Professor Ronald D. Boyd is the Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Honeywell Endowed Professor, the Director of the Thermal Science Research Center (TSRC) at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), and Texas A&M System Regents Professor. He has provided immeasurable contributions to engineering education, research, academic administration, and service. His continued effort to advance the level of academic knowledge of our students sets him apart from many of his colleagues. Prior to his arrival at Prairie View A&M University, Professor Boyd enjoyed a productive fourteen-year career at Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM) and Los Alamos National Laboratory as a member of the technical staff. At Sandia, he was a principal investigator and heat transfer consultant for the high heat flux materials and fusion component development, liquid-metal fast breeder reactor spent-fuel transportation, waste isolation pilot plant, and reactor safety programs. At Los Alamos, he performed hydrodynamic numerical analyses and experimentation on advanced defense concepts.
Professor Boyd joined the faculty at Prairie View A&M University as the Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department. It was during that period that he introduced higher academic standards for both graduate and undergraduate education in the department; and, these standards were soon adopted by the College of Engineering (COE). His previous industrial experience provided the impetus to develop the first industrially-funded interdisciplinary design project in the COE. That effort has grown into our mature capstone projects today. With an interest towards broadening the scope of the COE, he developed the first research center (TSRC) in the COE.
For ten years, he was the faculty advisor of the PVAMU Mechanical Engineering Honors Chapter (Phi Delta) of the National Mechanical Engineering Honorary Society, Pi Tau Sigma (PTS). This Chapter institutionalized professionalism in the COE and has been noted for being one of the most active and effective student organizations. The Phi Delta Chapter of PTS obtained a “Good Standing” Rating for twelve consecutive years during and after Professor Boyd’s advisorship. He later served four, three-year terms as a Board Member and the Vice-President of the Western Region of the National Mechanical Honorary Society (PTS). His graduate students’ theses have been used as models of excellence by other graduate and undergraduate students. His commitment to the development of students toward academic excellence is unsurpassed. He is a role model who instills character, discipline, and a remarkable work ethic amongst his students. For over two decades, Professor Boyd has been a leader in academic research, academics, administration and service. Although Professor Boyd has obtained over $6.0M in research funding with over 130 technical publications and 80 technical presentations, his emphasis has been excellence in outcomes and student formalizations rather than the sole accumulation of “numbers.” However, he has been fortunate to have had over seventy (70) faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and staff work with him in the TSRC (see the TSRC List of Contributors).