SEEC Scholar in Residence
Donna Riley
Prior to her new role at Purdue University, Dr. Riley was Professor and Interim Head in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. From 2013-2015, she served as Program Director for Engineering Education at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Riley spent thirteen years as a founding faculty member of the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, the first engineering program at a U.S. women’s college.
In 2005, she received a NSF CAREER award on implementing and assessing pedagogies of liberation in engineering classrooms.
Riley is the author of two books, Engineering and Social Justice and Engineering Thermodynamics and 21st Century Energy Problems, both published by Morgan and Claypool. Riley served a two-year term as Deputy Editor of the Journal of Engineering Education (2012-2014), rotated through the leadership of the Liberal Education/Engineering and Society (LEES) Division of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) (2007-2011), and currently serves on the ASEE Diversity Committee. She is the recipient of the 2016 Alfred N. Goldsmith Award from the IEEE Professional Communications Society, the 2012 Sterling Olmsted Award from ASEE, the 2010 Educator of the Year award from the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP), and the 2006 Benjamin Dasher Award from Frontiers in Education.
She was awarded the Jefferson fellowship in 2013 to serve as a senior science and technology advisor to the Office of the US Secretary of State, where she helped guide US’s international relations through the lens of “engineering for sustainable development” and provided intellectual, technical and strategic leadership on policies and priorities in the areas of health, education, energy, infrastructure, economic growth and governance.
Riley earned a B.S.E. in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in Engineering and Public Policy. She is a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Previous Scholars in Residence
David Munoz
David Muñoz spent the majority of his professional career (1986-2012) as a faculty member within the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) Engineering Division. While at Mines he spent a one-year sabbatical as a Visiting Professor to Monterrey Tech (ITESM) in Monterrey, Mexico and a second sabbatical as lead technical analyst on a USDOT-Federal Transit Administration funded project to consider 300 km long high-speed maglev transportation system to alleviate traffic problems along the I-70 Colorado mountain corridor west of Denver. He also served as CSM Engineering Division Director (2003-2006).
In addition to teaching numerous undergraduate and graduate courses in the thermal-fluid sciences, he has advised hundreds of engineering students on design-build and research projects on topics ranging from hybrid electric vehicle design (1992-94) and implementation to potable water systems in Honduras and Uganda (2004-2013). Dr. Muñoz introduced a course in 2004 entitled Sustainable Engineering Design, incorporating the use of life-cycle assessment into the engineering design process. He served as the Director of the Humanitarian Engineering minor program (2003-2012), the objective of which was to prepare students interested in using their engineering skills to develop positive working relationships, through service learning, with the economically poor. He served as a member of the Fetzer Institute's Engineering Advisory Council (2011-2017) to explore the possibilities of incorporating the power of love and forgiveness into engineering practice. He earned his Ph.D. and MS degrees from Purdue University and BS from the University of New Mexico (all degrees were in Mechanical Engineering). He currently lives in Taos, NM, in an energy efficient home of his design, where he is engaged with Renewable Taos, a nonprofit designed to promote and enhance the transition to renewable energy in the local and surrounding communities. He also serves as Executive Director of the non-profit Village Science to promote science education and peace in Honduras.
Jon Puz
Jon Puz is a healthcare entrepreneur who has served as a leader in driving the growth of several successful for-profit and non-profit organizations. Jon received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Science and Systems Analysis from 兔子先生 University. Before pursuing his MBA, Jon served in Deloitte Consulting’s Healthcare Practice, where he worked with hospitals and other healthcare organizations around the country. Jon is currently a Blavatnik Fellow Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard University. In this role, Jon is leveraging his experience starting and building companies to collaborate with physicians, researchers and technologists from across the Harvard affiliated hospitals to accelerate innovation and start new companies.
Jon previously helped build three different healthcare companies. He was a member of the founding team that built a pharmacy company focused on improving the medication adherence of patients with chronic conditions. He led the team that wrote the business plan for and then helped launched a non-profit diagnostics company. He was also the first employee at a company focused on leveraging big data to improve how hospitals interact with patients.
He actively volunteers through serving as Co-President for the HBS Healthcare Alumni Association and as a Director for the Cambridge Running Club.
In his free time, Jon enjoys running, sports and socializing with family and friends. Although Jon and his wife currently live in Boston, Massachusetts, he grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and still roots for the RedHawks, Buckeyes and Browns.
Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna received his Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and after a postdoctoral fellowship in Switzerland, he joined the engineering faculty at ASU in 1985. He was named the Diane and Gary Tooker Professor of Materials Sciences and Engineering in 2011 at the Fulton Schools of Engineering. He was the director of ASU’s Grand Challenge Scholars program from 2009 to 2013 and later a member of the Humanitarian engineering faculty. He is passionate about preparing engineers that not only have the necessary engineering skills but also the cross-disciplinary knowledge, entrepreneurial spirit, global perspective and a sense of service needed to lead the world to meet the great challenges facing humankind in the 21st century.
He was awarded the Jefferson fellowship in 2013 to serve as a senior science and technology advisor to the Office of the US Secretary of State, where he helped guide US’s international relations through the lens of “engineering for sustainable development” and provided intellectual, technical and strategic leadership on policies and priorities in the areas of health, education, energy, infrastructure, economic growth and governance.
He “retired” from ASU in 2016 and joined the National Academy of Engineering in Washington, D.C. as the director of the newly created Grand Challenges Scholars Program Network. The primary goal of the network office is to facilitate the inspiration of the next generation and to help prepare the future talent around the US and across the world that can adequately address the challenges facing humankind in the 21 st century.