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Syed M. Shahed

Syed M. Shahed (16K JPG)

As a leader in both professional societies and the workplace, Syed M. Shahed champions efficient, high-power-density and environmentally benign transportation power systems. He has conducted internationally recognized research on understanding how pollutants form in diesel engines, controlling emissions and improving efficiency through advanced fuel-injection and charge-air boosting and cooling systems.

After a year as a lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley, Shahed spent nearly 20 years with Cummins Engine Company, moving from senior engineer through various positions to executive director. In 1989, he moved to Southwest Research Institute and soon after became director of engine research. Since 1995, Shahed has been vice president of research and development for Honeywell's Garrett Engine Boosting Systems, Torrance, California.

Shahed received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. He earned master's and PhD degrees from UW-Madison in the same area in 1969 and 1970. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Combustion Institute, and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). The SAE is an international organization of more than 80,000 automotive engineers and practitioners; in 2002, Shahed will become its president — the fifth person associated with UW-Madison to hold the prestigious position. Among his many honors, he is a fellow of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering, ASME and SAE. He has received SAE's Forest R. McFarland Award for Service to Society twice, as well as four additional awards for excellent research papers, lectures and presentations.

During his graduate studies here, Shahed met his wife, Asha, a horticulture and biochemistry master's student who later earned her doctorate from Indiana University. They married in 1970 and have a daughter, Joohi, 25, a physician on a neurology residency at Duke University. In his free time, Shahed likes to read philosophy, history and literature, and expects he'll return to school when he "retires."