Time flies.
It’s hard to believe this academic year has come to a close, along with my first year serving as dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.
But what a year it’s been. As you’ll read in this edition of the Auburn Engineer, big things are happening on the Plains.
In January, we signed the single largest prime research contract in Auburn University history, designed to help the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center boost its increasing modernization efforts.
In March, the Food and Drug Administration rubber-stamped our new Terra.X 7 Tesla MRI machine, the first field-installed, clinically approved parallel transmit scanner in the world. This cutting-edge technology will expand our research, emphasizing cardiovascular, orthopedic and brain imaging.
From Auburn to Huntsville to Washington, D.C., our footprint and impact continues to grow across the nation. We recently entered into an agreement with the Space Development Agency (SDA) that will allow our Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus in Huntsville to become a base of technical support operations for the SDA, the sole arm of the U.S. Space Force operating in Alabama. In addition to logistical support, the partnership will provide opportunities for collaboration between the SDA and the Auburn University Applied Research Institute located in the Huntsville facility.
This year, we also surpassed record enrollment, scholarships and research, including more than $90 million in new awards and grants.
Much of that has happened because of the support of our alumni, friends and corporate partners. One of those alumni who has been instrumental to our growth and success is Charles Gavin, and in this issue you’ll read about his impact and why it’s so important to him to provide opportunities to students — opportunities he was once afforded because of a scholarship.
While we say goodbye to another year and our class of graduates who are set to go out and change the world, we also say goodbye — or see you later — to mechanical engineering professor David Dyer, or Doc.
In April, Dr. Dyer announced his retirement after serving the university for 59 years. This is the longest tenure of a professor in Auburn’s history, surpassing George Petrie’s 55 years of service. When you’ve served longer than the person who wrote the Auburn Creed, then you are the epitome of an Auburn man. Dr. Dyer, we are thankful for your service to this college, university and state, and your impact on our Auburn engineers will be felt for generations.
Auburn Engineering will look different without Dr. Dyer, but I’m confident the legacy he has left will endure forever.
War Eagle!
Mario R. Eden
