Mentors
John Beaty
John is the Director of Technology Programs for the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems and co-teaches the Engineering Leadership course for the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program. Mr. Beaty has extensive experience managing research and development for the scientific instrument, semiconductor, and government contract industries. John spent 30 years with three companies, Thermo Electron Corporation, Schlumberger Test and Transactions, and FEI Company developing a wide variety of instruments and tools, using diverse technologies. In most instances, John procured development resources from a variety of sources: government, industry, industry consortia, and venture capital.
Phil Cheney
Philip is the Visiting Professor and Engineering Executive in Residence at Northeastern University and currently co-teaches the Engineering Leadership course for the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program. He is also Senior Consultant for Corporate and Government Partnerships the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems. Dr. Cheney has 40 years of experience in applying leading-edge technology to solutions for complicated engineering problems. He has worked as an individual research contributor, engineering project leader, laboratories manager and government programs manager. He retired in 2001 as Vice President of Engineering for Raytheon Company including responsibility for Engineering, Program Management, and Quality Management. He received the BSEE and MSEE from MIT in 1957 and 1958, respectively, and the Ph.D in EE from Stanford University in 1961.
Stephen McKnight
Stephen has been a professor at Northeastern since 1980 and currently teaches the Scientific Foundations of Engineering course for the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program. He received the BA from Oberlin in 1969 and the Ph.D. from University of Maryland in 1977. He is also Education leader of the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems. Previously he was Associate Director of the Center for Electromagnetics Research (an NSF Industry-University Center).
Richard Moore
Rick Moore, serves as the Gordon-CenSSIS Medical Program Director and co-teaches the Engineering Leadership course in the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program.
He joined Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 1974, initially working on radiopharmeceutical development, including the positron imaging of 18-F-FDG. In 1982 he embarked on developing radiology workstations for the hospital.Starting in 1984, he created patient-outcome tracking systems to measure clinical performance and then took on the leadership of the Breast Imaging Research laboratory at MGH with Dr. Daniel Kopans. Over the period of 21 years, they built a robust research program, co-developing many imaging and non-imaging diagnostic and screening systems including Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (3D mammography), clinical Patient Reporting Systems, the Ambulatory Cardiac Function monitor, the Ambulatory Renal Monitor, ultra-performing, GPU-based MLEM parallel reconstructors and the design and clinical evaluation cycles for other instruments.Rick collaborates on design, development and analysis of devices and methods that employ biomarkers and morphology to detect, characterize and predict disease. He consults on data acquisition, database management, transmission presentation and interpretation of medical content. This includes managing collaboration sites, project coordination, technologist and physician training and supervision. Rick has co-authored more than 42 peer-reviewed papers, co-holds 8 patents, and lives with parrots.
David Potter
David is actively involved in formulating and implementing outreach to undergraduate engineering students with the potential to be Gordon Fellows as an adjunct to his duties as a cooperative education faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has also taught courses in digital logic design for undergraduates. A Double Husky, he received the BSEE and MSEE from Northeastern in 1966 and 1968 followed by a 35 year career in engineering plus a two year tour as an army officer. He has been a co-op student, an engineering vice president, and everything in between. He is co-inventor on 9 patents in computer communications, computer server hardware, RAID disk, and a massively parallel supercomputer. In his spare time, he advises the NU Wireless Club.
Carey Rappaport
Carey has been a professor at Northeastern University since 1987. He received dual SBs, SM, and Eng from MIT in 1982 and the Ph.D. from MIT in 1987. In addition to his involvement with the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, he is also Associate Director of the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems. Professor Rappaport was the Principal Investigator of a $5M ARO-sponsored Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative in humanitarian demining, the lead researcher supporting Alion Science and Technology, Inc’s. $130M Omnibus Task Order with US Army Night Vision and the Electronic Sensors Directorate, as well as the Principal Investigator for a $4.9M Dept. of Homeland Security Advanced Spectrographic Radiation Portal Monitor for special radioactive materials.
Michael Silevitch
Michael received the BSEE, MSEE and PhD from Northeastern University in 1965, 1966, and, 1971, respectively. He joined the faculty of Northeastern in 1972, and was appointed to the Robert D. Black Endowed Chair in Engineering at Northeastern in 2003. In addition to his role as Director of the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, Dr. Silevitch is Director of the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center. Previously he directed of the Center for Electromagnetics Research (an NSF Industry-University Center) and the Center for the Enhancement of Science and Mathematics Education (CESAME). He is an elected fellow of the IEEE.
Horst Wittmann
Dr. Wittmann is Senior Research Development Officer in the Office of the Provost of Northeastern University and is actively involved in the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program. In 2001 he retired from the federal Senior Executive Service as Associate Director of the Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH, and from his position as Lead US Representative at the NATO Research and Technology Board, Sensors and Electronics Technology Panel. Dr. Wittmann’s field of scientific specialization is solid-state physics; he received the B.S in 1959 and the Ph.D. in 1964. He is a fellow of the IEEE and AAAS.
Christos Zahopoulos
Dr. Zahopoulos is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education at Northeastern University. He is also the founder and Executive Director of Northeastern University's Center for STEM Education, a university-wide Center, which aspires to improve STEM teaching and learning in K-16 and beyond. Dr. Zahopoulos is actively involved in the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program by assisting in the teaching of the Scientific Foundations of Engineering course. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Northeastern University and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Division of Applied Sciences at Harvard University. For his work, in 2005, he received the Northeastern University Faculty Aspiration Award.
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