The Fellow of ABET Award was established by the ABET Board of Directors in 1988 to recognize individuals who have given sustained, quality service to applied science, computing, engineering, or engineering technology education and to their respective professions through the activities of ABET.
The following criteria is used in the selection process: substantive contributions to ABET, formal volunteer involvement in ABET, participation as a member of ABET visiting teams, and service in an ABET capacity in addition to the commissions.
Dr. William J. Wepfer joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 1980 after receiving his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1979. Beginning in 1989, he served as associate chair of Graduate Studies in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. In this role, Dr. Wepfer grew the graduate program from 244 to 687 students. In addition, during Dr. Wepfer's tenure as associate chair 106 students won prestigious NSF Fellowships. In October 2002, Dr. Wepfer became Vice Provost of Distance Learning and Professional Education (DLPE). He was named the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering chair in 2008.
ABET is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that accredits college and university programs in the disciplines of applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. ABET accredits over 3,100 programs at more than 670 colleges and universities in 24 countries. ABET provides specialized, programmatic accreditation that evaluates an individual program of study, rather than evaluating an institution as a whole.
Read the ABET Press Release.