Prof. Gardiner named Engineer of Year by LVEC

Keith Gardiner, professor of industrial and systems engineering and director of the Center for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, has been named Engineer of the Year for 2004 by the Lehigh Valley Engineering Council (LVEC).

Gardiner received a plaque, along with letters of congratulations from Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, at a banquet Feb. 20.

Gardiner, a former chairman of LVEC, joined the Lehigh faculty in 1987 after a career with IBM. He is a fellow and former vice president and international director of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Last year, he received SME's Joseph Siegel Service award.

In addition to SME and LVEC, Gardiner has also been active with National Engineers Week, the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science, the Jason Project, and the annual Science Fair sponsored by Lehigh University and Insaco Inc.

Gardiner has also helped organize and teach Engineering 5: Freshman Design Experience, a new course in which teams of freshman engineering students design and make products.

LVEC is an umbrella organization of 14 engineering societies in Berks, Bucks, Carbon,Lehigh, Montgomery, Monroe and Northampton counties in Pennsylvania, and Hunterdon and Warren counties in New Jersey.