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Two Engineering professors earn distinguished professor rank

June 23, 2014 - By Kim Delker

Two professors from the University of New Mexico School of Engineering have been promoted to the title of distinguished professor.

Plamen Atanassov, professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and former director of the Center for Emerging Energy Technologies, and Edl Schamiloglu, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the School of Engineering’s COSMIAC center, have been selected for this honor.

UNM defines distinguished professors as those who “have demonstrated outstanding achievements and are nationally and internationally renowned as scholars.” It is the highest faculty title the university bestows, and only a handful of professors are honored with the rank each year.

Atanassov specializes in electrochemical engineering and materials for energy technologies. His research group is involved in several projects funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy through its fuel cell technologies program. These projects include collaborations with Los Alamos National Laboratory, several universities, and industrial partners. Before joining UNM, he was a technical staff member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Central Laboratory of Electrochemical Power Sources (now the Institute for Electrochemistry and Power Systems). Atanassov received the 2014 STC.UNM Innovation Fellow Award in recognition of his achievements as one of the University of New Mexico's leading innovators. His UNM technologies are focused on the development of a non-platinum electrocatalyst for fuel cells, materials and technologies for micro-power sources, biological fuel cells and energy harvesting systems design.

Schamiloglu joined UNM’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1988. He has been Gardner-Zemke Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and directs the Pulsed Power, Beams, and Microwaves Laboratory at UNM. His research interests include physics and technology of charged particle beam generation and propagation; high power microwave sources and effects; pulsed power science and technologies; plasma physics and diagnostics; electromagnetics and wave propagation; and neurosystems engineering. He is a recipient of a 2011, 2012, and 2013 UNM Science and Technology Corporation Creativity Award. He was awarded the 2013 IEEE NPSS Richard F. Shea Distinguished Member Award. His sponsored research includes projects with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Sandia National Laboratories, the Office of Naval Research, and industry. He was elected fellow of the IEEE in 2002.

Atanassov and Schamiloglu join several other School of Engineering professors in holding the distinguished professorship rank: Jeffrey C. Brinker (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Steven Brueck (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Vince Calhoun (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Christos Christodoulou (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Abhaya K. Datye (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Stephanie Forrest (Computer Science), and Deepak Kapur (Computer Science).

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