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KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Dr. Massood Atashbar will be presented with Western Michigan University’s Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award during the Fall Convocation ceremony.

Faculty chosen for the Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award are honored on the basis of outstanding artistic, literary, philosophical, historical, technical or scientific achievement, bringing wide recognition from the academic community beyond Western’s campus.

Atashbar, professor of electrical and computer engineering, will be recognized during the event on Friday, Sept. 16, at 11:30 a.m. in the North Ballroom on the second floor of the Bernhard Center. Also receiving awards at Fall Convocation are recipients of four other prestigious campuswide honors: Distinguished Service, Distinguished Teaching, Emerging Scholar and annual Make a Difference awards.

The Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award “pays tribute to those who have achieved greatness by contributing a substantial body of work to their discipline, and they are widely recognized within national and international academic communities for their excellence," says Dr. Christopher Cheatham, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Atashbar joined Western’s faculty in 1999 after completing his postdoctoral degree at Penn State University. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Iran and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in Iran.

Since 2011, he has been director of the Center for Advanced Smart Sensors and Structures, which is dedicated to performing research in smart sensors and structures. This center focuses on interdisciplinary research and provides mentoring for doctoral and master’s students.

His work in this unique research niche of sensor technology has distinguished him in his field, according to a colleague.

“Dr. Atashbar’s work has clearly demonstrated how he has established himself as a teacher-scholar. He has developed a nationally recognized research program that continues to impact the electrical engineering community while engaging graduate and undergraduate students,” says Dr. Sherine O. Obare, professor of nanoscience and dean of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and North Carolina A&T State University. “He has successfully incorporated his research into entrepreneurship activities that have attracted new funding opportunities, industry collaborations and international partnerships to the University.”

Atashbar’s research was also hailed by his counterparts at other universities as well as engineers and industry heads at companies including Texas Biochemicals Inc. and the Boeing Company.

“Dr. Atashbar is one of the pioneers in the flexible and printed-electronics field. He is uniquely poised to advance the electronics manufacturing sector in the U.S. His caliber of research is exceedingly important and highly sought after, and only a few possess the skills and aptitude to make important, lasting advances in this critical area of research,” says Dr. D. (Ravi) Ravichandran of Texas Biochemicals Inc.

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