Gonzalo Arce	Tsu-Wei Chou

Eric W. Kaler, dean of the College of Engineering, has announced the appointments o

f two new department chairpersons in the college: Gonzalo Arce is chairperson of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as of Sept. 1, and Tsu-Wei Chou, Jerzy L. Nowinski Professor of Mechanical Engineering, is chairperson of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, effective Nov. 1.

"I am pleased that two long-time faculty members have ac

cepted these new leadership roles," Kaler said. "These two departments are absolutely central to the college, and I am excited about their opportunities.

"We are fortunate to be able to call on two strong scholars to lead these departments. I look forward to very productive work with Gonzalo and Tsu-Wei," Kaler said.

Arce, a graduate of the University of Arkansas with a master's degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from Purdue University, joined the UD faculty in 1982. He has served as associate chairperson since 1996 and acting chairperson since August 1999. He was a visiting member of the technical staff of Unisys Corporate Research and a visiting professor at Tampere University of Technology in Finland.

His research interests include robust and nonlinear signal processing; digital image and video signal processing; robust methods in communications, tomographic imaging algorithms; and tactile imaging.

Among his honors, Arce was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) last spring when he was cited for his contributions to the theory and application of nonlinear processing. An international organization of more than 350,000 members, IEEE designates fewer than one in 1,000 members as fellows.

He also received a 1998-99 Center for Advanced Studies fellowship, the 1997 ARL ATIRP Federated Laboratory Symposium Best Paper Award, the 1995 Whitaker Scientific Paper Award, the Sperry Corp. University Research Award in 1985 and the National Science Foundation Initiation Award in 1983.

He holds two patents with others pending, has published extensively in his field and is coauthor with D. Lau, of Modern Digital Halftoning, which is to be published by Artech House.

Chou is a graduate of National Taiwan University with a master's degree from Northwestern University and a doctorate in materials science from Stanford University. A faculty member at UD since 1969, Chou is a founding member of the Center for Composite Materials and has served as acting chairperson of mechanical engineering since September 1999.

His research interests include materials science, applied mechanics and fiber composite materials.

Among his awards, Chou received the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award in 1996 and the Distinguished Research Award of the American Society for Composites in 1998. He was elected an ASME fellow in 1998 and an American Society of Materials fellow in 1999. He also serves as honorary research professor of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Northwestern Polytechnical University of China.

Chou holds patents, has published more than 325 technical papers and contributed chapters to books. He wrote Composite Materials and Their Use in Structures with J. R. Vinson in 1975 and Microstructural Design of Fiber Composites in 1992. He serves as North American editor of the journal, Composites Science and Technology.

–Sue Moncure