February 9, 2012
UW’s David Stahl elected to National Academy of Engineering
David Stahl
David Stahl, a University of Washington professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Also elected are UW affiliate professor Henrique Malvar and UW alumnus Peter Farrell.
They are among 66 new members and 10 foreign associates announced today. Election to the academy is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer.
In electing Stahl, the academy cited his “application of molecular microbial ecology to environmental engineering.” Stahls research concerns microbes and the role they play in processing nutrients. He also studies evolution and competition among microbial communities, and how to harness microbes for the bioremediation of polluted sites.
Stahl has been a member of the UW faculty since 2000. Before joining the UW, he held faculty positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at Northwestern University.
Stahl graduated magna cum laude from the UW with a bachelors degree in microbiology. He then earned his masters and doctorate in microbiology from the University of Illinois.
He is author of more than 220 academic papers, and is among the holders of a patent on methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of microbial populations potentially present in a sample.
In addition to his academic publications, Stahl is co-author of a NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory report on handling samples from Mars; a National Research Council task group report on possible human contamination of Jupiters moon Europa; and an American Academy of Microbiology report titled “Microbial ecology and genomics: A crossroads of opportunity.”
Stahl is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, a member of the American Society for Microbiology and a former member of the National Academies Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life. He is also founding and current co-editor of the journal Environmental Microbiology, and former editor of the journals Molecular and Microbiological Reviews, Biodegradation, and FEMS Microbiology Letters.
Malvar is chief scientist and managing director at Microsoft Research and a UW affiliate professor of electrical engineering. The academy cited Malvars “contributions to multiresolution signal processing and multimedia signal compression and standards.” His research interests include signal enhancement and compression, especially of audio and images, fast algorithms, and electronic circuits and hardware. Malvar has served as an evaluator for the UW Center for Commercializations Commercialization Gap Fund.
Farrell graduated from the UW in 1971 with a doctorate in chemical engineering and bioengineering. He went on to found ResMed Inc. in San Diego, which develops devices to treat sleep breathing disorders such as sleep apnea. He currently serves as the companys chairman and chief executive officer. Farrell was cited “for research and development of devices for treatment of sleep disorder breathing.” He is also a member of the UW College of Engineerings visiting committee.
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For more information, contact Stahl at 206-685-8502 or dastahl@uw.edu.
The National Academy of Engineering notice is here.
