Anonymous alumnus endows award in recognition of EECS professors

An anonymous alumnus of the MEMS/ECE program and his spouse (who also attended UM) have generously provided a gift to endow the Wise-Najafi Prize for Engineering Excellence in the Miniature World.

The donors have established this award in recognition of U-M College of Engineering Professors Kensall D. Wise and Khalil Najafi and their pioneering work in the field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) over many decades.  The award also recognizes them as exceptional teachers of an entire generation of engineering scholars.

The Wise-Najafi Prize for Engineering Excellence in the Miniature World will recognize and incentivize outstanding research and scholarship related to engineering at the meso-scale, micron-scale, nano-scale and beyond.  Faculty from across campus who have shown exceptional creativity in the science and engineering of miniaturization are eligible for consideration of this distinguished prize.

Professor Khalil Najafi has served as the Peter and Evelyn Fuss Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 2008.  He maintains an active research program in many areas, including micromachining technologies, micromachined sensors, actuators, and MEMS.  He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the U-M Distinguished University Innovator Award for his breakthrough technologies in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).  

Professor Kensall D. Wise is the William G. Dow Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.  He officially retired from the University of Michigan in June 2011 after decades of service to the College of Engineering. With his unique combination of inventiveness, focus on teamwork, and dogged determination, he built a world-class program in MEMS and microsystems at the College, which is supported by one of the top nanofabrication facilities in the nation.