Provost, Viterbi Dean Elected to NAE

Three other distinguished engineers in the Viterbi family also receive engineering’s highest honor

Dean Yannis C. Yortsos

USC Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs C. L. Max Nikias, and Viterbi School Dean of Engineering Yannis C. Yortsos, have both been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the highest professional distinction that can be accorded to an engineer.

“This is a great day for USC, for USC engineering and for two of USC’s finest leaders, Provost Max Nikias and Dean Yannis Yortsos,” said USC President Steven B. Sample. “National Academy memberships not only testify to the superb achievements of individual scholars, they also serve as indicators of excellence for an entire university. Their election to membership in the NAE is a credit to them both, but it is an honor to the entire USC community as well.”

USC Provost C. L. Max Nikias

Nikias, an electrical engineer, was cited “for contributions to the development and diverse applications of adaptive signal processing, and for leadership in engineering education.”

The citation for Yortsos, a chemical engineer, the Chester F. Dolley Professor of Petroleum Engineering and also the holder of the Zohrab Kaprielian Dean’s Chair, reads: “For fundamental advances in fluid flow, transport, and reactions in porous media applied to the recovery of subsurface resources.”

“It makes the entire USC community deeply proud to see Dean Yortsos elected to the NAE,” said Nikias. “Dr. Yortsos has been a world-class researcher in chemical and petroleum engineering. And having worked alongside him for many years, I have seen first-hand his ability to lead those around him to new levels of excellence.”

Alexis Livanos

Also among the 65 new members elected to the NAE are Alexis Livanos, president of Northrop Grumman Space Technology, who is a member of the Viterbi School’s Board of Councilors; Wanda M. Austin, president and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation, who received her Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from USC in 1988, and who is slated to deliver the Eberhardt Rechtin Lecture at the Viterbi School on September 25; and John C. Martin, president and CEO of Gilead Sciences Inc., who is the father of one of Yortsos’ students.

Nikias became USC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs on June 1, 2005. He is USC’s chief academic officer and the second-ranking officer under the president.

Wanda M. Austin

He has been on the USC Viterbi faculty since 1991, serving as dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering from 2001 to 2005. Before that, he was the founding director of the Integrated Media Systems Center and has been internationally recognized for pioneering research in digital communications and signal processing, digital media systems and biomedicine.

Nikias received a diploma from the National Technical University of Athens and earned an M.S. and Ph.D. from the State University of New York.

Yortsos succeeded Nikias as the dean of the Viterbi School. During their tenures as deans, the Viterbi School’s graduate engineering program has been consistently ranked in the top ten in U.S. News & World Report.

Yortsos had served as senior associate dean for academic affairs and was chair of the USC Department of Chemical Engineering (now part of the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science) from 1991 to 1997.

John C. Martin

Yortsos conducted an impressive overhaul of the undergraduate curriculum, and the school has enjoyed significant gains in student strength and in the quality of academic programs for undergraduates. He also presided over the merging of chemical engineering, which includes petroleum engineering, and materials science and has established the Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life (KIUEL).

Yortsos is well known for significant research in fields that include fluid flow, transport, and reaction in porous media, viscous flows in porous media geometries, phase change in porous media and applications to the recovery of subsurface fluids (oil recovery and soil remediation). He was actively involved in peer review of the Yucca Mountain Project for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in Nye County, Nevada.

He earned a diploma in chemical engineering from the National Technical University in Athens, Greece, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from Caltech.