Dean Raheem Beyah honors 28 engineers for their achievements and leadership, including nine new members of the Engineering Hall of Fame.
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Leaders of Fortune 500 companies. Health entrepreneurs who have helped 2 million people. And NATO’s former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.
They were among the 28 Georgia Tech graduates honored at the College of Engineering’s 2023 Alumni Awards Induction Ceremony. The College annually celebrates alumni who have contributed to the profession, advanced in their careers, and enhanced the lives of others both personally and professionally.
“The Alumni Awards celebrate the creativity, passion, and enduring impact of engineering,” said Raheem Beyah, dean of the College and Southern Company Chair. “Our work creates the fabric of society — the technology driving our digital age, the supply chains driving the global economy, the very buildings we live and work in. From your doctor’s office to your drive home, engineering — and Georgia Tech engineering’s impact — is everywhere.”
Honorees are nominated by committees within each of the College’s eight schools and formally submitted for selection.
Seven graduates joined the College’s Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni based on their early achievements. Ten others entered the College’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni for their significant and distinguished contributions as senior leaders in the field.
Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni inductee Jacqueline Gilyard Jones (center) with Dean Raheem Beyah and Sandy Magnus. Magnus — engineering alumna, former NASA astronaut, and professor of the practice — served as the ceremony’s co-host.
The awards ceremony culminated in the induction of nine new members of the College of Engineering Hall of Fame, including Gen. Philip Breedlove, a 1977 civil engineering graduate who retired from the U.S. Air Force after 39 years of service.
“It wasn’t truly the actual civil engineering that bore me through a career in the military,” Breedlove said during his acceptance speech. “The most important thing that I remember from my time at Georgia Tech was that it taught me how to solve problems. I grew in confidence because my school taught me that I could get through the toughest challenges. I learned to dig in, not accept ‘no,’ and always drive to an answer that would serve the purpose.”
Resilience was a common theme of the evening, including for Hall of Famer Decie Burnett Autin Coleman, who received her chemical engineering degree in 1980.
Glucobit co-founders Vedant Pradeep (left) and Ziyi Gao accept the Dean’s Impact Award.
“Georgia Tech is a training ground for how to deal with adversity. What Georgia Tech provided for me was the ability to think logically to solve problems. And to be resilient,” said Autin Coleman, who spent 40 years at ExxonMobil. “I’m very grateful for everything that has done for me.”
Beyah presented two other special awards during the event. The Dean’s Appreciation Award went to former engineering dean John A. White, the founder of the Alumni Awards Induction Ceremony.
Beyah presented the Dean’s Impact Award to Ziyi Gao, a 2017 industrial engineering graduate, and Vedant Pradeep, who earned degrees in chemical and computer engineering in 2019. They co-founded Glucobit while participating in the CREATE-X program and developed an app called Reframe that helps users change their relationship with alcohol and reduce consumption. Their app has helped more than 2 million people across 80 countries, and they’ve raised more than $27 million in venture capital funding.
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2023 Inductees
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From left: Breedlove, Coleman, Espy, Kilpatrick, Lofgren, Fanning, Muggridge
Engineering Hall of Fame
- Thomas Barnhardt, III (B.S.T.E. 1955)
- Gen. Philip M. Breedlove (B.C.E. 1977)
- Melinda (Mel) Coker (B.E.E. 1987)
- Decie Burnett Autin Coleman (B.S.Ch.E. 1980)
- Goodman B. (G.B.) Espy (B.M.E. 1957)
- Tom Fanning (B.S.I.M. 1979, M.S.I.M. 1980, Hon. Ph.D. 2013)
- Deborah Kilpatrick (B.S.E.S.M. 1989, M.S.M.E. 1994, Ph.D.M.E. 1996)
- Christopher B. Lofgren (Ph.D.I.E. 1986)
- Ray T. Muggridge, III (B.A.E. 1970)
Back row: Hamilton, Sundareswaran, Mujica, Brown, Colbert, Bain
Front row: Jones, Patterson, Mason, Burnette
The Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni
- Paul Jeffrey (PJ) Bain (B.S.I.E. 1991)
- Rebeccah J. C. Brown (M.S.M.E. 2001, Ph.D.M.E. 2003)
- Michael W. Burnette (B.E.E. 1998, M.S.M.O.T. 2006)
- Theodore (Ted) Colbert, III (B.I.E. 1996)
- James R. Hamilton (B.C.E. 1977)
- Jacqueline Gilyard Jones (B.Cer.E 1984)
- Michelle D. Mason (B.S.Ch.E. 1986)
- Fernando A. Mujica (Ph.D.E.C.E. 1999)
- C. Anne Patterson (B.A.E. 1971, M.S.A.E. 1975)
- Kartik S. Sundareswaran (B.S.Cmp.E. 2003, M.S.E.C.E. 2007, Ph.D.Bio.E. 2008)
From left: Tzegaegbe, Ferreira, Chandrasekhar, Loftin, Bellows, Ball, Pathak
The Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni
- Mario Ball (B.S.B.M.E. 2007)
- Benjamin Bellows (M.S.A.E. 2005, Ph.D.A.E. 2006)
- Amit Chandrasekhar (B.S.Ch.B.E. 2011, M.S.Ch.B.E. 2012)
- Kris Johnson Ferreira (B.S.I.E. 2007)
- Amanda R. Loftin (B.S.P.F.E. 2013)
- Mihir G. Pathak (B.S.M.E. 2008, M.S.M.E. 2010, Ph.D.M.E. 2013)
- Jacob Tzegaegbe (B.S.C.E. 2011, M.S.C.E. 2013)
John A. White, Jr.
Dean’s Appreciation Award
John A. White, Jr.
Dean’s Impact Award
Ziyi Gao (B.S.I.E. 2017) and Vedant Pradeep (B.Ch.B.E. 2019, B.Cmp.E. 2019) for Glucobit, Inc.
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