Rice ECE faculty member, C. Sidney Burrus, has been recognized by Rice alumni with a new dedicated chair position named in his honor.
Prof. C. Sidney Burrus joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University in 1965 and is currently an Emeritus Professor within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Burrus has been a part of the Rice community for over 55 years. From 1972 to 1978, he was master of Lovett College, and from 1984 to 1992, he was chairman of the ECE Department at Rice. From 1992 to 1998, he was director of the Computer and Information Technology Institute (CITI), and from 1998 to 2005, he led the department as the Dean of Engineering at Rice. Prior to joining the department as a faculty member, Burrus was a student, receiving his BA, BS, and MS in Electrical Engineering at Rice, before completing his Ph.D. at Stanford in 1965.
Burrus is still hailed as one of the most dedicated professors to walk the halls at Rice, receiving teaching awards in 1969, 74, 75, 76, 80, and 1989. He also helped build Rice into one of the leading institutions in digital signal processing research (DSP). Sidney was a Distinguished Lecturer for the Signal Processing Society and for the Circuits and Systems Society from 1989 through 1992. While serving on the IEEE Signal Processing Society ADCOM, he co-authored five books and over 200 papers on digital signal processing. In addition to DSP research, Dr. Burrus is renowned for his educational methods of using technology to teach and facilitate learning. He and five colleagues across multiple universities have published a book of exercises using Matlab (from MathWorks) to teach DSP.
The newly endowed chair position named C. Sidney Burrus Chair was initiated by Rice alumni wanting to recognize Burrus' contributions to the School of Engineering. With contributions from Rice philanthropists and alumni, John '73, '74 and Ann Doerr '75, '76, along with the university, the Rice community acknowledged professor Burrus' work in a socially distant event last Wednesday, to thank him for his service to the school, and celebrate the new chair position. Provost Reginald DesRoches and Interim Dean of Engineering Rob Griffin attended the virtual reception along with John and Ann Doerr.
When speaking with Paul Meyer, a former student of Prof. Burrus, he commented, "Dr. Burrus shaped every moment of my undergraduate (and graduate) time as an Electrical Engineering student at Rice. By shaping the curriculum, focusing on DSP, and mentoring other faculty members, it is hard not to find an area of the department that has not been shaped by him. His emphasis on clear explanations and writing and his focus on interdisciplinary understanding made a huge impression on me. I think having a background in philosophy allows him to bring in conceptual ideas into the classroom about not only the material but also how research tends to progress and how scientific fields evolve over time."
While honoring him with a chair position in his name, students and faculty often remarked on how humble Burrus is regarding his many accolades. "For someone so smart and accomplished, he is incredibly easy to talk to and simply carry on a conversation with."
Students commented, "More often than not, he would ask us, as his students, what we thought of the course and how it could be improved. He also was not afraid to use his own experiences and past "mistakes" as teaching moments throughout the class, such as when explaining how he didn't think Wavelets were going to be very important in the past and how wrong he was. These attitudes contributed to a very respectful and almost casual class environment, where we were not afraid to make mistakes or simply engage with the material in a way that few other classes can accomplish."
As the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Rice continues to expand, current chair Ashu Sabharwal commented on the new chair position, "This recognition of an endowed chair, led by students, illustrates the power and impact of having excellent faculty with a passion for their students and their subjects. Sidney has contributed in so many ways that it is hard to put them in words. He established the culture of research excellence with his leadership in Digital Signal Processing. He selflessly mentored generations of students and faculty. And in the process, he established the positive, collaborative, and excellence-focused culture of the ECE department."
The School of Engineering is committed to filling the new chair position with faculty who have the same dedication and passion that Sidney brought to Rice each day.
The new endowed chair position will start in fall 2021.