OSU's College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology announces 2024 Hall of Fame Inductees, Lohmann Medal recipients

OSU's College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology announces 2024 Hall of Fame Inductees, Lohmann Medal recipients

Monday, November 4, 2024

Media Contact: Kristi Wheeler | Manager, CEAT marketing and Communications | 405-744-5831 | [email protected]

The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at Oklahoma State University has announced the 2024 Hall of Fame inductees and Lohmann Medal recipients.

CEAT Hall of Fame nominees must be a distinguished engineer, architect or technologist who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession or OSU and has served their community, state and nation with distinction. They should represent some of the most distinguished alumni and industry leaders associated with CEAT. The following candidates meet and exceed all criteria for the CEAT Hall of Fame recognition.

The Melvin R. Lohmann Medal was established in 1991 to honor alumni of CEAT for contributions to the profession or education of engineers, architects or technologists that merits the highest recognition. These honorees are also inducted into the CEAT Hall of Fame.

The college will hold a Hall of Fame and Lohmann Medal Ceremony on Nov. 9, 2024, to honor the inductees.

Honorees who will be inducted are Joseph Campbell, Rao Surampalli, Michael Buser, Derek Gates, Mitch Myers and Bob Nickles.

Hall of Fame inductee and Lohmann Medal recipient

Joseph Campbell, Hall of Fame inductee and Lohmann Medal recipient

Joseph Campbell
Dr. Joseph Campbell attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1979. He received his master's degree in electrical engineering from John Hopkins University in 1986 and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1992.

In 1992, Campbell was awarded "Best Dissertation" across all OSU colleges. In 2022, he was awarded MIT Lincoln Laboratory's prestigious Technical Excellence Award. Campbell's career continues to focus on developing and transitioning numerous emerging technologies to advance our nation's security.

His professional work began in 1979 at NSA with new modem and speech compression/coding algorithms, enabling the US government to have highly secure speech communications over ordinary telephone channels. This breakthrough was made possible by Campbell, et al.'s Federal Standards 1015 and 1016 Voice Coders. Later, his biometrics research and Ph.D. thesis at OSU allowed for the identification of a person based on their voice.

At MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 2012, Campbell worked under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to create new technologies for identifying patterns and illegal activity with a goal of combatting human trafficking, which was featured on 60 Minutes.

He then became the leader of the AI Technology and Systems Group. This research group focuses on human language, multimedia and cyber challenges critical to national security.

Last year, Campbell was promoted to Laboratory Fellow working for the Director's Office and is now leading an artificial intelligence study to advance the technology for national security applications far beyond the familiar generative AI services we know today.

Lohmann Medal recipient

Rao Surampalli, Lohmann Medal recipient

Rao Surampalli
Dr. Rao Surampalli received a master's degree in environmental engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1978 and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Iowa State University in 1985.

Over the last 30 years, Surampalli worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before retiring as the engineer director. In this role, he worked to develop innovative and sustainable technologies for design and construction of water and wastewater facilities; over 500 water and wastewater treatment facilities were built.

He is currently the CEO and Chief Technology Officer of the Global Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability. Surampalli was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the U.S. National Academy of Construction, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Distinguished Fellow of the International Water Association, and a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers among many other organizations. These roles have allowed Surampalli to experience and appreciate the challenges of the environmental and water resources profession, which has led to him being awarded over 30 national honors/awards.

Through his international work, Surampalli is a noteworthy humanitarian, providing technical assistance to over 25 countries on six continents. He is passionate about transferring his knowledge and expertise in environmental protection to developing countries and has done so at his own personal expense. He is a member of the International Experts on Earth System Preservation, an organization dedicated to researching destructive human intervention in Earth's System and providing solutions.

In 2001, Surampalli was recognized as a Distinguished Alumni and then inducted into the CEAT Hall of Fame in 2015. He was inducted into the Iowa State University Hall of Fame in 2022 and became one of their Distinguished Alumni in 2002.

Hall of Fame inductee

Michael Buser, Hall of Fame inductee

Michael Buser
Dr. Michael Buser attended Oklahoma State University earning his bachelor's degree in 1995 and master's degree in 1997, both in biosystems engineering. In 2004, he earned his Ph.D. in biological and agricultural engineering from Texas A&M University.

Buser currently serves as a professor and the Endowed Chair in Cotton Engineering, Ginning, and Mechanization at Texas A&M University. Buser cherishes his role as he has stepped directly into his Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Calvin Parnell's former position. His mission is to expand the cotton engineering program which could not be done without the support of cotton industry stakeholders and federal researchers. Buser finds incredible enjoyment working with undergraduate and graduate students. He is currently the lead faculty member for Texas A&M biological and agricultural engineering capstone courses.

Before his current role, Buser served as the inaugural USDA Agricultural Research Service National Program Leader for Engineering. Buser managed or co-managed 91 in-house appropriated research projects and 576 non-in-house projects. Buser is the founder and was the National Leader for the USDA Partnerships for Data Innovations, a national program focused on standardizing, integrating and automating agricultural research data through innovation.

Buser has been nationally recognized as a distinguished communicator for agriculture and technology. Most notably, he is very proud of his research team that conducted the National Cotton Gin Particulate Matter Emission study which provided $1.46 billion in cost-saving efforts for the cotton ginning industry. Data from this national study is used in nearly all the cotton ginning air quality permits in the United States. Buser has been involved in a wide range of agricultural research that includes air quality, water conservation, food safety, machinery design, electronic design, data science, artificial intelligence, logistics, and conservation stewardship. You will often hear Buser attribute his research successes to his incredible interdisciplinary and multi-institutional teams and outstanding stakeholders.

Hall of Fame inductee

Derek Gates, Hall of Fame inductee

Derek Gates
Derek Gates earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1980.

Upon graduating, Gates was met with numerous engineering job offers as engineers were in high demand. He decided the career path for him was in the oil and gas industry. His first job was for Cities Service Oil and Gas in Tulsa where he did power design for refineries. Due to a company merger, Gates began working for Amoco Production Company in Tulsa designing seismic equipment. After seven years, he then took on a role at Dresser Engineering designing the electrical power for gas plants and refineries. It was here that he became a licensed Professional Engineer.

In 1992, after another merger, Gates decided to start his own private engineering firm, D.W. Gates Engineering Services, in North Tulsa.

He continues to be well-known for technical skills. Since founding, Gates consistently hires OSU students as both summer interns and full-time employees at his firm. His firm has provided engineering services for OSU buildings such as the Colvin Center, Math Science Building, the OSU bus terminal and many other locations. At the OSU Institute of Technology Center Gas Compressor Building, Gates' company designed the complete mechanical/electrical and plumbing design systems in 2012.

Gates' firm specializes in a variety of areas, and the projects are seen across Tulsa. In 2015, they completed the city of Tulsa LED street lighting on I-44 from Riverside to Memorial. In 2018, they designed the new LED lighting at the Will Rogers and Central High School football stadiums. D.W. Gates Engineering also partners with ODOT to relocate overhead utilities. The Pawhuska rodeo ground and Chandler Park field house, both designed by Gates, feature the two largest photovoltaic solar collector systems in the state of Oklahoma. Finally, on Tulsa Route 66, they provided power design to the Gateway Structures.

For the last 20 years, Gates has been a member of the OSU Black Alumni Association where he generously donated to the OSU Black Alumni Golf Tournament, scholarships through the association and direct donations. Today, Gates is passionate about helping future generations build technical skills, so they can have a successful and fruitful career and life. Gates is an active member in K-12 outreach by speaking to students and encouraging their consideration of OSU engineering program.

Hall of Fame inductee

Mitch Myers, Hall of Fame inductee

Mitch Myers
Mitch Myers obtained a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and management in 1995 and a Master of Business Administration in 1999 from Oklahoma State University.

Upon graduating in 1995, Myers began his career at FW Murphy, a provider of instrumentation and controls used for industrial engines. He quickly advanced and spearheaded a company-wide ERP implementation across five geographic sites. This success led to Myers directing all operational activities, including 400 employees across the sites. Myers successfully implemented APICS, Lean and Six Sigma within the organization.

Shortly after, Myers accepted the opportunity to lead the construction, hiring and transition of a manufacturing facility in Hangzhou, China. After the completion of this project, he returned to Tulsa and purchased a $20M manufacturing company, Thermal Specialties. Over the years since the acquisition of Thermal, Myers has acquired other forms of businesses: interior design, medical benefits, and real estate, among many others.

Today, Myers continues to show his devout support for IEM and OSU. He has made it a mission to financially contribute to the education for IEM students and elevated learning spaces on OSU campuses. In 2017, he was inducted into The Cowboy Academy of Industrial Engineering and Management and elected the second chairman only a year later. He also served as the chair of the OSU Industrial Advisory Board for two terms.

In 2023, Myers was honored as OSU Riata Center Cowboy 100, highlighting the contributions of OSU entrepreneurial graduates from across the university and their positive influences on OSU, students, and their impact across the nation.

Hall of Fame inductee

Bob Nickles, Hall of Fame inductee

Bob Nickles
Bob Nickles earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering design technology in 1989 from Oklahoma State University.

His career began at Nickles Machine in Ponca City as a project engineer, and he worked through the ranks to ultimately become the CEO. In 1995, Nickles completed a leveraged buy-out; in the following years several additional companies were acquired to establish Nickles Industrial as the largest independent parts, service and repair organization in the compression industry. Nickles Industrial was sold in 2001 to Cooper Cameron, a Fortune 500 company. Nickles then relocated to the Houston area where he worked for Cooper Cameron as the senior vice president of sales and marketing and the senior vice president of operations through 2002.

Nickles then co-founded Fast Fusion, a company that revolutionized the large-diameter HDPE pipe fusion business; Fast Fusion holds over 20 patents and numerous trademarks. In 2004, Nickles was a founding equity investor and Chief Operating Officer at Valerus Compression Services from the company's origination until its sale in 2009 to Texas Pacific Group.

Nickles' impact in the compression business was far from complete. In 2013, he founded Alegacy and today is the Executive Chairman. During early meetings, the culture and intent of leaving "a legacy" with any new venture became apparent - hence the name "Alegacy." Since 2013, Alegacy has sold over $3.5 billion of natural gas compressor packages and paid over $180 million to employee compensation and retirement funds. Additionally, Nickles is the co-founder and Manager of Agnes Systems and Agnes IP holdings, a company working to eliminate fugitive methane emissions. Nickles has founded/co-founded, acquired and/or funded 18 other companies.

A member of the First Financial Bank Board of Directors, Nickles serves on the Executive and Nominating/Corporate Governance Committees, as Chairman of the Risk Committee and the Kingwood Regional Advisory Board. He is Chairman of the Finance Council at St. Matthias Catholic Church and serves on the Board of Directors for the Waller County Economic Development Partnership.

Nickles is passionate about creating and growing companies that are beneficial for all stakeholders, customers, employees and the community. The Nickles family is also passionate about giving back to their community and to Oklahoma State University. Their philanthropic efforts include endowed scholarships in OSU Academics and Athletics, donors to the Human Performance & Nutrition Research Institute and support of St. John's Catholic Student Center.

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