Last year, John CE’67, MS CE’68, and Susan Mathes matched their previous donation of $550,000, which created an endowed professorship in 1995. The increase boosted the position to a faculty chair, allowing Craig Adams, an expert in environmental engineering and the John A. and Susan Mathes Chair of Civil Engineering at UMR, to expand his research and engage more students. Adams directs UMR’s Environmental Research Center, where he develops traditional and innovative ways to treat water and wastewater containing a wide variety of contaminants.
One of the newest named professors at UMR has actually been on campus for a long time. Kent Peaslee, PhD MetE’94, who joined the UMR faculty in 1994, was named the F. Kenneth Iverson Chair of Steelmaking Technology this past spring thanks to a $2 million gift from Nucor, an employer of many UMR graduates.
These are just two examples of investments that help raise UMR’s profile among technological research universities.