SROP - Summer Research Opportunities Program
Featured Speakers
Plenary Session Featured Speaker
Jack Breslin Student Events Center
9: a.m., Saturday, July 26, 2008
Dr. Rubén O. Martinez
Dr. Rubén O. Martinez, Director of the Julían Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University, is a nationally known scholar with expertise in the areas of higher education, race, and ethnic relations and diversity leadership. His research focuses on leadership and institutional change, education and ethnic minorities, youth development, and environmental justice.
Professor Martinez has taught at universities across the southwest, including Pitzer College in California, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and the University of Texas-San Antonio, where he served as Professor of Public Administration and as Director of the Center for Policy Studies.
Dr. Martinez has lectured widely across the country, including presentations at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavior Science at Stanford, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Colorado, and at many professional conferences. He has two co-authored books entitled Chicanos in Higher Education and Diversity Leadership in Higher Education and is working on a third on Diversity and Public Administration.
Dr. Martinez is a consultant on higher education issues and community research projects, and has served on projects sponsored by — among others — the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Ford Foundation, Pfizer Foundation, Anne E. Casey Foundation, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
Keynote Speaker
CIC/SROP Banquet
Jack Breslin Student Events Center
7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 26, 2008
Dr. George H. Simmons
George H. Simmons is corporate vice president and general manager of the Access Network Solutions business of Motorola headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts with other locations in Marlboro, MA and Horsham, PA . He is responsible for product realization and managing the lines of businesses for Fiber to the Premise, Hybrid Fiber Coax and Cable Management Termination Systems. These hardware and software systems are sold as solutions to telephone service providers and cable multi-system operators around the world for connecting subscribers to telephone central offices and cable headend offices for delivering voice, internet and video services.
Just prior to joining Motorola, George was COO of Simpler Networks in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was responsible developing technically superior low cost access cross connect switches based on micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) chip technology. Simpler Networks started as a venture capital–backed startup company with operations in Montreal and Hsinchu City, Taiwan.
George is past president and CEO of Cibernet, located in Bethesda, Maryland, where he managed a turnaround of the venture capital–backed wireless services business, improved customer relationships, profitability and cash flow while developing a strong management team and service delivery platform. The company was sold to a private equity group for over $200 million.
George received an MS in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan (1974), and a Master of Management degree from Northwestern University (1991). He subsequently worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories (now Alcatel-Lucent) from 1974 to 2002, including an assignment in Beijing, China (1995-97), where he was vice president of the Network Wireless business. His team was the first equipment manufacturer to build and successfully generate a CDMA network call in China.
As vice president of Research and Development Operational Excellence for Lucent (1997–98), George led the development and implementation of new engineering processes for complex telecom network solutions in five North American and international projects. The quality of this work earned his team the Bell Laboratories Presidents award for R&D Operational Excellence. He was named vice president and general manager of Lucent’s newly acquired $1 billion Access Technology business in 1998. He led the product unit in designing, developing, and selling ATM access data network equipment. Under his leadership the product portfolio expanded and revenue grew from $60 million per year to over $200 million per year.
George has received many awards, including the J.D. Ryder Electrical Engineering Alumni Award (2007), the Lucent Wireless Explorers Award (1997) and the Lucent Wireless CDMA Award (1997). He also received two patents: Circuit for Eliminating Spurious Pulses in a Dial Pulse Stream (1981); and Optical Data Link Extension for Data Communication Networks (1987).
He generously supports his alma mater through corporate donations. He has served on the electrical engineering visiting board and is active in encouraging other alumni to do likewise. He is on the MSU Black Alumni (MSUBA) Endowment Campaign committee and formerly served on their board of directors. MSUBA is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to improving communication among African-American alumni and has risen over $1 million for scholarships. George and his wife, Grayce, live in a lovely country home designed by Grayce in Columbia, Maryland. They have two adult children: daughter Gina and son Gavin, who lives in the Atlanta area with wife Nia, son Kaiyu, and daughter Zenia. George is also a life member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.