Longtime SOE Financial Officer Retires from UAB
McCrory Steps Down after 14 Years in the Dean's Office
Visitors to the School of Engineering may not notice anything different in 2015, but to those who work behind the scenes in the Dean’s Office, the new year will be a time of transition. Jason McCrory, the school’s longtime director of administrative and fiscal affairs, retired at the end of 2014 after more than 14 years with the School of Engineering and nearly 25 years at UAB.
McCrory’s responsibilities in the Dean’s Office included many important aspects of the school’s daily operations, including safety, facilities, construction, finances, grants management, compliance, and human resources.
“I am very grateful for all that Jason has done for me and for the School of Engineering,” says SOE Dean Iwan Alexander, Ph.D. “While I am excited for his plans for the future, I am sorry to lose someone who has contributed so much to UAB. In addition to his very important responsibilities of minding the school’s purse strings, Jason has worked hard behind the scenes.”
Rosalia (Rose) Scripa Retires after 38 Years at UAB
In an engineering career that spans nearly 40 years, Rosalia (Rose) Scripa, Ph.D., has gone from studying ceramics in upstate New York to growing crystals in outer space. During that time, she found a home and built a national and international reputation at the UAB School of Engineering. This fall, Scripa retired from UAB after 38 years as a teacher, researcher, and administrator at the school and university levels.
"Dr. Scripa has done much for the School of Engineering and her department since becoming the school's first female faculty member in 1976," says Iwan Alexander, Ph.D., dean of the School of Engineering. "She has accomplished a lot in a variety of roles. She will definitely be remembered all across the UAB campus for her dedicated efforts as an administrator, teacher, researcher, and mentor."
The wide variety of roles and experiences Scripa has had during her career makes it difficult to pinpoint any defining factor of her time at UAB. For example, the list of her honors and awards fills several pages and includes the University of Florida's Alumna of Outstanding Achievement Award (1997), the UAB Ellen Gregg Ingalls/National Alumni Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Teaching (2007), and the United Cultural Convention's International Woman of the Year (2012), to name a few.
Study Away in Germany, May 2015
Engineering students will have opportunities in 2015 to explore the past, present, and future of engineering materials from a global perspective through an intensive three-week course.
The course will be conducted at sites in Germany where participants will see how materials were used over the past several centuries of civilization. In addition, UAB engineering students and their German counterparts will explore other aspects of European culture while earning three hours of engineering course credit.
Students will also receive German language instruction while there and will receive one hour credit for "study abroad German" (GN 190).
"The purpose of this class is to explore how technology influenced the ways societies used materials over time," says Amber Genau, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. "For example, Cologne, Germany was an outpost of the Roman Empire, so when you visit historical sites in Cologne, you can see that they used copper, glass, and iron for different things. What factored into their decisions to choose certain materials?"
In addition to engineering knowledge, Genau says she expects her students to engage their German counterparts with discussions of sustainability, technology, and education. "It was very important for me as an undergraduate to travel abroad and develop a deeper appreciation for other cultures," Genau says. "To me, the exposure to different perspectives is a valuable component to education that often gets overlooked."
Tau Beta Pi Inducts 32 New Members
The UAB chapter of Tau Beta Pi recently inducted one of its largest cohorts ever with a group of 31 engineering students that included 23 undergraduates and eight graduate students. UAB School of Engineering Dean Iwan Alexander, Ph.D., was also inducted as a member of this year's class as an Eminent Engineer.
Tau Beta Pi is the world’s largest engineering honor society and is the only engineering honor society that encompasses the entire profession. The association’s vision is to recognize, celebrate, and champion excellence in engineering. Membership represents the highest honor to be obtained by an engineering student and is awarded on the basis of high scholarship and exemplary character.
The induction ceremony was held at the Edge of Chaos and was sponsored by Southern Nuclear.
