Dr. A. Ertas, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, received his masters and Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. He had 12 years of industrial experience prior to pursuing graduate studies. Dr. A. Ertas has been the driving force behind the conception and the development of the transdisciplinary model for education and research. His pioneering efforts in transdisciplinary research and education have been recognized internationally by several awards. He is a Senior Research Fellow of the ICC Institute at the University of Texas Austin, a Fellow of ASME, a Fellow of Society for Design and Process Science (SDPS) and a founding Fellow of ATLAS. He is also an honorary member of International Center for Transdisciplinary Research (CIRET), France.
Dr. Ertas has earned both national and international reputation in engineering design. Dr. Ertas published 4 books (A. Ertas, and J. C. Jones, The Engineering Design Process, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, first addition 1993, and second addition 1996; A. Ertas, Prevention through Design (PtD): Transdisciplinary Process, (Funding for this research was provided by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), 2010; A. Ertas, Engineering Mechanics and Design Applications: Transdisciplinary Engineering Fundamentals, Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, 2011; A. Ertas (Editor), Transdisciplinarity: Bridging Natural Science, Social Science, Humanities & Engineering, TheATLAS Publications, 2011) and edited more than 35 conference proceedings. He has also organized more than 30 international conferences within ASME, IEEE, SDPS and ATLAS.
Dr. Ertas' contributions to teaching and research have been recognized by numerous honors and awards. The honors and awards include: President's Excellence in Teaching; Pi Tau Sigma Best Professor Award; Pi Tau Sigma Outstanding Teaching Award; Halliburton Award in recognition of outstanding achievement and professionalism in education and research; College of Engineering Outstanding Researcher Award; George T. and Gladys Hanger Abell Faculty Award for overall excellence in teaching and research; and President's Academic Achievement Award. He also received the most prestigious SDPS George Kozmetsky Distinguished Achievement Award and Excellence in Leadership Award. Most recently, he was recognized as one of the distinguished former students of Texas A&M, Mechanical Enginering Department. In January 2012 Dr. Ertas received the ATLAS-Academy Gold Medal of Honor Award. He has published over 150 scientific papers that cover many engineering technical fields. He has been PI or Co-PI on over 40 funded research projects. Under his supervision more than 170 MS and Ph.D. graduate students have received degrees.
