the Gulf of Mexico at the Alabama State Park in Gulf Shores.

The Thompson Holdings Foundation was established in 2004 to honor Vester J. Thompson Jr. and other dedicated employees. The Foundation has assisted more than 100 charitable programs and has donated $400,000 in grants and scholarships.

Thompson Engineering is a subsidiary of Thompson Holdings Inc. Its sister companies are Watermark Design Group, an architectural and interior design firm, and Thompson Consulting Services, a disaster recovery consulting firm. As a group, the three firms provide a broad range of architectural and engineering services.

The Hall of Fame is overseen by engineering colleges and schools at Auburn University, Alabama A&M University, The University of Alabama, Tuskegee University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of South Alabama. It is administratively managed through the UA College of Engineering.