Honour for mechanical engineer

University of Queensland professor of engineering and operations management Pra Murthy has been invited to visit the National University of Singapore (NUS) this year as part of a select group of internationally distinguished academics under a short-term visitors' scheme initiated last year by NUS.

Professor Murthy, who was nominated by NUS' Industrial Engineering Department, will visit the National University of Singapore in December 1998 and January 1999.

Professor Murthy, a former director of the University's Technology Management Centre, is a leading figure in reliability, warranty, quality, operations management in manufacturing and technology management. His research involves the integration of engineering, technology and management using mathematical models and analytical techniques. He has published more than 200 technical papers and co-authored three books.

A bachelor of engineering and master of engineering graduate with honours of the Jabalpur University in 1965, and the Indian Institute of Science, in 1967, respectively, he was awarded both a PhD in applied mathematics and a master of science at Harvard University, in 1971.

Appointed as lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University of Queensland in 1972, he was promoted to professor in 1995. He has held appointments as visiting professor at universities including the University of California at Berkeley, George Washington University, and the University of Southern California.

He is a fellow of the Institution of Engineering Australia, and has served as president of the Queensland branch, and as national vice-president of the Australian Society of Operations Research (ASOR).

Professor Murthy is currently visiting professor in the Systems and Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Arizona until May. From July until October he will visit the Norwegian University of Technology.