Jon Bereisa was the systems architect who helped General Motors bridge the gap from the EV1 electric vehicle to the Chevrolet Volt's successful launch.  After 35 years at General Motors, Bereisa now provides engineering and consulation services for hybrid, electric, and fuel cell vehicle technology. 

John created both the TI-30 calculator and the Poquet computer — two inventions at the vanguard of personal computing. He began his career at General Motors, moved to Texas Instruments, and went on to become vice president of engineering for Mattel Electronics before founding the company that built the first sub-notebook-style computer using what is now known as voltage and frequency scaling.

Mervin graduated in 1914 and went on to become the president of Bell Telephone Laboratories, leading the lab during the invention of the transistor.  He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1945. 

Bob is at the forefront of the electric car revolution. As the Global Executive Director for General Motor’s Hybrid, Electric Vehicles and Advanced Technology Batteries division from 2008-2009, Kruse was responsible for all hybrid and electric vehicle components and integration for GM, including the development of the first plug-in hybrid offered by a major car manufacturer, the Chevrolet Volt. During his 31-years at GM, he also played a major role in the development of the Cadillac CTS, Buick Enclave, Chevy Malibu, the Saturn, among several other vehicles, and set up GM’s world-class battery laboratory. After GM, Kruse became COO of Sakti3, where he helped develop and commercialize an advanced, solid-state, rechargeable, lithium ion battery. He is now Chief Technology Officer for Karma Automotive, maker of the $130,000 Karma Revero luxury super car.

Sandra is a former NASA astronaut who flew on shuttle missions 112, 119/126, and 135 which included more than 100 days in orbit aboard the International Space Station.  She later served as Executive Director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2022.

George was associate administrator of NASA’s Office of Manned Space Flight from 1963-69, a major force in the Apollo mission to the moon, and in the planning for Skylab. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1967.

After receiving his degree from UMR, Pete he was the electrical engineer on a design assistance team for the Tactical Air Command at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, working on design and construction of airfield lighting and electrical distribution systems.  He obtained the MS and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1974 and 1977 respectively. He has been on the faculty at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1977 where he teaches courses and directs research on power systems and electric machines.  He currently is the Grainger Chair Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering at Illinois.  His career include service as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation in Washington D.C. and as a co-founder and 1996-2001 Chairman of PowerWorld Corporation. He is a cofounder of the Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC) and has served as the Illinois site director from 1996 to the present.  He has authored/coauthored over 200 technical papers and the book with M. A. Pai, “Power System Dynamics and Stability”, published by Prentice-Hall in 1998. He retired from the Air Force reserves as a Lt. Col. in 1998. He received the IEEE Tesla Award in 2021 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.

Steve is a principal engineer at Industrial Light and Magic, filmmaker George Lucas’ visual effects company. Sullivan won an Academy Award for technical achievement in 2001.

While not a graduate from ECE, Cindy Tang has been a significant force in the computing industry, and a major supporter of the S&T computer engineering program. Tang is founder and former chair of Insight Industries Inc. in Platteville, Wis. Now known as Avista, Insight was started as an entrepreneurial software engineering consulting firm in 1987. Tang sold and left the company, which is now one of the largest software engineering businesses in Wisconsin. A former president of Missouri S&T’s Board of Trustees, she endowed the Cynthia Tang Missouri Professorship of Computer Engineering in the electrical engineering department, which established the department’s computer engineering discipline. She is also the architect and founder of S&T’s Women of the Year award, funded the Jean Walker Memorial Scholarship in English and technical communication, and was instrumental in creating the Daniel St. Clair Chair in the computer science department.

Ed Tuck founded the Magellan Systems Corporation in 1986. After years of working at multiple companies, Ed was determined to find a way to make a low cost, pocket size GPS device.  Their first device, Magellan NAV 1000, was waterproof, weighed a pound and a half, ran on six AA batteries and sold for $3,000 in 1989! 

Thomas (Tom) Voss started his career at Union Electric, and over a 45-year career at the company worked his way to become the President and CEO of what is now Ameren Corp. He held numerous positions at Ameren, including distribution operating manager, vice president for AmerenCIPS, senior vice president for energy delivery and customer services, senior vice president for generation, executive vice president, and chief operating officer before landing the role as chairman, president and chief executive officer in 2009. He was elected to serve as the Executive Chairman of Smart Wires in 2014. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Society of Professional Engineers in 2011, and serves on the S&T Board of Trustees and the College of Engineering and Computing Advisory Board.

Ted is a retired president and chief executive officer of Federal Express Corp. He worked as a pilot while a student in Rolla, and went on to serve as assistant vice president of operations for Sun Airlines and a flight test engineer for the U.S. Air Force F-111 plane with General Dynamics Corp. at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Missouri S&T recognized him with an Award of Professional Distinction in 1994 and an honorary doctorate in 2000.

Roy launched and served as president of Williams Telecommunications Group, one of the nation’s first optical communications companies and later a foundational block of MCI WorldCom. He is also a retired chief executive officer of networks for McLeod USA. Wilkens has endowed a named professorship in the department.

Dave was born and raised in St. Joseph, Mo. After graduation from UMR in 1969, he held engineering and operations management positions at Motorola Communications, King Radio and Varian Associates. An entrepreneur, Dave has founded four startup companies in Silicon Valley: CPI for CB radios and video games; Spectrian which provided high performance RF transmitters for military, broadcast, and cellular base stations; Wherenet (now part of Zebra Technologies) which makes wireless location tracking systems for seaports, automobile manufacturing and trucking operations; and Cool Dry, which developed a revolutionary high-power RF technology for drying clothes. Dave has 31 patents, the first filed in 1969 and the most recent granted in 2022. Dave is now retired.