7/10/2012 By William Bowman
Written by By William Bowman
“It’s a great honor,” Polycarpou said. “Of course, a great honor doesn’t mean everything stops. It means more good things need to come, in scholarship and research.”
Named MechSE’s Associate Head for Undergraduate Programs in May 2011, Polycarpou has been recognized as a Kritzer Faculty Scholar since 2003. Since joining the University of Illinois in 1999, Polycarpou has established a preeminent research program, has published 126 archival Journal articles, and has received 11 U.S. Patents, with contributions from nanoscale interfacial interactions to advances in our fundamental understanding of friction and wear (tribology), with applications to magnetic storage devices and conventional engineering applications. His research program has attracted funding from a range of sources, including the federal government and the private sector. He is an internationally renowned scholar, and he has been recognized for his scholarship through numerous awards.
In addition, Polycarpou has shown great dedication to University involvement, serving on three critical committees: the Campus Promotion and Tenure Committee, the Faculty Advisory Committee, and the Vice Chancellor of Research (VCR) Compliance Advisory Committee. He also serves as a campus Faculty Senator.
“Certainly, I am joining a small group of faculty here that have professorships and am looking forward to continuing my contributions to research and scholarship to the department, to the college, and the university,” Polycarpou said. “This professorship could certainly provide the opportunity to help to move some things further ahead, maybe a new chapter in one’s research.”
A formal investiture ceremony for Polycarpou will be held on November 2 at the Beckman Institute.
W. Grafton Wilkins
As an undergraduate in railroad engineering, Grafton Wilkins joined his fellow engineering students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s foundry, where he learned the art and science of precision casting of metal objects. The University of Illinois bookends that he and other students created in the 1920s still turn up on bookshelves from time to time. It may have been fond memories of his foundry experience that motivated him to endow the W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professorship.
Born in Marissa, IL Wilkins earned his BS in railroad engineering in 1929. An ingenious engineer and astute businessman, he served as president of Universal Castings Corporation in Chicago for many years. He married his wife, Lillian, a St. Louis native, in 1931. They spent most of their married life in La Grange, IL where Mrs. Wilkins was active in civic and philanthropic activities. At one time, she was a member of the University of Illinois Foundation’s Laureate Circle.
Grafton Wilkins died in 1991 and Lillian passed away in 1996. The Wilkins Professorship was received as an estate gift in 1997.