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CORVALLIS, Ore. - The Oregon State University College of Engineering honored 30 of its most distinguished alumni on Feb. 17 during the eighth annual Oregon Stater Awards, an event that recognizes OSU engineers and their career contributions to society.

This year's awardees are affiliated with both large and small companies and agencies, including Del Monte, IBM, Shell Oil, Cisco Systems, Dow Chemical, CH2M HILL, Hotmail.com and others. Honorees also included entrepreneurs who started their own companies and built them into success stories.

Among this year's award recipients are Paul Lorenzini, former CEO of PacifiCorp; Mary Coucher, a vice president at IBM; Abhi Talwalkar, president and CEO of LSI Logic; David Browning, whose Portland company, HD Plus, is developing a portable kidney dialysis machine based on microtechnology developed at OSU; Ralph Peterson, chairman, president and CEO of CH2M-Hill; Rex Smith, one the first five employees of Hotmail.com; and others.

The annual ceremony inducts OSU engineering alumni into three different groups based on the length of their careers and accomplishments: the Engineering Hall of Fame, the Academy of Distinguished Engineers and the Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers.

"The Oregon Stater Awards ceremony is our way of expressing our gratitude to our most exemplary alumni," said Chris Bell, associate dean of the College of Engineering. "These men and women have done extraordinary things to improve the world, and this is our way of honoring who they are and the work they have done."

The annual awards banquet, held at the CH2M-Hill Alumni Center on campus, was attended by more than 250 people. The event takes place every year near National Engineers Week, a week of national engineering events and celebration.

Recipients of this year's Oregon Stater Awards are:

HALL OF FAME
Frank E. Biasca, Los Gatos, Calif.;
George B. Cox, deceased;
John Loosley, Roseburg;
Paul Lorenzini, Portland;
Chao Chen Mai, Dallas, Texas;
Hiro Moriyasu, deceased;
Bernard A. "Bud" Ossey, Tualatin;
Ralph R. Peterson, Denver, Col.;
George R. Reed, Reedley, Calif.;
Rex C. Smith, San Jose, Calif.

ACADEMY OF DISTINGUISHED ENGINEERS
Ahmed S. Abdel-Warith, Pokki, Giza, Egypt;
Maryam Aghamirzadeh, Los Gatos, Calif.;
David J. Allstot, Seattle, Wash.;
David M. Browning, Portland;
Chaur-Fong Chen, Corvallis;
Manuk Colakyan, South Charleston, W. Va.;
Mary Mollison Coucher, North Plains, Ore.;
Mohammad Jamshidi, San Antonio, Texas;
Tony S. Keller, Tampa, Fla.;
J. Gary Lanthrum, Manassas, Va.;
Stephen G. Mara, Redmond, Wash.;
Sadanand R. Patil, San Jose, Calif;
Abhi Y. Talwalkar, Portland;
Scott A. Williams, Eugene.

COUNCIL OF OUTSTANDING EARLY CAREER ENGINEERS
Tiffany E. Adams, Seattle, Wash.;
Marc A. Leslie, Humacao, Puerto Rico;
Steven A. Malany, Portland;
Keith A. Pauley, Charleston, W. Va.;
David YW Young, San Jose, Calif;
Ben Wahlstrom, Albany, Ore.

For more information about the OSU College of Engineering, visit: http://engr.oregonstate.edu.