Our alumni have become chief executive officers, presidents, vice presidents, faculty members, and leaders in the profession who all share a common heritage –as engineering graduates of Mississippi State University.

In 1991, the College of Engineering named 100 Distinguished Fellows as part of its 100th anniversary celebration for engineering education at Mississippi State. The program was reborn in 1999 with the addition of 10 Distinguished Fellows. Each year eight to 10 esteemed alumni are given this prestigious recognition.

 

Thomas R. Byrd, DMD
B.S. Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1981
Doctor of Dental Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC), 1988

Thomas Raymond Byrd graduated from Mississippi State University in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science in biological engineering. He has owned and operated the Florence Dental Clinic in Florence, Miss., for the last twenty years.

After college and before settling in Florence, he moved to Atlanta, Ga., were he served as a loss prevention consultant for Factory Mutual Engineering. He then returned to Mississippi and began working for the state and later, at the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry from 1984 to 1988.

Byrd is active on the UMC Dental Alumni Board, the American Dental Association and Mississippi Dental Association (MDA). He is an honorary member of the Ommicron Kappa Upsilon and participates with the MDA Task Force on Medicaid. He is active in his community, coaching youth soccer and baseball along with being an assistant scout master for many years. He has also spent time in Honduras on several medical/dental missions.

Byrd has continued to stay in touch with MSU and support his alma mater by serving on the MSU Biological Engineering Advisory Board, as well as being an active member of the Central Mississippi MSU Alumni Board. He also sponsors the Don Byrd Memorial Scholarship.

Byrd was born in Lumberton, Miss., but spent his formative years in in Bogalusa, La. His wife of 26 years, Lauri, is also an MSU graduate. They have three children. Adam, a senior in biological sciences, and Jessica, a sophomore in graphic design are both students at MSU. Their youngest, India, is a freshman at Florence High School.

 

Isabel M. Devine
B.S. Civil Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1969
M.S. Systems Management, University of Southern California, 1983

Capt. Isabel Margaret Devine, is a retired engineer whose career spanned 34 years in ship repair and maintenance. A native of Chickasaw, Ala., she received a bachelor’s in civil engineering from MSU in 1969. After graduation she worked at the Charleston Naval Shipyard structural division. She was later accepted into the Navy, where she was commissioned as an ensign in 1970.

She served at the Naval Ship Engineering Center in Hyattsville, Md., working in ship habitability, ship specification and electronic warfare from 1970 to 1972. Her work with the Navy continued at California’s Long Beach Naval Shipyard as ship superintendent, overseeing ship overhaul and repair availabilities until she qualified as a docking officer. During her time Coronado, Calif., she served as the watercraft repair coordinator, production officer, operations officer and department head of operations and repair department at the Naval Amphibious Base.

Beginning in 1977, she worked as the planning officer, and later the production officer for the ship repair department at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. She was responsible for ships in the Caribbean training area, boats assigned to Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, PR, and Jamaican Defense Force watercraft. In 1978, she served at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, personnel department and was responsible for military manpower programming for the major naval commands. She transferred to Naval Reserves in 1979.

After her transfer she became the naval architect in foundations and stowage at the Pugent Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash. She then decided to continue her education and enrolled in the systems management program at the University of Southern California where she received her master’s in 1983.

From 1988 to 2003 Devine was the supervisor of shipbuilding, conversion and repair at USN Pascagoula, Miss. As a naval architect she worked on the naval amphibious assault ships (LHD1 Class) built at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems’ Ingalls Operations. She later served as technical manager for the USS Spruance Class, USS Kidd Class and CG 47 Class ships.

An active member of the MSU Alumni Association, she established a scholarship in the civil engineering department honoring her parents, John and Isabel Devine, who have five children and two grandchildren with degrees from Mississippi State University in addition to three grandchildren currently attending the university.

In addition to being active in tutoring and mentoring, she is a religious education teacher in her parish church. She was awarded Volunteer of the Year for the Moss Point, Miss., school district.

 

Chris Ewing
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1994

Chris Ewing is the co-founder and president of Ewing/Kessler Mechanical Solutions, Inc., a regional company with locations in Memphis, Tenn., Starkville, and Jackson. Ewing/Kessler was launched in 2005 and has grown into a $22 million per year operation. They specialized in selling applied engineered systems for the commercial and industrial air-conditioning and heating markets. Their tremendous growth has contributed to the partnership agreements they have formed with companies such as McQuay International and Siemens. Ewing currently manages Ewing/Kessler as well as three additional companies in related business fields.

After graduating from Mississippi State in 1994 with a degree in mechanical engineering, Ewing worked with what was the largest air-conditioning and heating sales company in the southeast at the time. He won numerous awards for his ability to grow the business through owner based selling, as well as forming strategic alliances with companies to offer services to meet his clients’ needs. He created a name for himself catering to the casino market, promoting energy saving solutions and cost effective air-conditioning systems.

Ewing has served on boards of various organizations, but he spends the majority of his time growing his companies and looking for other business opportunities in the market place.

Although his is a native Mississippian and still considers the state home, Ewing currently resides in Memphis, Tenn., with his wife and two sons.

 

Frederick William Hamilton
B.S. Industrial Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1988

Originally from Carthage, Miss., Fred Hamilton has lived in Newton and Meridian, Miss., for the last 30 years. As founder and president of K&S Custom Warehousing, Inc. in Meridian, he has established a niche in the transportation industry in east Mississippi. He founded K&S in 1993 to facilitate the unloading and palletization of cartons from sea containers for delivery to local manufacturing firms. Since then, K&S has evolved into a third party logistics firm providing collaborative supply chain solutions where raw material inventory is held on consignment from suppliers and delivered to the manufacturer on a daily, just-in-time basis. In 1999, K&S became the first company in Mississippi to provide home delivery and return to the warehouse of storage pods.

A nontraditional college student, Hamilton entered the industrial engineering program at the age of 28 after several years of working as a trackman with the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. Following graduation, and prior to starting K&S, he worked as an industrial engineering quality manger, engineering manger and general manger for several firms in east Mississippi, including Saunders, a manufacturer of office products.

While at Saunders, Hamilton designed and developed the first clipboard made of recycled plastics for Wal-Mart, and modified manufacturing equipment for use by handicapped employees. He holds two U.S. patents including one for a trucking industry tool and another for a repairable, composite pallet.

Hamilton serves his community as chairman of the East Mississippi Business Development Corporation’s Transportation Committee. He has personally funded community transportation studies in support of local economic development. His philanthropy also extends to East Central Community College and Mississippi State where he annually funds scholarships.

Hamilton has one daughter, Heather Hamilton Carr, and two grandchildren, William Hamilton Carr and David Andrew Carr.

 

Danny D. Howard
B.S. Aerospace Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1991
M.S. & Ph.D. Aeronautics and minor in Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1991, 1996

Dr. Danny D. Howard is the level 1 manager of flight system engineering for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) Southern California Region in El Segundo, Calif. In this role, he has functional management responsibilities for flight system engineers within IDS. He is also the department manager of flight system engineering for Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems (S&IS) giving him program oversight responsibilities for the attitude control subsystem (ACS) and the telemetry and command subsystem (T&C) on all satellites at S&IS.

Howard is responsible for developing and deploying IDS common approaches to professional development, processes and tools within flight system engineering, as well as developing technical excellence. As a department manager in S&IS, he is responsible for supporting all satellite program offices within S&IS by managing the development and integration of ACS and T&C.

He graduated magna cum laude from Mississippi State in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. He received master’s and doctoral degrees in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology in 1991 and 1996 respectively. Howard is also a California board certified professional engineer in mechanical engineering and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. A native of Columbus, Miss., he is a member of two boards, the MSU Aerospace Engineering Advisory Board and the Caltech Alumni Association board of directors. Last year, he received the Modern Day Technology award from the National Black Engineer of the Year Award committee.

As an active community member, Howard has participated in several mentoring programs, including the John Muir Space Academy Mentoring Program. He was an officer in the Mississippi and California Army National Guard and Army Reserves for 15 years. Currently, fe resides in Pasadena, Calif., with his wife, Erica, and daughter, Olivia.

 

Gay T. Irby
B.S. Mathematics Education, Mississippi State University, 1974
M.S. Computer Science, Mississippi State University, 1977

Gay T. Irby joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1987. Since 2005, she has served as the chief information officer at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC). She is responsible for service delivery at the center including desktops, telephones, applications, IT security, and audio/visual and video production. She is responsible for setting and implementing IT policy for NASA/SSC.

Prior to 1987, Irby was an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Southern Mississippi – Gulf Coast for 10 years. She also served as a faculty adviser and was responsible for course scheduling and recruitment of part-time faculty.

Irby graduated from MSU with a master’s in computer science in 1977 after earning her bachelor’s in mathematics education in 1974. She was a 1970 graduate of Starkville High School.

In 2005, Irby was the recipient of a NASA Exceptional Service Medal for her sustained commitment to the support of NASA’s mission at SSC. She received a Spaceflight Achievement Award in 2000 for her support of NASA’s space program. Her article “Reflection on the electronic procurement revolution” was published in the Journal of Proposal Management in 2001 and was included in the Knowledge Base of the Business Development Institute.

Irby has resided in Long Beach, Miss., for 25 years with her husband, Ron. Their son, Brant, is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army stationed in Baghdad. Their younger son, Sean, will graduate in May 2009 with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Hartford. She is a member of First United Methodist Church in Long Beach and the Long Beach Yacht Club.

Irby is the daughter of the late Jay and Jean Thomas. Mr. Thomas was a professor of electrical engineering at MSU where he was appointed the first director of development for the University and director of MSU’s Gulf Coast Technical Institute.

 

Jerry McAlpin
B.S. Nuclear Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1974
M.S. Nuclear Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1980

Jerry McAlpin is owner and president of McAlpin Enterprises located in Los Alamos, N.M. The company provides domestic and international consultation to the nuclear industry and specializes in radiological engineering. It has provided services to international nuclear energy agencies, national laboratories, universities, and nuclear utilities.

McAlpin has recently accepted an assignment with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. His primary responsibility is the non-proliferation of at-risk radioactive sealed sources, which have the potential for misuse in a radiological dispersal or exposure device commonly referred to as a dirty bomb. Prior to this assignment, he spent 10 years with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) working on the off-site source recovery project, with a very similar focus. His responsibilities on the project also included leading cooperation between the Chinese government and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration to remove vulnerable radioactive sources from facilities near Olympic venues.

McAlpin worked with LANL to develop a unique approach for radiological characterization of transuranic radioactive sealed sources to allow for the disposal of the material at a DOE waste facility. The result was the first shipment of transuranic sealed sources to this facility in 2005.

For 18 years, McAlpin developed and implemented programs at six different utilities to reduce radiation exposure to workers. This included authoring an ALARA design manual for one nuclear utility. He also assisted utilities in upgrading their radiation protection programs to meet new federal regulations.

After graduating from MSU in 1974, McAlpin started his career with Bechtel in San Francisco, Calif., as a design engineer working on the Hope Creek Nuclear Facility. Prior to graduating, he also spent six years in the Nuclear Navy on the USS Enterprise where he was a nuclear reactor operator.

McAlpin was president of the Houston, Texas, chapter of the MSU Alumni Association. He received the following awards from LANL, team distinguished performance award for the non-proliferation achievements, Y2K award for computer applications and the Green Zia award for environmental activities. The project he worked on in Los Alamos has been recognized numerous times for outstanding performance in the national media and by NNSA governmental organizations.

He and his wife, Cynthia, have two daughters, Jessica and Megan, and are expecting a granddaughter in April. When he is not working, you may find him on the golf course, landscaping or restoring antique Jaguars.

 

Kathy Pyatt Pepper
B.S. Petroleum Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1980

Kathy Pyatt Pepper, graduated magna cum laude from Mississippi State University in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science in petroleum engineering. She is vice president of information technology for Exxon Mobil Corp. and is responsible for computing and telecommunications services for Exxon Mobil worldwide, including geoscience, engineering and business computing requirements.

She joined the company in 1980 as a reservoir/subsurface engineer in Lafayette, La. She held various staff and supervisory positions, including upstream planning and analysis operations superintendent and technical manger in the Gulf of Mexico, and production manger for west Texas operations. In 1997, she became planning manager for Exxon’s International Upstream Operations based in New Jersey.

In 1999, Pepper joined the merger transition team, planning the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Upon inception of the merger, she was named strategic planning manager for Exxon Mobil’s global production company. During the fall of 2001, she became production manger and managing director for the Exxon Mobil companies in Norway. In 2005, she assumed responsibility for Exxon Mobil’s United Kingdom operations. In early 2007, she returned to the United States as the upstream IT manager, before being appointed to her current position in 2008

Her current professional memberships include the Research Board, the CIO Strategy Exchange and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. She is a licensed professional engineer in Texas and has served on the board of directors for several oil industry associations in the United State and abroad. Community activities have included volunteer and board roles with United Way, Junior Achievement and the Boy Scouts of America. She was also recognized with a Tribute to Women in Industry awarded by the YWCA in 1998.

Pepper is a naive of Columbus, Miss. She is married to Fred Pepper, a petrophysicist for Exxon Mobil. The couple resides in Houston, Texas, with their sons, Riley and Carson.

 

Mark E. Peters
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1987

Mark E. Peters earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from MSU in 1987. He has been employed with the Dow Chemical Company since graduation. Currently, he serves as the business manufacturing leader for Dow’s polypropylene and polypropylene catalyst & licensing businesses. Prior to that, he was on assignment in the area of mergers and acquisitions, with accountability for development and negotiation of site service contracts between Dow and Joint Venture partners.

During his 21 years with Dow Chemical, Peters has worked at four different U.S. locations including Pevely, Mo., Plaquemine,La., Ironton, Ohio, and Freeport, Texas. His roles have included a wide variety of engineering and manufacturing leadership assignments, including an assignment as site leader for the Hanging Rock, Ohio, operations site, and as senior manufacturing leader for the start-up and operation of a grass-roots polypropylene complex in Oyster Creek, Texas.

He has earned certifications as a Six Sigma green belt, black belt and master black belt. He is also a college recruiter for the Dow Chemical Company. Peters is a newly-elected member of the external advisory board to MSU’s Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering.

During his time at MSU, Peters was a scholarship athlete, competing on the MSU men’s basketball team from 1983-87. He is a two-time Babe McCarthy Award Recipient, and was also chosen Academic All-SEC in 1987. He and his wife, Janice, reside in Lake Jackson, Texas. They have three children—Christopher, 19, Bradley,17, and Nicole, 12. Both he and his wife are active members of their local church. Janice teaches fourth grade at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic School in Richwood, Texas, and Mark teaches 11th grade Confirmation Classes at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Lake Jackson, Texas.

 

Anthony L. Wilson
B.S. Electrical Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1987
MBA, University of Southern Mississippi, 1992

Anthony L. Wilson is vice president of distribution at Georgia Power Company, a subsidiary of Southern Company. He began employment with Southern Company at Mississippi Power in 1984 as a cooperative education student from Mississippi State University. He has held various positions of increasing responsibility including Columbia area manager, assistant plant manager, division power delivery manager, assistant to the president, manager of marketing regulatory affairs, and general manager of distribution engineering, construction and maintenance at Georgia Power.

Originally from Biloxi, Miss., Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University in 1987 and an master’s of business administration from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1992. He also graduated from the Oxford University Advanced Management Program in 2002. He has been active on local and state boards including the Mississippi Economic Council, United Way, Boy Scouts, American Cancer Society, and 21st Century Leaders. He also serves on the advisory board of department of electrical and computer engineering at Mississippi State University. He is a past graduate of Leadership Mississippi. Wilson serves on the executive power delivery council of EPRI and the power delivery committee of the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies.

He and his wife, Tonya, have three children—Meghan, Katie and Natalie. They are very active in their community and attend First Baptist Church of Peachtree City, Ga.