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Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series debuts in School of Engineering on Oct. 3

September 16, 2024 - by Kim Delker

The School of Engineering is hosting its inaugural Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series this fall, with a special emphasis on innovation.

Photo: Doug Campbell and Donna Riley at the renaming ceremony for the Gerald May Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering in May 2023 (photo by Kate Rodriguez Duran).
Doug Campbell and Donna Riley at the renaming ceremony for the Gerald May Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering in May 2023 (photo by Kate Rodriguez Duran).

The lecture series is being sponsored by Leaders of Enchantment, the podcast recently launched by Doug Campbell, a School of Engineering alumnus and a tech entrepreneur who has moved back to his native Albuquerque and is focused on building the New Mexico innovation economy. Leaders of Enchantment features a variety of guests who share success stories on how they are making New Mexico a more innovative place to live and work.

The lecture series is designed to be engaging and informative for a broad audience, from UNM students to faculty to alumni to members of the community. The lectures and free and open to all.

Three events are planned for fall 2024. All are scheduled from 5:30-7:30 p.m. with a lecture, time for questions, then a reception to follow:

  • Oct. 3. Centennial Engineering Center’s Larrañaga Engineering Auditorium with reception in Stamm Commons. The speaker will be Doug Campbell, who will discuss his journey from being an engineer to becoming a technology innovator and entrepreneur in a talk called “From University Spin-Out to a Unicorn: A Conversation with UNM Alum Doug Campbell.” Campbell is the founder and former CEO of Solid Power, a Louisville, Colo.-based company that develops all solid-state, high-energy and safe rechargeable batteries for the electric vehicle market. He previously co-founded and was CEO of Roccor, LLC, which specializes in innovative, high-performance, deployable structures and thermal management solutions for satellite and terrestrial military and commercial markets.
  • Nov. 20. Location TBA (announced closer to event). Speaker Akilah Martinez, an award-winning Diné artist and creative technologist from the Navajo Nation, will discuss how she has built an Indigenous-based circular economic ecosystem that cycles off of language and culture revitalization through video art and XR technology. During her presentation, she with demo this technology.
  • Dec. 11. Centennial Engineering Center’s Larrañaga Engineering Auditorium with reception in Stamm Commons. The speaker will be Peter Lamp, head of battery cell technology for BMW Group in Germany. Lamp holds a Ph.D. in physics from the Technical University of Munich and has nearly 30 years of experience in energy conversion and storage in different positions in both academia and industry. He has been with BMW since 2001. He will talk about how BMW’s electrification process and how the company was able to integrate the technology in vehicles.

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The Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series was started by Donna Riley, Jim and Ellen King Dean of Engineering and Computing, based on feedback she received from her listening tour and strategic planning sessions in 2023.

Campbell said when he heard about the lecture series, he jumped at the chance to become a sponsor and give some prominence to the topic of innovation and entrepreneurship. He is a double alumnus from the Gerald May Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 2001, then a master’s degree from the department the next year.

In 2022, he donated $5 million to create the Gerald May Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. The renaming was in honor of May, a former professor of Campbell’s, who inspired him to pursue what he was most passionate about — becoming an entrepreneur and innovator.

Earlier this year, Campbell created the Doug Campbell Endowed Parking Fund, which generates the funds needed to pay for the yearly fees for the reserved parking space, B-160, which is in the B lot along Redondo Drive close to the Centennial Engineering Center. The “Station of Innovation” parking space is utilized by the dean’s office in the School of Engineering to recognize leadership and service to the School by staff, faculty, students, alumni and donors.

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