Layne Watson honored with emeritus status
Layne Watson, professor of computer science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emeritus title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 1978, Watson also holds professorships in the departments of mathematics and aerospace and ocean engineering. He was principal or co-principal investigator on grants totaling nearly $28 million, and his scholarship has been wide ranging.
Watson has collaborated with students and faculty from almost every department in the colleges of engineering and science, as well as several other colleges on campus. He helped start the bioinformatics program in computer science, brought the first parallel high-end computer to Virginia Tech, and started the transdisciplinary collaboration that has become a model for the department.
Today Watson is a member of about 20 centers and programs across the university, ranging from forestry to aerospace engineering to medicine. He has authored or co-authored more than 600 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers, and edited 10 books.
Watson has received many professional honors and awards, including his most recent fellowship in the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He has also been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and received numerous best paper awards, the Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Excellence in Research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency BioSPICE Special Recognition Award, the Society for Wood Science and Technology George Marra Award for Excellence in Writing, and the College of Engineering Dean's Award for Excellence in Research.
In the classroom, Watson taught both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses. He directed 61 master’s degree and Ph.D. theses — nine of which won departmental best thesis awards — and served on hundreds of master’s degree and Ph.D. committees across multiple colleges.
Watson received his bachelor's degree from the University of Evansville and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
