OSU's College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology announces Hall of Fame inductees and Lohmann Medal recipients
Monday, November 23, 2020
The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology (CEAT) at Oklahoma State University has announced the 2020 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 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.
Rear Admiral Huan T. Nguyen graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He also holds master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University, engineering from Purdue University and information technology from Carnegie Mellon University, where he graduated with highest distinction. Nguyen has stated that he appreciates his time spent at OSU.
Nguyen was born in Hue, Vietnam. During the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War, Nguyen’s mother, father and five brothers and sisters were killed by Viet Cong Communist guerillas in their family home outside of Saigon. Nguyen’s uncle took him in, and in 1975 Colonel Edward Veiluva and his wife Dorothy sponsored their family to come to the United States as political refugees. Col. Veiluva was a family friend who was stationed at Tinker Air Force Base, so Nguyen’s family moved to Midwest City, Okla. where Nguyen would spend the rest of his childhood.
Nguyen was inspired to serve his adopted country by the Sailors and Marines who helped the thousands of Vietnamese refugees like himself. He received a direct commission in the Reserve Engineering Duty Officer program in 1993.
While serving active duty in the military, Nguyen’s operational tours include multiple waterfront maintenance assignments, including being the testing officer on the USS Kitty Hawk during restricted availability at the Ship Repair Facility in Yokosuka, Japan as well as the officer-in-charge of Detachment 113 at the Ship Repair Facility in Yokosuka. He served as executive officer and chief engineer for the Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (CREW) field office at Camp Victory in Iraq, and was instrumental in the stand-up of Joint CREW Composite Squadron One in Iraq.
Some of his staff assignments include being the director of military programs at the Naval Sea System Command (NAVSEA); being the executive officer for NAVSEA enlisted personnel; being the Engineering Duty Officer community manager and most recently, he has served as deputy chief information officer for NAVSEA. Reserve assignments included command of five units within NAVSEA, the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the Office of Naval Research.
Nguyen has also worked in industry where he has obtained several patents in automotive electronics. In August of 1994, Nguyen began work as a staff electrical engineer for General Motors (GM) where he eventually managed a cross-functional team of over 30 engineers in the design and integration of the Powertrain Control Module to all GM platforms. In 2006, he took a position as the senior vice president of Bank of America, where he established the strategic framework and governance for Bank of America computing on cybersecurity, which included firewalls, streamlined demilitarized zones (DMZ), and the optimization and consolidation of data centers. In 2009, he began working with Exelis, Inc. as a senior technical advisor and director of business development where he managed a multi-million-dollar portfolio of independent research and development projects on ground electronic warfare countermeasures, counter-remote improvised explosive device systems and interference mitigation systems.
Nguyen is the first Vietnamese-American to be promoted to the rank of rear admiral. He has received a Legion of Merit and a Bronze Star Medal, which he is particularly proud of, for his work in the Middle East. He has received the Meritorious Service Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal. He has also had the honor of serving on teams that have been awarded the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, the Navy Unit Commendation and the Navy Meritorious Commendation.
“OSU had a profound impact on both my life and career,” Nguyen said. “Later in life, particularly on deployments to Iraq when in the middle of the desert, I would think of home. I would think of Midwest City and Oklahoma State.”
Nguyen and his wife Kim have three children, two daughters and a son. His oldest daughter is expecting a baby boy early next year and will soon make him a grandpa.
Nguyen will be inducted into CEAT's Hall of Fame and recieve the Lohmann Medal, the college's highest honor.
Dr. Stephen W. Searcy began his education in Missouri, graduating from the University of Missouri with bachelor’s degrees in agricultural mechanization and agricultural engineering and a master’s degree in agricultural mechanization. He received his doctoral degree in agricultural engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1980.
While at OSU, his dissertation research focused on microprocessors. He was interested in applications of microprocessors, which were a new technology at the time. He developed a microprocessor-controlled metering device for pre-germinated seeds that were carried in a highly viscous fluid. The dissertation work gave Searcy the marketable skills needed to be accepted into an assistant professor position at Texas A&M. He advanced through the academic ranks, and served as a senior professor and head of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering until his recent retirement, and is now a professor emeritus.
Searcy has a long and dedicated history of service to his profession. He has been a longtime member of the American Society of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering (ASABE), where he has served as director of their information and electronic technologies (IET) division for two years. From 1998-2000, Searcy lead the IET-354 Computers committee, and was a member of several other technical committees including Power and Machinery (PM)-54 Precision Agriculture, PM-58 Agricultural Equipment Automation and IET-07 Forward Planning and Structure. These technical committees set research directions for the profession and wrote standards related to their technical areas. He served ASABE on the Board of Directors, as treasurer, and in 2016 was elected president.
Searcy is an internationally recognized leader in research on intelligent machine systems for agriculture, and has been a pioneering contributor to the rapidly evolving field of precision agriculture. Recently, he has applied his expertise and insight to the emerging opportunities in bioenergy, with his particular interest related to the challenging logistics related to the production, harvest and transport of energy crops. Searcy’s prominence in this area of research led to him being selected to serve a three-year term on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee.
Outside of research, Searcy has been a major contributor to undergraduate and graduate education. He has either developed or modified more than a dozen different courses on electronic and machine systems, information systems, design and research during his teaching career. Searcy has proactively sought and procured about $250,000 in resources for the teaching program at Texas A&M and has mentored graduate and undergraduate students, coordinated academic programs, advised student clubs, and done a host of other things to support students and advance engineering education.
Under Searcy’s leadership the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M has been consistently ranked as a top 5 program for Biological/Agricultural Engineering programs by U.S. News & World Report. He has received many honors and awards throughout his career, including the Distinguished Service Award in Engineering from the University of Missouri’s College of Engineering, the IET Division Chair Distinguished Service Award from ASABE, where he has also been awarded multiple Superior Paper Awards, multiple Blue Ribbon Awards in Educational Aids and was elected the rank of Fellow.
Searcy and his wife Nancy reside in College Station, Texas, where in his spare time, he enjoys hiking, woodworking, growing and canning vegetables, and reading. Another one of his passions has been documenting the impact of the agricultural engineering departmental faculty at Texas A&M University, where he co-authored a book entitled Engineering Agriculture at Texas A&M: The First Hundred Years for the centennial celebration of the department.
Searcy will be inducted into CEAT's Hall of Fame and recieve the Lohmann Medal, the college's highest honor.
Thomas W. Britton Jr. graduated from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1966 and completed his master’s degree in industrial engineering and management in 1968. Britton chose a career path that included work for two global professional audit, tax and management consulting firms, Arthur Young & Company (now Ernst & Young) and PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he rose through the ranks and held many different titles over his 35-year career.
His career was, foremost, formulating and leading the delivery of world strategic operational consulting services to global clients. To achieve this, he led firm internal business units and initiatives to define the consulting business strategy and operational structure, achieve revenue, profitability and quality consulting delivery goals.
On the client side, he led the acquisition of and directed multi-million-dollar global projects to formulate enterprise strategy, develop information technology plans, optimize operational resource management resources, design and implement integrated business processes and technology to improve enterprise resource planning and execution.
While at Arthur Young & Company, Britton served as a lead partner in the national, world class, manufacturing practice, and was the practice leader for the West Region Energy Consulting Practice. He was also the managing partner of the Orange County Office Consulting Practice for eight years. He led multidiscipline consulting service teams for clients including Florida Power and Light, Gray Line Tours, LA Gear (now Sketchers), the California Division of Highways, the Alexandria Egypt Sanitation Treatment Department and Northrop Grumman’s Aircraft Division.
After 20 years at Arthur Young & Company, Britton spent the next 15 years as a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers during which time he served in many different client leadership and internal organizational roles for the firm.
He led the multi-industry West Region Products Consulting Practice, serving high technology, consumer products and retail clients. During this time, he served on America’s and the Global Products Industry Leadership Council. The scope of services ranged from strategic business planning, operational re-engineering, change management and implementation of enterprise resource planning systems. Consumer products and retail clients included Allergan, Nike, Levi, Warner Brothers, PetSmart and Disney.
Following this responsibility, he was appointed the global chairman of the high technology consulting practice. The $750 million full-service practice provided business altering consulting support to clients such as IBM, Intel, Motorola, Hitachi, Panasonic, Toshiba, Nokia, Siemens, Dell, Compaq, Samsung, Western Digital, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft.
At the time of his retirement, he was the chief operating officer for the West Region Consulting Business, comprising of over 1,500 professional consultants. In addition, he served on the firm’s nominating committee to select the firm’s incoming senior partner of the America’s Audit, Tax and Consulting Business.
Throughout his career, Britton was involved in numerous philanthropic, government and professional organizations. Among them, he was chairman of the city of San Dimas, California planning commission, was a member of the OSU Alumni Association Leadership Council, was president of the Orange County OSU Alumni Association chapter, was trustee for the Los Angeles Special Olympics, was trustee and president of the board for the South Coast Repertory Theater, served as the annual dinner chairman for the Providence Speech and Heading Center, and was trustee of the Orange County Arts Council.
He has received many honors including being listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the West and Who’s Who in Industry. He has authored several pieces of industry literature in the past 35 years. In 2016, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the OSU Cowboy Academy of Industrial Engineering and Management in recognition of his distinguished career. He currently serves on the academy’s board of directors. Additionally, Britton was recognized as the 2018 Outstanding Alumni for OSU’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s School of Industrial Engineering and Management.
Britton retired in 2003 which has given he and his wife, Deborah, the opportunity to enjoy their passions which include sailing, golfing and traveling. They are the proud parents of two daughters, Natalie and Kimberly, and enjoy their time attending events for their five grandchildren.
Britton fondly remembers his time at OSU as times that taught him life lessons that have been invaluable to him throughout his life and career, “in all that I do, I owe a debt of gratitude to OSU for the ‘Cowboy Brand’ it made on me.”
Britton will be inducted into CEAT's Hall of Fame for his outstanding contributions to his profession and OSU.
Mark Sutton graduated from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1980 and began his career with Mid America Pipeline Company where he worked until 1982. Shortly after, he joined GPA Midstream, then called the Gas Processors Association, as director of technical services and worked his way up through the association where, in 2013, he was elected president and CEO.
The GPA Midstream Association is comprised of more than 80 operating companies in the midstream industry. The association’s research and technical efforts include setting and adopting standards for natural gas liquids; developing simple and reproducible test methods to define the industry’s raw materials and products; managing a cooperative research program that is used worldwide; and being a go-to resource for a multitude of technical reports and publications.
Under Sutton’s leadership, GPA Midstream established an office of federal affairs in Washington, D.C., and has grown to be an international organization with associations in Europe, Venezuela, Canada and the Middle East.
Sutton also served as the leader of GPA’s sister organization, GPSA Midstream Suppliers Association (GPSA). GPSA has grown to an organization of over 400 companies engaged in meeting the supply and demand service needs of the midstream gas industry. The cooperative producer-supplier relationship demonstrated by GPA Midstream and GPSA allows for the GPA Midstream Association to conduct numerous research and technical evaluation programs through the cooperation and direction of GPA Midstream and GPSA member companies. Additionally, GPSA assists the GPA Midstream Association Research Program and contributes to the future of the industry by providing funds for undergraduate engineering scholarships, as well as professorships at colleges with natural gas programs, contributing more than $1 million to the future of the industry to date.
During Sutton’s tenure with GPA Midstream Association and GPSA, a combined team managed the editing and redeployment of each of the five revisions of the GPSA Engineering Data Book in order to provide the industry with the most up-to-date technical information. The GPSA Engineering Data Book is recognized as a valuable resource around the world and more than 50,000 copies of the book have been distributed through these team efforts.
Sutton has received the Award of Merit from the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) for serving as secretary of the ASTM D-2, Subcommittee H, a committee responsible for liquified petroleum (LP)-Gas. He has served on the board and as president of the Tulsa, Okla., Petroleum Club.
Sutton retired from the GPA Midstream Association and GPSA in 2019, having served both associations for nearly 37 years. Since retirement, he has been appointed by GPA Midstream to serve as a public member of the Propane Education and Research Council (PERC), a group he has been involved with since its inception.
Sutton and his wife Patty live off of lake Fort Gibson where he enjoys taking his family and friends boating and, since retirement, has plans to improve his fishing skills.
Sutton reflects on his time at OSU, “my time in Stillwater was one of the best times I have ever had and my advice to students would be to study hard but also make sure you enjoy your time at OSU to the fullest.”
Sutton will be inducted into CEAT's Hall of Fame for his outstanding contributions to his profession and OSU.
The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology would like to congratulate all of its Hall of Fame inductees and Lohmann Medal recipients.
MEDIA CONTACT: Dakota Keith | CEAT Marketing | 405-744-1292 | dakota.keith@okstate.edu