Graduate Student Awarded Best Paper

Congratulations to William Rutherford who was awarded Best Student Paper by the Tire Society at the 28^th Annual Meeting and Conference on Tire Science and Technology, September 15-16, 2009, Akron, Ohio. The award also came with a $500 prize. Members of the Tire Society are recognized as international leaders in the development of tire science and technology. The title and co-authors of the paper are: “Use of Orthogonal Arrays for Efficient Evaluation of Geometric Designs for Reducing Vibration of a Non-Pneumatic Wheel during High-Speed Rolling” by William Rutherford, Shashank Bezgam, Amarnath Proddaturi, Lonny Thompson, and John Ziegert, from Clemson University, and Timothy Rhyne and Steve Cron from Michelin Americas Research & Development Corporation.

The eight student papers considered for the best paper award were:

1. René van der Steen, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

2. Brad Hopkins, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA

3. Vijaykumar Krithivasan, Auburn University, USA

4. Renan Ozelo, University of Campinas, Brazil

5. Paula Misiewicz, Cranfield University, United Kingdom

6. William Rutherford, Clemson University, USA

7. Madhura P.N. Rajapakshe, University of South Florida, USA

8. Akshay Ashirgade, University of Cincinnati, USA

William Rutherford graduated with a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University in August 2009. His academic and research advisor was Professor Lonny Thompson. William has recently begun work as Engineer at General Electric at their Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Division in Florence, South Carolina.