School of Engineering to honor 4 alumni with Distinguished Engineering Service Award

LAWRENCE – Four alumni from the University of Kansas School of Engineering will receive the school’s highest award in a ceremony set for 6 p.m. Nov. 4.

Jill MacDonald Boyce, Christine-Ehlig Economides, Ronaldo T. “Nick” Nicholson and Richard E. Smith will receive the Distinguished Engineering Service Award (DESA), which is awarded to individuals who have maintained close association with the school and have made outstanding contributions to the engineering profession and to society.

Boyce and Smith won the award in 2020 but will be recognized along with the 2021 winners after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of last year’s ceremony.

“Our four awardees embody the spirit of the Distinguished Engineering Service Award. They are respected leaders with amazing stories of ingenuity and resiliency. Their contributions to the engineering profession and the university are exceptional and inspirational. The awardees help elevate the stature of KU Engineering. We are proud to call them Jayhawk engineers,” said Arvin Agah, dean of engineering.

The School of Engineering Advisory Board has given the Distinguished Engineering Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by the school, annually since 1980. The award honors KU engineering alumni or engineers who have maintained a close association with the university and for outstanding contributions to the profession of engineering and society.

The award is made on the basis of an individual’s contribution to the public good, governmental service or the educational system, or contributions to the theories and practices of engineering, research and development in new fields of engineering or direction of an organization that has made exceptional contributions in design, production and development.

About the honorees:

2020 Winners

Jill MacDonald Boyce

Anyone who has binge-watched a TV show on their favorite streaming service, utilized the fast-forward or rewind function on their DVR or checked out the latest viral video on their mobile phone can thank one person for how seamless the process has become.

With more than a quarter-century of experience in video compression and standardization, Jill Boyce is recognized as a global leader in modern video coding standards, making important contributions to the efficient delivery of video across multiple platforms. Her work has been a critical in fueling the growth and ubiquity of the media streaming industry.

Boyce earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from KU in 1988, and in 1990 she received her master’s degree in electrical engineering with an emphasis in communications and signal processing from Princeton University.

From complex features that viewers take for granted to those that are so seamless they go unnoticed, Boyce has had a hand in developing an estimated 90% of the coding formats utilized in video playback today. Many of the standards she developed are the basis for all major video applications and are embedded in hardware or software in all video cameras, smartphones and online video applications, such as YouTube and Netflix.

Boyce recently founded a new startup company, Vimmerse, where she is the CEO. Vimmerse is developing a platform and tools for creation and storage of immersive video, which allows viewers to navigate within a remote 3D scene.

Richard E. Smith

Rich Smith has helped transform Henderson Engineers into a global engineering and building systems design powerhouse. He’s led remarkable growth while fostering a company culture that puts people first and embraces creativity, flexibility and diversity.

Smith earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from KU in 1985 and his master’s degree in architectural engineering from KU in 1991. He joined Henderson Engineers as director of engineering in 1994 and has been the firm’s president and CEO since 2013.

In the mid-1990s when Smith joined Henderson, approximately 80% of the firm’s work was retail. Smith has been instrumental in helping the company grow and diversify into other sectors, including K-12 and higher education, health care, sports and recreation, grocery, workplace, restaurant, warehouse and distribution.

Smith has played a pivotal role in business development efforts that have helped land some of the largest projects in company history. This includes the new single terminal at Kansas City International Airport and SoFi Stadium, a revolutionary mega mixed-use entertainment district in Hollywood Park, California, that is home to the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams.

2021 Winners

Christine Ehlig-Enconomides

With seminal contributions to the development and application of technology in the field of petroleum engineering, and a distinguished track record of leadership in academic and professional settings, Christine Ehlig-Economides is recognized as one of the nation’s most accomplished and influential figures in her field.

She organized and helped establish new petroleum engineering departments at two universities. She developed methods of analyzing well test data from multilayer reservoirs that became the worldwide standard for the oil and gas industry. She has long advocated for women and underrepresented minorities in the field. Her career is decorated with some of the most prestigious awards in engineering, including induction into the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.

After graduating from Rice University in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Ehlig-Economides attended KU, where she earned a master’s degree in mathematics education in 1974 and a master’s degree in chemical engineering in 1977. She went on to Stanford University and earned her doctorate in 1979 — her dissertation remains a landmark contribution to the theory and practice in a dominant technology in petroleum reservoir engineering, pressure transient test analysis.

Ehlig-Economides currently serves as a professor and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair at the University of Houston.

Ronaldo T. “Nick” Nicholson

Ronaldo “Nick” Nicholson has established a sterling reputation as a leader with a unique ability to bring stakeholders together and build consensus on large, complex transportation challenges. Over his career spanning nearly 40 years, Nicholson has personally supervised and mentored many engineers who have become industry leaders and agency administrators in various public works departments around the country.

Nicholson earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from KU in 1983 and a master’s degree in structural engineering from George Washington in 1991. He spent more than 30 years in the public sector, working for the Federal Highway Administration, Fairfax County Department of Public Works, the Virginia Department of Transportation and the District of Columbia Department of Transportation. He accepted a vice president position at Parsons Transportation Group Inc. in 2014. At each stop along the way, Nicholson has displayed impeccable leadership to build teams and work toward a common goal.

As vice president and senior program/operations manager at Parsons Transportation Group, Nicholson leads the company’s highway and bridge design teams in Virginia and Washington, D.C. He supervises more than 70 employees and has contributed directly to technically challenging and politically sensitive infrastructure improvement projects, such as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge replacement over the Potomac River, transformation of the South Capitol Street Corridor and re-introduction of DC Streetcar in northeast Washington, D.C., and the Elizabeth River Tunnel and Hampton Road Bridge Tunnel project in Hampton Roads, Virginia.