Allen Herbert

B.S. AME ’95, is currently the vice president of business development and strategy for Nanoracks, LLC. Nanoracks is a space services company that sends satellites and research payloads to the International Space Station and is the leader in private space station development.

Jasmine Naseri

’16 BSEE, recently celebrated her two-year anniversary at Northrop Grumman as a communications systems engineer working on a satellite program. Her work involves interfacing with different disciplines such as integration and test engineers, design engineers among others, which has been a rewarding learning experience. In August, she visited Cape Canaveral to prepare for an upcoming launch, which has been the highlight of her career so far.

Kody Ferguson

B.S. EE ’17, M.S. EE ’18, went to work at Google as an intern on the Daydream Hardware team prototyping their next generation virtual reality headsets. He returned to USC for the 2017-2018 school year to finish his progressive masters in electrical engineering and will be starting at Google full-time next fall.

Austin Nutt 

M.S. EE ’15, has been working at the NASA Langley Research Center since June 2016 as a contractor for the National Institute of Aerospace. He serves as a project engineer for an urban UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) test range.

Larry M. Davis

B.S. EE ’79, is deputy director for the Test Systems Sustainment division at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex at Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee. Davis is responsible for maintaining and modernizing aerodynamic and propulsion wind tunnels, rocket and turbine engine test cells, environmental chambers, ballistic ranges and other specialized ground test units that support the development of aerospace vehicles. 

Stephen Beck von Peccoz

B.S. ENG ’83, became chief staff officer of Naval Information Forces (NAVIFOR) West (San Diego) in October 2017.

Barry Tilton, P.E., PMP

B.S. EE ’85, became the chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at Vricon LLC in July 2017. Tilton is also a Fellow of the American Geographical Society and a senior member of both IEEE and AIAA.

Herag Haleblian

B.S. EE ’87, MBA ’91, is in the process of starting The Spectrum Works, a nonprofit dedicated to transitioning gifted individuals on the autism spectrum into valuable talent for corporations.

Vijay Fafat

M.S. EE ’93, published two debut books in November 2017: “The Ninth Pawn of White: A Book of Unwritten Verses” and “Quiescence: Musings Against a Setting Sun.”

 

In Memoriam

Ron Salovey

professor emeritus of chemical engineering and materials science, passed away of natural causes on June 8, 2018. Salovey joined USC Viterbi as a professor in 1975, after stints at Bell Labs and Hooker Research Company in Grand Island, New York. A beloved teacher and mentor, he created a thriving polymer science program during his 28 years at USC. Salovey also chaired the Department of Chemical Engineering from 1989 to 2001. He held degrees from Harvard University and Brooklyn College.

Dennis McLeod

Professor of computer science, passed away Aug. 10, 2018. He joined USC Viterbi in 1978. During his tenure at USC, he was an integral participant in the early years of the Integrated Media Systems Center and directed the Semantic Information Research Laboratory. In 1997, McLeod received the USC Outstanding Teaching Award. His research on object oriented, semantic and federated databases was recognized in 2013 with the NASA Software of the Year award. McLeod earned three degrees from M.I.T.

Victor Smigel

B.S. ENG ‘59, passed away July 19, 2017. Smigel was born in Brussels, Belgium, and lived the last 40 years of his life in Montgomery Village, Maryland. Smigel loved USC and came back for his 50th reunion year anniversary in 2009.  He also had two grandsons graduate from USC.

Kenneth J. Sustachek

M.S. ISSM, ’90, passed away on March 13, 2018. He graduated from USC in 1990 with a Master of Science degree in Systems Management and was a member of the ISSM (Institute of Safety and Systems Management) Triumviirate.

David Martin Mauthe

B.S. ENG ’65, of Chappell, Nebraska, passed away on March 9, 2018. He was 75.