Advisory Committee
Mr. Norman Augustine MAE '57, *59
Norman R. Augustine is the retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, the nation’s largest defense contractor, and a former Under Secretary of the Army. Augustine currently serves on advisory councils to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Energy and previously served as a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Among Augustine’s many honors are the National Medal of Technology and the U.S. Department of Defense's highest civilian award, the Distinguished Service Medal. Augustine graduated from Princeton University, where he earned bachelors and master's degrees in engineering. He is the author of Augustine's Travels, The Defense Revolution, and Augustine's Laws, and he chaired the National Academy of Engineering Committee that produced the report, “ Rising Above the Gathering Storm: “Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.”
Professor Lance R. Collins *81
Lance Collins is the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering and professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. Previously, from 2005 to 2010, he served as the S. C. Thomas Sze Director of the Sibley School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. Collins joined the Sibley School in the spring semester of 2002, following eleven years as assistant professor, associate professor and professor of chemical engineering at Pennsylvania State University. From 1999 to 2002, he also held a joint appointment in the Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering Department at Penn State. In 1998, during a sabbatical leave, Collins was a visiting scientist at the Laboratoire de Combustion et Systemes Reactifs (a CNRS laboratory in Orleans, FRANCE) and at Los Alamos National Laboratory (Theoretical Fluid Dynamics Group). Collins' research combines simulation and theory to study a variety of turbulent flow processes. His work on mechanisms of droplet breakup in turbulence was recognized with the 1997 Best Paper Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2007. Collins graduated from Princeton in 1981 with high honors in chemical engineering and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Professor Earl H. Dowell, Advisory Committee Chair,
Earl Dowell is the chair and William Hollland Hall professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences and dean emeritus of the Pratt School of Engineering. Dowell's principal teaching interest and research activity is in the field of aeroelasticity. He has also conducted research in acoustics, nonlinear dynamics, structural dynamics, and unsteady aerodynamics. Dowell's major research accomplishments include the first definitive research monograph on the aeroelasticity of plates and shells, the first derivation and solution of the nonlinear equations of motion for a helicopter rotor blade (the Hodges-Dowell equations), and work with a collegue, several graduate students and post-doctoral fellows on reducing the dimensions of mathematical models for very complex high-dimensional fluid/structural systems. Dowell was the Dean of engineering at Duke University from 1982-2000, and a faculty member from 1965-1983. His B.S. is from Illinois and M.S. and Ph.D. are from MIT.
Dr. Eli Harari *73
Harari is a founder of SanDisk Corporation, and was its president and CEO since its inception in 1988 and Chairman and CEO until his retirement on December 31, 2010. Harari founded Wafer Scale Integration in 1983 and was its CEO until 1986 and chair until 1988. Earlier in his career, he held technical management positions with Honeywell, Intel and Hughes Aircraft Microelectronics. Harari has more than 150 patents granted (US and foreign) and numerous technical publications. He was awarded the 2009 IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal for Exceptional Contributions to the Microelectronics Industry and the 2006 IEEE Reynold B. Johnson Data Storage Device Technology Award. He received a Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University and a B.Sc. with honors in Physics in 1969 from Manchester University, U.K.
Dr. Steven L. Lerner *81
Lerner is Partner and Co-Founder of Princeton Growth partners, and innovation consulting firm. He previously served as senior vice president and chief technology officer of Praxair, Inc. a Fortune 250 firm providing industrial gases, healthcare services, electronic chemicals, and performance coatings. His responsibilities included research & development, global market development, and licensing. Lerner is on the advisory board of Anellotech Inc. (a biofuels company) and was previously Chairman of the Industrial Research Institute Inc., Chairman of the University at Buffalo’s School of Engineering & Science advisory council, board member of Sixtron Advance Materials Inc., advisory board member of UCONN’s Materials Research Institute, and board member of the WNY Technology Development Center Inc. Prior to joining Praxair in 1998, Steve held management roles with Atlantic Richfield and the BOC Group. Steve received a PhD in MAE from Princeton University and a BE from the Cooper Union.
Paul Maeder *75
Paul Maeder, a co-founder of Highland Capital Partners, has been investing in technology companies for more than 28 years. He has helped build many software and information technology companies and is now concentrating on building companies in online education, software and factory automation. Maeder currently serves on the boards of 2tor, Avidyne, Bit9, BlueTarp Financial, Imprivata, PerkStreet Financial, Predictive Biosciences, Rethink Robotics, StreamBase Systems and Village Ventures, and in the past served as director of many other private and public companies.
Maeder was the chair in 2011-2012 of the National Venture Capital Association during the creation and passage of the JOBS Act and currently serves on the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. Maeder has been recognized by the prestigious Forbes Midas List as one of the top venture capitalists in the industry and was the 2008 recipient of the Mass Technology Leadership Council Commonwealth Award. Before co-founding Highland in 1988, Maeder spent three years as a general partner at Charles River Ventures, where he concentrated on software investments. He also held operating positions for six years in high-growth technology companies. At Novacor he worked on the development of an implantable artificial heart. Maeder also was responsible for the development of a complex visual field examination instrument at Synemed, where he also headed the company's mechanical engineering and software development teams.
Maeder holds a BSE in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton, an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
James Morris *71
Jim Morris owns J2 Ventures, a consulting business. He retired as vice president of engineering and manufacturing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes at the end of 2006. Prior to this position, Morris led supplier management where he was responsible for all purchasing and internal parts production for Boeing commercial jetliners. He previously was vice president for Twin-Aisle Airplanes and served as vice president and general manager for U.S. Army Programs and Military Rotorcraft. Morris received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton. A Boeing Sloan Fellow, he also holds a master's degree in management from Stanford University. In 2006, he was named Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Morris' professional affiliations include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Helicopter Society. He serves on the boards of Esterline Technologies, Lord Corporation and 2Source Manufacturing.
Dr. Elaine Oran
Elaine Oran is the senior scientist for reactive flow physics at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, an adjunct professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan and visiting professor at Leeds University. Her expertise is in creating numerical methods for solving differential and integral equations representing complex physical processes, then using these methods to solve complex fluid dynamic problems. She has worked in a wide variety of scientific and engineering problems. Her recent research interests include combustion and propulsion, rarefied gases and micro-fluidics, fluid turbulence, materials engineering, high-performance computing and parallel architectures, computational science and numerical analysis, biophysical fluid dynamics, wave equations, and astrophysical phenomena such as supernova explosions and jets. Oran is author of over 300 refereed journal articles as well as many conference papers and presentations. She is also the co-author of the book Numerical Simulation of Reactive Flow (2nd edition, Cambridge Press, 2001). Oran has a Ph.D. from Yale University and an A.B. from Bryn Mawr College. She received the degree Docteur Honoris Causa from Ecole Centrale de Lyon and an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Leeds University .
