News and Events

As the 2009 Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumnus for The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, John J. Tracy, Ph.D., is an excellent role model to students and fellow alumni, and is recognized for his dedicated service to the School and UC Irvine, including his role on the Engineering Advisory Board (EAB) and his many contributions to enhancing the quality of engineering education and career opportunities for students. 

Tracy is senior vice president for engineering, operations & technology and chief technology officer at The Boeing Company, and is responsible for defining and implementing corporate strategies for attaining and maintaining technical and functional excellence, as well as providing strategic direction to several functions and business organizations comprising of more than 100,000 Boeing employees. These include the Engineering, Operations, Supplier Management and Quality Assurance functions, together with the Information Technology, Phantom Works, Intellectual Property Management, and Environment, Health and Safety organizations.  Tracy also serves on the company's Executive Council.

He received a Ph.D. in engineering at UC Irvine in 1987, a master's degree in physics from California State University, Los Angeles in 1981, and a bachelor's degree in physics from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1976. Since earning his Ph.D., he has been an active alumnus of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, assisting the School in developing strategic relationships with industry by serving on the EAB, and participating in School events and functions.

Tracy has also been recognized and honored in the engineering community for his outstanding professional achievements, including his distinction as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Royal Aeronautical Society.  Additionally, he was selected as the 2006 Hispanic Engineer of the Year by the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corporation.  In 2007, Tracy received The Henry Samueli School of Engineering’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year award.

---

Georges Belfort, ’69 M.S., ’72 Ph.D., has been named one of the “100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers as part of its Centennial Celebration. Belfort, who is the Russell Sage Endowed Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was “recognized for research on the behavior of biological molecules at solid interfaces and the use of membrane bioreactors to selectively recover medicinals from complex mixtures.” Belfort also received the 2008 E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, sponsored by ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Co. 

---

Samueli School alumnus Jonathan Posner, B.S. ’95, M.S. ’98, Ph.D. ’01, was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. Posner, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and chemical engineering in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University, was recognized for his proposal addressing the deposition of colloidal crystal films that are important to a diverse range of applications, including development for use as photonic crystals for integrated optical circuits, as super hydrophobic surfaces, and as solid-state sieving matrices for biochemical separations. 

---

  For further event information, please contact Asli Ozguz, assistant director of development, at (949) 824-8546.