Eric Gebhardt

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) last week welcomed 86 new members - the Class of 2020 - a group that included four Georgia Tech faculty and one alumnus of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

Eric Gebhardt, a 1990 AE alumnus, was elected for his work developing and utilizing advanced electric generation technologies including gas and wind turbines. He currently serves as the executive vice president and chief technology officer for the Wabtec Corporation and is the former chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at GE Power, General Electric Co. 

Gebhardt has remained as active in his alma mater as he has been in business. In 2012, he began sponsoring the AE School's Fran and Eric Gebhardt Distinguished Lecture Series -- a forum that has gone on to host dozens talks on aeronautics, astronautics, and entrepreneurial research by the brightest academic, industry, and research leaders of our time. In 2018, he joined the Aerospace Engineering School Advisory Council, a volunteer group of academic and industry leaders that has provided invaluable feedback and guidance on the Daniel Guggenheim School's mission and performance.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.  Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature and to the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education. The February 6 announcement of the 2020 honorees brings NAE's U.S. membership to 2,309 and the number of international members to 281.

Also welcomed into the NAE Class of 2020 were Georgia Tech faculty Regents' Professor Marilyn A. Brown, from the School of Public Policy;  Prof. Thomas Kurfess, a HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering;  Prof.Susan Margulies, the chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering; and Prof. Alexander Shapiro, the Russell Chandler III Chair in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. A formal induction ceremony will be held in October of 2021.

Over the past six years, the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering has had several faculty elected to the NAE, including: Prof. Krishan Ahuja, Prof. Timothy Lieuwen, Prof. (and former School Chair) Prof. Vigor Yang, and Prof. Bobby Braun. Professor Emeritus Ben T. Zinn is also a NAE member of longstanding.