Class Acts

Philip Berke ‘81, widely regarded as one of the nation’s top land use planning scholars, is returning to Texas A&M in 2014 to rejoin the urban planning faculty and help lead the university’s Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities.

“Ballerina,” a photo by former Texas A&M visualization student Igor Kraguljac ‘08, was selected for inclusion in “Best of the Best Photographers 2013,” a collection of creative images from photographers worldwide distributed to top advertising agencies, art directors and art buyers.

Expo City, the focal point of Expo 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan, a world’s fair showcasing the latest developments in renewable energy sources, will be built from a design by a Chicago firm co-founded by Adrian Smith, an outstanding alumnus of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.

A series of large-scale paintings by Felice House, assistant professor of visualization at Texas A&M, invites viewers to question gender stereotypes in American western mythology in “Re•Western,” an exhibit at the Wright Gallery, Langford A, through Feb. 14.

Design websites continue to spread the word about Memory Cloud, a permanent, hanging sculpture at Texas A&M’s Memorial Student Center containing 4,000 LED nodes designed in part by Andrew Vrana ’93 that displays moving, 3-D silhouettes in real time and from days past.

A distinguished career in architecture, support of emerging professionals and service to the community has netted Reagan George ’59 the Texas Society of Architects’ 2013 Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Honor of Llewelllyn W. Pitts, FAIA.

Turkeys time travel to the first Thanksgiving in an effort to prevent their brethren from becoming the day’s main menu item in “Free Birds,” the new animated movie that includes 12 former visualization students in leading animating roles.

Research findings create the ingredients for design, allowing architects to create amazing environments based on the best possible information and insight, said Upali Nanda, HKS Inc.’s new director for research, who earned a Ph.D. in architecture at Texas A&M in 2005.

Early career excellence in undergraduate teaching has netted Kunhee Choi, assistant professor of construction science, recognition as a Texas A&M Center for Teaching Excellence Montague Scholar.

A panel of Texas A&M faculty selected Edward Tarlton, an urban and regional science doctoral student who teaches landscape architecture and urban planning, as recipient of the The Association of Former Students’ Excellence in Teaching award.

Nancy Jeanne Volkman, an associate professor and member of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning faculty at Texas A&M University since 1981, passed away Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013 after a long illness. A dynamic teacher and prolific scholar, she was researching three books just prior to her death.

When construction science students begin taking classes in the renovated Francis Hall in spring 2015 they’ll be able to see exposed mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems at work in a $100,000 specialty lab funded by Dynamic Systems, Inc.

The signature classroom in the renovated Francis Hall, which will house Texas A&M’s Department of Construction Science this spring, will be named for Bob Segner, a professor who has been teaching students, many of whom are now leaders in the building industry, since 1970.

Recognizing the profound and positive influence longtime architecture professor Rodney Hill had on his life and those of countless other Texas A&M students, Bill Peel ‘74 has contributed $25,000 to the Rodney Hill Professorship in Creativity and Design, and he is challenging Hill's former students to make contributions of their own.

Augustus Charles "Gus" Hamblett, a scholar who taught architectural history and design at the Texas A&M University College of Architecture for 30 years, died June 15, 2013. He was 73.