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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 25, 2005

Contact: Lisa Merkl
713.743.8192 (office)
713.605.1757 (pager)

HOUSTON, Feb. 25, 2005 – The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has awarded Lewis Wheeler, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Houston, the Dedicated Service Award for his leadership to the applied mechanics division.

Wheeler received this honor for his contribution to the Journal of Applied Mechanics as its technical editor. This journal is the flagship research publication of the ASME and also is the first of the ASME transaction journals to be dedicated entirely to research.

“All of us in the Cullen College of Engineering congratulate Dr. Wheeler for this prestigious recognition of his many efforts,” said Matthew A. Franchek, a professor and chairman of the mechanical engineering department at UH. “He has been active with ASME for many years, provided significant leadership to the applied mechanics division and has given generously of his time as a journal editor.”

Established in 1983 by the ASME Board of Governors, the award recognizes “unusual dedicated voluntary service,” and recipients must have at least 10 years of membership in Sections/Regions/Member Affairs; Codes and Standards; Technical Affairs; Public Affairs; Education; committees reporting to the Board of Governors; the ASME Auxiliary; and the ASME Foundation.

An ASME fellow who is well respected in the engineering community, Wheeler also was awarded the 2002 Dean Claude L. Wilson Award for lifetime achievements of an outstanding engineering educator.

“He’s been the editor of two journals, which is a prestigious accomplishment, and the journals were quite successful under his leadership,” said Charles Dalton, a UH mechanical engineering professor who also attended UH with Wheeler as an undergraduate. “He is highly respected, and his peers have recognized his service and dedication to applied mechanics.”

Wheeler graduated from UH with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mechanical engineering and received his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology. He continues to serve as editor-in-chief of Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids, a research journal published by Sage Science Press. Since coming to UH in 1968, Wheeler also has been active in the UH community, serving as the mechanical engineering department’s interim chair for two years and in the Faculty Senate, where he served as president in 2000.

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