Jose B. Cruz, Jr.

Biography

Jose B. Cruz, Jr. has educated generations of undergraduate and graduate students over his 45-year career, instilling the qualities of technical excellence in research and teaching and inspired professional service. Many of his graduates have become academic leaders or hold prominent positions in industry. Dr. Cruz has been readily accessible for advice and mentoring to his former students and junior colleagues.

At the University of Illinois he developed a new organization and presentation of material for a course on circuit theory leading to a textbook published in 1967 with M.E. Van Valkenburg, and he introduced, with W.R. Perkins, an undergraduate course on dynamic systems that was control oriented and unique in that it used a themed example (attitude control of a spacecraft) throughout the course, also leading to a textbook (in 1969). These textbooks contained pioneering methods for introducing advanced concepts at an elementary level.

While at the University of California, Irvine, from 1986 to 1992, working with James H. Mulligan, Jr., Dr. Cruz established strong ties with industry in developing manufacturing systems research and jointly supervised Ph.D. students incorporating feedback from industry. As a consultant on the Engineering and Science Education Project of the Philippine Dept. of Science and Technology from 1993–1998, he helped to establish a practice-oriented Master of Engineering Degree Program focused on an industry-linked project in several Philippine universities. An IEEE Life Fellow, Cruz is currently a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the Ohio State University, Columbus, where he previously served as Dean of the College of Engineering.