Engineering Faculty Achieve Emeriti Status

Eight College of Engineering faculty have been granted faculty emeriti status after long and distinguished careers of research, teaching and service to Drexel.

Robert Brehm, PhD, professor emeritus, joined the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering department in 2003 as associate teaching professor. He has been a crucial member of the senior design committee and has acted as a faculty advisor for study abroad students. He has served the University as a member of the Budget, Planning and Development Committee and as an interim member of the Faculty Senate. Nationally he serves on the ASCE Committee on Professional Conduct. Brehm is also a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the Order of the Engineer.

Brehm’s area of expertise is in risk assessment and mitigation strategies, program and project management techniques, and forensic engineering. He has lent his expertise to rescue troubled construction projects and has served as an expert witness in construction-related court cases on the federal and state levels. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and earned his doctorate at Drexel.

Nicholas Cernansky, PhD, professor emeritus, joined the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics faculty in 1975. He was named the S. Herbert Raynes Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1987 and was appointed as the Frederic O. Hess Chair Professor of Combustion in 1988. Cernansky has served on the Faculty Senate and has acted at different times as interim director for the Environmental Studies Institute, acting head and later interim head of MEM, and faculty university chapter advisor for SAE, ASME, and Sigma Xi.

Cernansky, whose research expertise is in thermal and fluid sciences and engineering, is a Fellow of SAE International and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s from the University of Michigan, and an additional master’s and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.

Eugenia Victoria Ellis, PhD, professor emerita, joined the Drexel faculty in 2000 as an assistant professor in the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design and later earned a dual appointment as associate professor in Westphal and the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering department. Ellis helped to initiate the collaboration between West 8, an urban planning and landscape architecture firm, and Drexel’s Institute for Energy and the Environment as part of the University’s Public Realm Plan. She has also served as a member of Drexel’s Task Force on Master Planning and the College’s Aligned Means and Conditions committee for the College’s strategic plan.

Ellis is the co-founder of the dLUX light lab, which researches light, health and the built environment in collaboration with faculty from Biomedical Engineering. She holds degrees from the University of Illinois, Chicago; the University of Pennsylvania; and Virginia Polytechnic and State University.

Vladimir Genis, PhD, professor emeritus, joined the Drexel faculty in 1995 as a research assistant professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, prior to which he held the position of senior research specialist. He served as department head of Engineering Technology and was founding member and director of the discipline in the Goodwin College of Professional Studies. He additionally completed two three-year terms on the Faculty Senate.

Genis’ area of expertise is in biomedical engineering, engineering education, and engineering technology. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Engineering Technology, among other distinctions. He has contributed to five patents on piezoelectric vehicles, motors, and projectiles. He holds degrees from Kiev Polytechnic and Kiev State University in Ukraine.

Ahmad Hamid, PhD, professor emeritus, joined the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering department in 1982. He has served on a subgroup of the Middle States accreditation committee, chaired the CAEE faculty search committee, acted as coordinator of the architectural engineering graduate program, and has been a member on the College’s core curriculum committee.

Hamid, whose expertise is in structural engineering, specifically in concrete and masonry structures, is a Fellow of the Masonry Society. He holds degrees from Ain-Shams University in Egypt and McMaster University in Canada.

Harry Kwatny, PhD, professor emeritus, joined Drexel in 1963 as an instructor in Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics (MEM) and was subsequently appointed as Assistant Professor in 1966 and S. Herbert Raynes Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1988. He has served in all aspects of his department, including chairing a tenure and promotion committee, and is currently writing a history of MEM.

Kwatny’s area of expertise is in controls and energy and power systems. He is a Life Fellow of IEEE and has been active in service to IEEE, IFAC, and ISA over his long career. He is a co-inventor on three awarded US patents. Kwatny is also a successful entrepreneur, co-founding Techno-Sciences, Inc., which provided search and rescue satellite aided tracking technology and support services to commercial and US government clients globally for 35 years. He holds degrees from Drexel, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania.

Joseph Martin, PhD, professor emeritus, joined Drexel in 1982 as an assistant professor in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. He served for six years as chair of the Senate Committee on Academic Affairs and as faculty representative on the athletics and veterans University advisories. Martin was department head for eight years during departmental transition and acted as associate director of the Engineering Management program for four years. He served as ASCE student chapter advisor for 35 years and has advised over 125 senior design groups in CAEE.

Martin, whose area of expertise is in geotechnical engineering, is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He holds degrees from Tufts University, Northeastern University and Colorado State University.

Tein-Min Tan, PhD, professor emeritus, joined the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics faculty in 1984 as an assistant professor. Tan has served as an associate department head on two occasions and twice as graduate advisor. He has also been a member of the College Undergraduate and Graduate Curriculum Committees and the Faculty Senate.

Tan’s area of expertise is in mechanics and its application to the design, modeling, and analysis of the performance of aircraft structures. His work in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration has contributed to advancing understanding of aviation and aircraft safety, and he was recognized as a Boeing Welliver Fellow in 2009. He is a co-inventor on a US patent for a semi-autonomous rescue saw. He holds degrees from Purdue University and National Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan.