The nuclear engineering program at Missouri S&T celebrated its 50-year anniversary Sept. 17-18 with tours of the campus’s nuclear reactor and laboratories and a keynote address by Starnes Walker, director of research for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The university began offering accredited undergraduate nuclear engineering degrees in 1960 and the reactor — the first built in Missouri — opened in 1961.

Missouri S&T’s environmental management system recently received ISO 14001 recertification. ISO 14001 is an international standard of operations designed to ensure organizations effectively manage their environmental impact. In 2001, Missouri S&T became the first university in the United States to adopt the standard and receive ISO 14001 certification. The campus is audited annually and is up for recertification every three years.

Merl Baker, who led the university during its transition from MSM to UMR, received the 2010 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society. Baker was recognized for his leadership and professional success in engineering. Baker became dean of MSM in 1963 and was appointed chancellor a year later, when the university became known as UMR. He served as chancellor until 1973.

Delbert Day, CerE’58, Curators’ Professor emeritus of materials science and engineering, received the 2010 Phoenix Award Glass Person of the Year, the glass industry’s top honor, in September. A member of the National Academy of Engineering and a past president of the American Ceramic Society, Day played a pivotal role in developing radioactive glass microspheres that are used at more than 100 sites around the world to treat patients with inoperable liver cancer.

Susan Murray, associate professor of engineering management, received the Bernard R. Sarchet Award for lifetime achievement from the American Society for Engineering Education during ASEE’s annual meeting last June. Also at the conference, S&T engineering management faculty Suzanna Long (lead author), Abhijit Gosavi and Scott Grasman won the Outstanding Paper Award in the ASEE’s Engineering Management Division.

Mohamed “Len” N. Rahaman, professor of materials science and engineering and director of the Center for Bone and Tissue Repair and Regeneration, was named fellow of the American Ceramic Society at the association’s meeting in October. A member of the Missouri S&T faculty since 1986, Rahaman specializes in researching ceramics for biomedical applications.