Chik Erzurumlu, founding dean of Portland State University's Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, was honored along with three other alumni as a Distinguished Engineering Graduate of the Cockrell School of Engineering at University of Texas at Austin. The annual selections are based on outstanding professional records, public service, and support of education.

Erzurumlu earned his Master's degree in Civil Engineering in 1962 from the University of Texas at Austin. That same year, he joined Portland State as an instructor in Engineering. In 1968, he took a sabbatical leave to work on his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and completed the degree in 1970. Returning to Portland State, Erzurumlu spent four years as the head of Civil-Structural Engineering, and was appointed the founding dean of the newly established School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1980. In this role he guided the transformation of a pre-engineering program into a comprehensive college of engineering that now has over 1,900 majors enrolled in Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctorate degree programs in five engineering fields and computer science.

Erzurumlu is also active in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the National Society of Professional Engineers, and was granted fellow status by both in recognition of his contributions to engineering education and the engineering profession. He received the Outstanding Engineer of the Year Award from the ASCE Oregon Section in 1985, and the Engineer of the Year Award from Professional Engineers of Oregon in 1999. In 2004, as part of an $8 million gift to the college, his former student Fariborz Maseeh established an endowment to name the deanship of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science as the H. Chik M. Erzurumlu Dean.

For more information on the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, visit www.pdx.edu/cecs/.