Herff College of Engineering

Dr. Ramirez with 40 years of service leads Herff Engineering members celebrating career milestones

(Dr. Alfredo Ramirez, far right, works on drones with students)

Fifteen members of the Herff College of Engineering celebrated career milestones in February 2026, including 10 with a decade or more of service. Combined, the group boasts nearly 300 years of service to the University of Memphis.

But nobody in the group has been inspiring the next generation of engineers longer than Dr. Alfredo Ramirez. Ramirez, a research assistant professor in Herff's Electrical and Computer Engineering department and a member of the Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research at the University of Memphis, celebrated 40 years of service in February.

His historic run of employment at the University of Memphis began in the fall of 1985. But he was already a Tiger before his first day on the job. Dr. Ramirez graduated with his BS in electrical engineering in 1984 from what was then Memphis State University. He earned his MS the following year and added a PhD from the Herff College of Engineering in 2007. His current research interests are in the areas of remote sensing and Electroptics applied to the Department of Defense and smart agriculture problem space. He has also worked on research projects dealing with border security and optical physics.

Since 2020, Dr. Ramirez has assumed the additional role of Flight Director for a fleet of large unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) to support remote sensing research. These UASs are used to fly sensors over diverse targets at various locations in Arizona, Florida, and Tennessee.

Pezeshk

Coming close to Dr. Ramirez's 40-year milestone is Dr. Shahram Pezeshk, Chair of Herff's Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering department, who celebrated 35 years in February. Dr. Pezeshk's research interests encompass all phases of engineering seismology and earthquake engineering, in particular, ground motion prediction, site effects, site characterization, probabilistic seismic hazard analyses, and strong ground motions and their impact on structures. Dr. Pezeshk also has a long record of research in structural optimization, in particular, performance-based structural optimization and his research in Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) has been implemented in the USGS hazard maps 2008 and 2014.

Rounding out the exclusive club of Herff members celebrating three decades or more of service are David Greganti and Scott C. Southall, associate department chairman and associate professor in Herff's Engineering Technology department. Both Greganti and Southall celebrated 30 years in February 2026.

David Greganti