Class Notes Winter 2025
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Read StoryIn Memoriam
Ron Biederman
Materials Engineering Professor Who Helped Solve a 9/11 Mystery
Ronald R. Biederman, a longtime professor of mechanical engineering at WPI and head of the university’s materials engineering group, passed away on Nov. 14, 2024. He was 86.
Biederman earned three degrees at the University of Connecticut (BS in mechanical engineering and MS and PhD in materials science) and began his career—and his fascination with materials—as an instructor of metallurgy at UConn. He joined WPI in 1968, helping build a modern materials engineering program with state-of-the-art laboratories in the Washburn Shops that included an electron microscope facility, which he directed.
His research included studies of the properties and performance of metal alloys, including the behavior of zirconium used in nuclear reactors. He was also interested in how and why metals fail, expertise that was put to the test in 2001 when WPI received samples of steel from the collapsed World Trade Center towers to analyze.
Ron Biederman
The fires in the towers on 9/11 were not hot enough to melt the buildings’ structural steel, but an analysis by Biederman and materials engineering professor Richard Sisson showed that the steel had undergone eutectic reactions on its surface, which can cause “intergranular melting capable of turning a solid steel girder into Swiss cheese,” WPI’s Transformations magazine reported in its Spring 2002 issue.
In 1982, Biederman, who often consulted for industry, was selected as George F. Fuller Professor of Mechanical Engineering at WPI, named for the former chairman of Worcester’s Wyman-Gordon Co., a maker of metal forgings. He was also a fellow of ASM International and was named to UConn’s Academy of Distinguished Engineers.
Biederman is survived by his wife, Patrica, sons Brian and Scott, stepdaughters Gina and Christina, two grandchildren, a brother, and numerous nieces and nephews.
Bob Norton
Mechanical Engineering Professor, Authority on Machine Design
Robert L. Norton, emeritus professor of mechanical engineering and a noted authority on machine design, died June 22, 2024. He was 85.
Norton earned undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering and industrial technology at Northeastern University and a master’s in engineering design at Tufts University. Before joining WPI in 1981, he spent two decades solving complex challenges for organizations like Polaroid (where he designed cameras and high-speed automated production machinery) and Tufts New England Medical Center and Boston City Hospital (where he helped develop an artificial heart).
With expertise in kinematics, dynamics of machinery, and cam design, he was active for many years as a consultant to industry. He sought to give WPI students the opportunity to gain practical experience by establishing the Gillette Project Center, where mechanical engineering majors worked on real-world manufacturing projects at the company’s state-of-the-art manufacturing center in Boston.
Bob Norton
His innovations resulted in 13 patents. Among his many honors, he was a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and received ASME’s prestigious Machine Design Award. He was the author of three textbooks on machine and cam design and manufacturing, as well as several engineering design software packages.
A talented and dedicated educator, Norton held WPI’s Russell M. Searle and Morgan Distinguished Instructorships in mechanical engineering, and was the first faculty member to hold the Milton Prince Higgins II Distinguished Professorship. WPI honored him with its Board of Trustees Award for Outstanding Teaching and an honorary doctorate in engineering. In 2007 he was named Professor of the Year for Massachusetts by the national Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
Norton is survived by Nancy, his wife of 63 years, sons Robert Jr. and Thomas, daughter Mary, five grandchildren, one great grandson, and many nieces and nephews.
Kaveh Pahlavan
ECE Professor, Pioneer in Indoor Wireless Communication
Kaveh Pahlavan, whose pioneering work in indoor wireless communication as a professor of electrical and computer engineering at WPI helped pave the way for today’s ubiquitous Wi-Fi networks, died Nov. 2, 2024, at the age of 73.
After earning an MS in electrical engineering at the University of Tehran and a PhD in electrical engineering at WPI, he taught at Northeastern University and worked in industry. He began working on the challenges of wireless networking while consulting for GTE Laboratories in the early 1980s.
When he joined the WPI faculty in 1985, indoor wireless data communication was in its infancy. Pahlavan established the nation’s first university research laboratory in the field (the Center for Wireless Information Network Studies) and received the first National Science Foundation grant for indoor wireless network research.
Kaveh Pahlavan
His early work focused on the challenges of the indoor environment, where radio signals bounce off walls and furniture and arrive at a receiver along multiple paths. His lab developed numerical models that helped scientists understand and overcome multipath distortion, and built technology testbeds to demonstrate wireless networking innovations. He later conducted research in other areas of wireless communication, including indoor geolocation and body-area networks.
Pahlavan also brought the international wireless community together for pioneering conferences and workshops he organized in conjunction with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The founding editor-in-chief of the first international journal on wireless information networks, he also published four textbooks.
His many honors included being named the Weston Hadden Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at WPI and a fellow of IEEE; receiving WPI’s Board of Trustees Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Scholarship; and receiving the first Fulbright-Nokia Fellowship.
He leaves his wife, Farzaneh, son Nima, daughter Nasim, three grandchildren, two brothers, and two nieces.
Jim Pavlik
Accomplished Researcher in Photochemistry, Former Department Head
James W. Pavlik, professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry at WPI and former head of the Chemistry Department, died Nov. 21, 2024, at the age of 87.
Pavlik received an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Carthage College and an MS in chemistry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He spent several years in Africa, where he taught chemistry at Prempeh College in Ghana and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, and then worked as a research chemist with the FDA in the United States. After receiving a PhD in organic chemistry from George Washington University, he accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, where he attained the rank of associate professor. He joined the WPI faculty in 1974.
Jim Pavlik
With 70 publications in international chemistry journals and more than 100 presentations at national and international conferences, he made significant contributions to photochemistry, a field that explores how light initiates and changes chemical reactions. Using tools like lasers and spectrometers, he and his research team sought to unravel complex interactions that might transpire in less than a trillionth of a second. The goal was to follow complex chemical and biochemical pathways that might help in the synthesis of medically and industrially useful compounds.
Pavlik was named head of the Department of Chemistry (now the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) in 1980 and served in that post for 17 years. His accomplishments as an educator were recognized by the university in 1981 when he received the Board of Trustees Award for Outstanding Teaching. He retired in 2019 after 45 years on the faculty.
He is survived by his wife, Maryann, daughters Claire and Anne, son David, a stepson, James Fuller, 11 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
Ernest Kretzmer ’45 EE, ALPHA EPSILON PI, Sarasota, Fla.
Albert Soloway ’48 CH, ALPHA EPSILON PI, Columbus, Ohio
Stanley Jorczak ’54, PHI KAPPA THETA, Rockport, Maine
William Griffiths ’58 CE, MS CE, SIGMA PHI EPSILON, Everett, Pa.
Richard Kingsley ’59 CH, LAMBDA CHI ALPHA, Lynchburg, Va.
Armand Ruby ’59 CH, Hingham, Mass.
Richard Long ’60 EE, Houston, Texas
Joseph Little ’61 ME, Gainesville, Fla.
A. Otis ’63 CHE, SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON, Carmel, Ind.
Charles Knothe ’66 ME, Wilmington, Del.
Ronald Tata ’66 CE, PHI KAPPA THETA, Bristol, Conn.
Charles Diman ’67 CHE, TAU KAPPA EPSILON, Charlotte, N.C.
Raymond Rogers ’67 MG, SIGMA PHI EPSILON, Westminster, Mass.
Peter Lalor ’70 ME, Englewood, Fla.
Joseph Ausanka ’71, ALPHA TAU OMEGA, Shrewsbury, Mass.
Mark Fritz ’72 MA, Epping, N.H.
Lester Couture ’73 EE, Feeding Hills, Mass.
Frederick Kulas ’73 ME, Framingham, Mass.
Nikito Baker ’75 MA, MS MA, SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON, Shrewsbury, Mass.
Kenneth Fox ’77 ME, PHI KAPPA THETA, Buckeye, Ariz.
Jeffrey Roberts ’92 ME, Ludlow, Mass.
Anthony Iannotti ’00 CE, East Falmouth, Mass.
Anthony Catalfomo ’07 EE, Williamston, S.C.
Eamon Kerrigan ’12 PSM, Pembroke, Mass.
Elizabeth Scott ’24 BE, Tyngsboro, Mass.
The WPI community also notes the passing of these friends of the university: Betty Hale and Claire Gaudiani.
Complete obituaries can usually be found online by searching legacy.com or newspaper websites. The Alumni Office will assist classmates in locating additional information. Contact alumni-office@wpi.edu.