Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State aerospace engineering department head Anthony J. "Tony" Vizzini is the inaugural holder of the Bill and Carolyn Cobb Chair in Engineering.
The chair recently was established in the university's Bagley College of Engineering by the Dallas, Texas, couple, whose business provides international petroleum engineering and geological consulting services.
A reception for Vizzini will be held April 6 from 1:30-3 p.m. in the Elton King room of McCain Hall, which houses the college's administrative offices.
Vizzini joined the MSU faculty as professor and department head in 2003 from the University of Maryland, where he was founding director of the Composites Research Laboratory for the A. James Clark School of Engineering.
"In the short time that Dr. Vizzini has been at Mississippi State, he has made a significant impact on the aerospace engineering department and the Bagley college, as well as the university and the state of Mississippi," said engineering Dean Kirk H. Schulz.
"He also was instrumental in the decision by Aurora Flight Sciences to locate its facility in the Golden Triangle area," added Schulz, referring to the company that will utilize MSU aerospace technology to manufacture unmanned aircraft.
Vizzini is a recognized authority on response and failure of composite structures--particularly energy absorption and crashworthiness, tailoring techniques to improve structural integrity, and damage tolerance of sandwich structures. He holds a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Vizzini recently was named to the rank of Fellow in the American Society for Composites. The professional body currently has only 21 members nationwide who carry the prestigious title.
William M. Cobb received bachelor's and master's degrees in petroleum engineering from MSU, respectively, in 1966 and 1967. Later, he earned a doctorate at Stanford University, then served on the MSU faculty from 1972-75. In 1983, he and his wife Carolyn established William M. Cobb and Associates.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Dr. Vizzini at (662) 325-1148 or vizzini@ae.msstate.edu.