UMD Convocation will honor five from the Clark School

The University of Maryland’s 43rd annual Convocation ceremony on Wednesday, September 9 will honor five outstanding Clark School of Engineering faculty and staff for their contributions to education, research, and service.

“The Clark School has world-class faculty and staff,” said Clark School Dean Samuel Graham. “Their innovative research, expertise, desire to educate future engineers, and sense of service are core reasons why our students are successful, our academics are recognized nationally, and our research enterprise is among the most respected in higher education. We are fortunate to have such dedicated and talented people in our community making the University of Maryland a special place.”

Distinguished University Professor

The highest appointment bestowed on a tenured faculty member, the title Distinguished University Professor is a recognition not just of excellence but of impact and significant contributions to the nominee’s field, knowledge, profession, and/or practice.

Amr Baz
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Amr Baz is Minta Martin Professor and Keystone Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he directs the Smart Materials and Structures Research Center.

His research interests include active and passive control of vibration and noise, active constrained layer damping, magnetic composites, virtual reality design of smart structures, and active acoustic metamaterials. He has published more than 200 journal papers (garnering nearly 10,000 citations), as well as two books, concerned respectively with active and passive vibration damping and with smart structures.

Baz serves as associate editor of multiple journals, including Vibration and Control Journal, International Journal of Smart Structures and Systems, Journal of Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, Journal of Acoustics,and Journal of Vibration.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Baz has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a Best Paper Award from ASME in 2026. He has been included in Who’s Who of American Inventors. Recognizing Baz’s excellence in both pedagogy and teaching, UMD named him a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher in 2015.

Carol Espy-Wilson
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Institute for Systems Research

Carol Espy-Wilson holds joint appointments in UMD’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Institute for Systems Research, where she directs the Speech Communication Lab.

An internationally recognized leader in speech communication, her research combines digital signal processing, speech science, linguistics, and machine learning to advance speech recognition, enhancement, speaker identification, and speech-based assessment of mental, cognitive, and emotional health.

Espy-Wilson is founder and chief technology officer of OmniSpeech, a Mtech Ventures startup developing technologies that improve speech intelligibility in noisy environments and detect AI-generated deepfake audio.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining UMD in 2001. She is a Fellow of IEEE, the International Speech Communication Association, and the Acoustical Society of America. Espy-Wilson, who has received numerous honors for research, innovation, and teaching, broke historic barriers as the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and the first African American to achieve tenure and promotion to full professorship in UMD’s ECE department.

Distinguished Scholar-Teacher

Selected by a committee of fellow former honorees, faculty in the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Program combine outstanding scholarship with teaching excellence; they also deliver a public lecture.

Ahmet H. Aydilek
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Ahmet Aydilek is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

His current research interests are in the area of sustainability in geotechnical infrastructure design, studying the mechanical, hydraulic, and environmental behavior of industrial byproducts and soft soils for their possible reuse in highway construction, and development of design methodologies with various highway materials.

Aydilek has directed or co-directed several research and consulting projects for industry and government, and co-authored over 150 technical publications in geoengineering. He currently serves as an associate editor for Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (ASCE) and Editorial Board Member for Geosynthetics International.

A Board-Certified Geotechnical Engineer (ASCE) and a Fellow of ASCE, Aydilek received his B.Sc.from Istanbul Technical University in 1993 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996 and 2000, respectively. His contributions to geotechnical, geoenvironmental, and geosynthetics engineering have won him numerous honors, including multiple awards from ASCE.

Professional Track Faculty Excellence Award

The Professional Track Faculty Excellence Award recognizes consistently excellent contributions and a demonstrated commitment to student success, innovative academic practices, and impactful scholarly work.

Martha Wang Ph.D. ’14
Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices

Martha Wang is the assistant director of the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, a clinical professor, and faculty mentor for the MPower Entrepreneurship Fellowship.

Her work focuses on biomaterials, medical device development and commercialization, and strengthening the medtech ecosystem by connecting researchers, industry partners, and students through educational and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Before joining UMD, Wang held leadership roles in manufacturing, research and development, and quality assurance within the biotechnology industry, including leading the manufacturing division of the first commercially available stem cell-containing product.

At UMD, Wang co-designed and launched the Clark School’s Center for Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research, developing curriculum to support engineering researchers at every career stage. She also teaches biomedical device development and mentors undergraduate and graduate students in technical development, regulatory strategy, entrepreneurship, and career planning.

Passionate about the power of community to drive innovation, Wang co-founded Maryland MedTech Week with the Maryland Department of Commerce and other key partners. The annual event brings together entrepreneurs, researchers, clinicians, investors, students, and industry leaders to strengthen collaboration across Maryland's medtech ecosystem.

President’s Distinguished Service Award

The President’s Distinguished Service Award recognizes exceptional performance, leadership, and distinctive contributions by a member of university staff to the operation of an administrative, academic, research, or service unit on campus.

Teresa Moore
Engineering Dean’s Office

Teresa Moore, a 36-year veteran of the university, joined UMD in 1990 as a word processing supervisor.

Her talents, capabilities, and commitment to organizational efficiency and excellence were quickly recognized, leading to her recruitment by the Clark School’s electrical and computer engineering department in 1996 as a research coordinator; she later assumed the pivotal role of the department’s director of financial operations. In 2010, she joined the Fischell Department of Bioengineering as director of operations, where she played an instrumental role in the newly formed department’s establishment and growth.

Since 2022, Moore has served as assistant dean for finance and administration to the Clark School. One of her notable innovations has been the creation of a centralized payroll service center in the school of engineering, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at addressing critical operational gaps, setting a new standard of excellence, and fostering efficiency and uniformity across the college.

Her influence extends beyond official duties; she frequently serves on college and campus level committees and serves on pilot groups for new campus systems and various college and campus committees, consistently delivering outstanding results.

Published September 3, 2026