Wayne Scales named J. Byron Maupin Professor of Engineering
Wayne Scales, professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, was recently named the J. Byron Maupin Professor of Engineering by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The J. Byron Maupin Professorship was established in 1993 by Maupin's widow, Marjorie S. Maupin, and her brother, LeRoy M. Sizemore, to recognize teaching and research excellence in the College of Engineering.
J. Byron Maupin, a native of Bedford, Virginia, was a 1934 industrial engineering graduate who spent his career with DuPont and Sprague Meter Company.
Recipients hold the title of the J. Byron Maupin Professor of Engineering for a period of five years and is renewable.
Scales joined the Virginia Tech faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor and became an associate professor in 1998, a professor in 2006, and the founding director of the Center for Space Science and Engineering Research in 2007. The center has more than 100 internationally renowned faculty, staff, and graduate students specializing in fundamental physics and chemistry of the near-Earth space environment, impact of this environment on modern technologies, and the exploitation of this environment with advanced technologies.
Scales has also served as the co-director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program in Remote Sensing since 2012 and is an affiliate professor of aerospace and ocean engineering.
Scales is regarded for his pioneering research in the fields of ionospheric physics and plasma simulation. He developed the state-of-the-art plasma physics-based models for active space experiments and dusty space plasmas. His most recent research focuses on development of dusty space plasma diagnostics using high power radio waves, the development of ionospheric diagnostics using stimulated electromagnetic emissions and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) beacons, the development of ionospheric and magnetospheric space plasma turbulence models, and the development of a GNSS spacecraft formation flying testbed for ionospheric remote sensing applications.
He has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of more than 20 research projects with personal responsibility for more than $3 million in funds. He has authored and coauthored 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Scales has supervised 17 Ph.D. and 10 master’s degree students and has trained and hosted four postdoctoral fellows and international visiting scholars at Virginia Tech. He is currently supervising five Ph.D. students.
Scales has received many professional accolades and honors, included the American Geophysical Union Editor’s Citation for Excellence in Refereeing and the American Society for Engineering Education Postdoctoral Fellowship. At Virginia Tech, he received the College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Exemplary Research and the Dean’s Award for Exemplary Service.
In addition, Scales has served as guest editor for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions on Plasma Science and Journal of Atmospheric Solar Terrestrial Physics and associate editor for Advances in Space Research and Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids.
He served as co-chair of the International Workshop on the Physics of Dusty Plasmas and Chairman of the Committee on Space Research Commission on Active Experiments and Dusty Space Plasmas. He has also served on the Committee of Visitors of the National Astronomy and Ionospheric Center and member-at-large of the International Union of Radio Science United States National Committee. He serves on the Issues and Program Committee for the University Space Research Association.
Scales received his bachelor’s degree in honors and master’s degree from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.
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