UA Graduate Student Receives Honor Society Fellowship

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.–Robert N. Davis, a University of Alabama graduate student in aerospace engineering, recently received a fellowship from the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society to continue graduate studies in the aerospace engineering field.

Davis, a Montgomery resident, graduated from UA in May 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. He was awarded the fellowship based on his academic success, campus leadership, service, and promise of future contributions to the engineering profession.

Davis received numerous honors during his undergraduate years at the Capstone, including his selection as a “USA Today” All-USA College Academic Team member. In 2003, Davis was a National Collegiate Honors Council Portz Scholar, one of three scholars awarded annually and the first recipient in UA history.

In addition to these honors, he was a Blount Presidential Scholar, 1999; was awarded first place in the annual University of Alabama System Honors Research Day, 2002 and 2003; and won the department of aerospace engineering and mechanics’ Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award, 2002. Davis also participated in the 2003 summer NASA Undergraduate Student Research Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

He participated in the University Honors Program and the Computer Based Honors Program, and he has been the principal author of four papers researching the performance of projectiles for the U.S. Air Force based on work done at UA with Dr. Stanley Jones, Cudworth Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics. His papers have been published in the Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science and have been presented at national and international conferences.

Tau Beta Pi annually recognizes graduate students and awarded 35 student fellowships this year. The engineering honor society was founded at Lehigh University in 1885 and is the world’s largest engineering society. It has collegiate chapters at 228 engineering colleges in the United States and active alumni chapters in 17 cities.

In 1837, UA became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering, with about 1,900 students and more than 95 faculty, is one of the three oldest continuously operating engineering programs in the country and has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.