ECE 2024 Homecoming Alumni Event
Distinguished Alumni to be acknowledged:
Susan Gray
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tucson Electric Power, UniSource Energy Services and UNS Energy Corporation
BS, Electrical Engineering, University of Arizona, 1996
MBA, Business Administration, University of Arizona, 2001
Nominated by: Hal Tharp, Associate Professor and Associate Head
Susan Gray is president and chief executive officer of Tucson Electric Power, UniSource Energy Services and their parent company, UNS Energy Corporation, based in Tucson, Arizona.
Susan, who began her career as an engineering student in 1994 at TEP, established herself as a collaborative, inclusive leader who inspires a culture of safety, recognition and transparency through a values-driven approach.
She was named vice president of energy delivery in 2015 and was promoted to chief operating officer in 2019. She was named president in January 2020 and became CEO in January 2021.
Susan leads the company’s efforts to advance economic development in the communities we serve as the board chair of Sun Corridor Inc., as well as sitting on boards for the Southern Arizona Leadership Council and the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management and College of Engineering. She also collaborates with utility peers through service on boards for the Edison Electric Institute and Western Energy Institute. She brings her industry experience and leadership acumen to the boards for Central Hudson Gas & Electric and Caribbean Utilities Company, two other utilities in the Fortis family.
Committed to community, Susan is a longtime member of the board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson, a charity that is close to her heart for its work to help break the cycle of poverty by providing children with a safe, nurturing and learning environment.
Susan earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from the University of Arizona.
Mariappan S. Nadar
Senior Director of Research, Siemens Healthineers
MS, ECE University of Arizona, 1990
MS Advisor: Abhijit Mahalanobis, Associate Professor
Thesis Title: "Hybrid phase-only matched filter for optical pattern recognition"
PhD, ECE, University of Arizona, 1995
PhD Advisor: Bobby R. Hunt, Professor Emeritus
Dissertation Title: "Minimum cross-entropy formulations in image super-resolution"
Nominated by: Ali Bilgin, Professor and Michael Marcellin, Regents' Professor
Mariappan S. Nadar received his MS and PhD in electrical engineering (with a minor in optical sciences) from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona. His MS and PhD theses were under the mentorship and supervision of Prof. Abhijit Mahalanobis and Prof. Bobby R. Hunt respectively.
Following his graduate studies, in 1995 he joined Siemens Corporate Research, Inc. in Princeton, NJ as a post doctoral researcher in the Imaging and Visualization Department. Following several roles, in 2015, he was promoted to the role of senior director of research in medical imaging technologies, Siemens Healthineers, Princeton, NJ, leading a team of research scientists working on medical imaging projects spanning multiple modalities. Starting February 2024, he is the vice president of research in the AI Center, Digital Technology and Innovation, Siemens Healthineers. Over the years, his research focus has been in neuroimaging based on MRI, CT scans, compressed sensing for MRI, magnetic resonance fingerprinting, AI/machine learning in medical imaging and medical image reconstruction.
He is recognized for leading the research and productization efforts of compressed sensing for magnetic resonance imaging in Siemens Healthineers. His team was the winning team of the 2013-2014 ISMRM Sub-Nyquist Reconstruction Challenge. His team was responsible for delivering the compressed sensing product into Siemens Healthineers MR scanners, making Siemens Healthineers the first vendor to offer compressed sensing as a product. For the Compressed Sensing Cardiac Cine product, the team won the 2017 R&D100 award (one of the 100 most technologically significant new products of the year in software/service) and 2017 Gold Award R&D 100 Special Recognition, Market Disruptor-Products.
In 2017, while a senior director of research, he received the prestigious Siemens Inventor of the Year Award for his contributions to the research on compressed sensing in magnetic resonance imaging, the highest award given to a Siemens employee.
He is also recognized for his pioneering work on AI based reconstruction for magnetic resonance imaging in Siemens Healthineers. His team was responsible for the research and productization of Deep Resolve, a portfolio of AI based MR reconstruction algorithms available in Siemens Healthineers MR scanners. Deep Resolve has won multiple accolades. Deep Resolve was the winner of the EuroMinnies 2023 awards in the Best New Radiology Software category. The Deep Resolve product won the 2023 R&D100 award (one of the 100 most technologically significant new products of the year in software/service) and 2023 Gold Award R&D 100 Special Recognition, Green Tech.