Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement: 2004 Recipients
Michael A. Briere '84
Michael Briere, in a few short years you've taken the knowledge and experience you gained as a WPI student and translated it into an extraordinarily productive career as a researcher and corporate executive, one that has already brought you significant acclaim.
After receiving your bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from WPI in 1984, you continued on to work toward a master's in physics, which you would earn in 1987. As a research assistant at WPI, you helped explore the dielectric properties of ceramic packaging material. This work was a stepping stone to more advanced research, first as an engineer at IBM, where you worked on semiconductor materials development, and then as a guest scientist at the Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin, where you studied the effects of radiation on solids. The invitation to work at this prestigious government-run research laboratory, an honor normally reserved for scientists with doctorates, is an indication of the great promise you showed early on.
While in Germany, you pursued doctoral studies in physics at the Technical University of Berlin, then, in 1992 you joined the research staff at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Working in the high-temperature physics division, you led a project focusing on the interaction of highly charged ions with solids. Your work uncovered several nanometer-scale surface phenomena with potential medical applications.
In 1996, Cherry Semiconductor Corporation recruited you to be its director of technology development and corporate chief scientist. When not in the lab, you served as an adjunct associate professor of physics at the University of Rhode Island, helping gradate students launch their own research careers. In your next post, as vice president of power integrated circuits at Vicor Corporation, you helped guide the development of semiconductor devices and integrated circuits. Vicor, recognizing your knowledge and management acumen, allowed you to establish Picor Corporation, a Vicor "spin-in". Under your leadership, Picor developed three product platforms and released six products to production.
Today, as vice president of integrated circuit development at International Rectifier Corporation, you are helping this worldwide maker of integrated circuits for power management applications develop new technologies for wafer fabrication processes, device design and characterization, and electronic design automation and testing.
Over the years, you have given more than 80 presentations at international scientific forums and meetings, and you have published your research in some 75 articles in scientific journals. Among your publications is your doctoral thesis, which was printed in its entirety by an international journal, a rare honor for a student work.
Michael Briere, for your visionary leadership and entrepreneurial spirit, we are pleased to present to you the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
David S. Brin '84
David Brin, your accomplishments in the medical technology industry make you a source of pride for your alma mater.
During your undergraduate years, you excelled in mechanical engineering, receiving your bachelor's degree in 1984. You were inducted into both Pi Tau Sigma, the ME honor society, and Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society. And you were active in the crew program.
Your educational achievement continued with the attainment of an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the Thayer School at Dartmouth College in 1989, and a doctor of jurisprudence from Suffolk University in 1994. You maintained your connection with WPI by serving as a class agent, as a Reunion volunteer, and as a speaker at WPI's Career Day in 1989.
Your career led you first to Westinghouse, then to Medtronic – called by some "the world's leading medical technology company." Medtronic provides products and services in the areas of cardiac rhythm management, neurological and spinal surgery, cardiac surgery, and vascular health. In Massachusetts, you were engineering manager for Medtronic Interventional Vascular, before moving to California, where you were named vice president for research and development for Medtronic Vascular.
David Brin, your history of accomplishment and your dedication to the field of medical technology are a source of pride for WPI. It is an honor to present you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
James M. Melvin '84
James Melvin, your hard work, entrepreneurial spirit, leadership, and intuitive recognition of market opportunities have distinguished you among your peers.
Your career began on a traditional engineering path at Digital Equipment Corp. in 1984, just after you received your bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Over the ensuing seven years you held product development and marketing positions with increasing levels of responsibility, and were granted two U.S. patents for DEC. Along the way, you expanded your horizons and earned an M.S. in management in 1988 from your alma mater.
Arriving at a crossroad, you determined that you could use your technological background to do more, and subsequently left DEC to join Avid Technology, a startup firm that was advancing in the field of digital video editing. You were responsible for the company's media composer business unit; however, not one to settle for the status quo, you took the initiative and started a group within the company that focused on corporate communications, which ultimately helped grow the company into one of the foremost digital audio and video editing companies in the world.
When your entrepreneurial spirit beckoned you to pursue a new direction, you became a member of the founding team and vice president of marketing at SightPath, a developer of appliances for creating intelligent content delivery networks (CDNs). Once again you were a driving force, this time behind the creation of the CDN market. Subsequently, you played a key role in securing the acquisition of SightPath by Cisco Systems for $800 million in 2000. Recognizing your talents, you were tapped by Cisco to stay aboard as the director of marketing to help develop and position its CDN business unit.
After two years with Cisco you boldly struck out on your own, this time as a consultant offering your considerable talents and expertise in computer engineering, technology, marketing and financial strategies. In short order, however, one of your startup clients lured you to join their firm. In 2002 you were named president and chief executive of Mazu Networks Inc., a company that delivers enterprise network traffic security solutions to help commercial and government entities ensure business continuity and information protection. Today you are successfully building Mazu Networks into a leading innovator in the fast-moving market for security software.
James Melvin, you have charted your own unique career. It is with great pride that WPI presents you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
Jean-Pierre P. Trevisani '89
Jean-Pierre Trevisani, with your bachelor's degrees in computer science and electrical engineering, you could have pursued a distinguished career in the high-tech industry. Instead, you held fast to your dreams and continued singing. Today you perform with France's national opera company – l'Opera National de Paris – and your glorious tenor voice brings pleasure to music lovers all over the world.
It was at WPI that you first found that voice. You joined the Glee Club as an inexperienced singer with an undistinguished sound. Under the tutelage of Professor Louis Curran, you blossomed into a powerful vocalist with a command of the classical repertoire. You profited from the best teachers in the Worcester area and performed on campus and with local ensembles.
After graduation, you made your living as a software engineer. Seizing every possible moment to continue your musical training, you studied nights and weekends at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Boston University Opera Institute. This exhausting effort paid off. In 1995, you were a winner at the New England Region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a finalist in the Enrico Caruso International Tenor Competition in Milan, Italy.
When the big breakthrough came in 1996 – a invitation to join the Centre de Formation Lyrique de l'Opera National de Paris – your circle of WPI friends rejoiced. You made your debut with the company in Parsifal, and performed roles in Faust and Rigoletto. Despite your world travels and your busy concert schedule, you found time to return to your alma mater in 2001 to honor some of WPI's most generous supporters with a special performance at Tuckerman Hall.
Jean-Pierre Trevisani, we applaud the courage and hard work, and the talent and dedication that put you where you are today. You are spectacular proof that there are no limits to what one can do with a WPI education. It is with great joy that we present you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
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