Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 4 No. 2 Summer 2019 | Page 20

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Society of Distinguished Alumni
inducts five to Class of 2019
On May 2 the second class was inducted into
the Mechanical Engineering Society of Distin-
guished Alumni during a ceremony at the Inn
at Virginia Tech.
teaching and mentoring programs. His service
to Virginia Tech includes more than a decade
on the ME Department Advisory Board.
The society was created in 2018 to formally
recognize alumni who demonstrated extraor-
dinary achievement in their careers, and to
promote greater interaction between alumni,
faculty, staff, and students.
Class of 2019 inductees are:
William Cousins
BSME, 1978; MSME, 1979; PhD, 1997
John C. Blanton
BSME, 1976; MSME, 1977; PhD, 1981
An internationally known and respected
leader in the field of gas turbine design and
technology, Dr. John Blanton has maintained
life-long commitments to the sound funda-
mental practice of mechanical engineering and
to his alma mater.
Starting as a student and continuing
throughout his lengthy career with General
Electric and now as a consultant, Blanton
excelled at complementing corporate engi-
neering responsibilities with leadership and
collaborative volunteer activities with profes-
sional engineer societies.
Blanton has also shared his experiences with
the next generations through extensive formal
A recognized international expert in com-
pression system stability and operability,
William Cousins' invention of a device for
fore-and-aft flow in a surge event in compres-
sions, has become the standard for stall and
surge testing in turbine engine compressors.
Cousins recently completed the design and
test of the first-ever boundary-layer ingest-
ing distortion-tolerant fan under a NASA
contract, and he shares his knowledge with
students at Virginia Tech as well as maintain-
ing a position as an adjunct faculty member at
the University of Hartford. In addition to his
role on the Mechanical Engineering Advisory
Board, Cousins also serves as an informal
advisor to the governing board of the ASME
International Gas Turbine Institute.