Dr. William E. Simon Receives the LEF Engineering Faculty Professionalism Award

On January 22, 2019, Dr. William E. Simon recieved the Louisiana Engineering Foundation (LEF) Engineering Faculty Professionalism Award.

Pictured: Dr. Simon receiving his LEF Award from Ms. Susan Richard, President of LEF, during a joint meeting of the Louisiana Engineering Society (LES) and LEF.

The LEF established the Engineering Faculty Professionalism Award as an effort to honor those engineering faculty members from each of the seven Louisiana universities having ABET/EAC accredited engineering programs who exhibit professionalism in and out of the classroom, and who serve as outstanding examples to both faculty members and students. 

After 27 years with NASA in the Apollo Space Shuttle and International Space Station program, Dr. Simon entered academia as Department Head of Mechanical Engineering at Lamar University (1990), returning to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (his Alma Mater: BSME 1963) as Department Head of Mechanical Engineering in 1996.  Currently he serves as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering.  As well as teaching, Dr. Simon has been instrumental in building the local American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Student Organization, served as Chairman of the International ASME Mechanical Engineering Department Heads Executive Committee; Chairman of the International ASME Department Heads group (a group of approximately 400 U.S. ME Department heads in the U.S. and several other countries); and as a member of the International ASME Board on Engineering Education.  He has also led a delegation of U.S. Mechanical Engineering Department Heads to an ASME International Conference in China.  His research was focused in the thermal science and alternate energy conversion areas. 

Dr. Simon enjoys working with people in the university and in the community to improve the engineering program at UL Lafayette and its image, with emphasis on assisting minorities and women; facilitating faculty development; and promoting student development through organizations such as Tau Beta Pi, ASCE, AIAA, AJCIIE, IEEE, API, NAIT, NSBE, and SWE. He works tirelessly to enhance the stature of the College of Engineering and the University in the community and providing administrative leadership, guidance and sound fiscal management for the academic unit.

We are very proud to have Dr. Simon serve as a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering......Congratulations Dr. Simon!