Brown Named UA Engineering’s T. Morris Hackney Leadership Award Winner

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama College of Engineering recently announced Dr. David B. Brown, professor of computer science and director of development at CARE Research & Development Laboratory, as the 2006 T. Morris Hackney Endowed Faculty Leadership award recipient.

The award honors a faculty member who exemplifies the leadership qualities that advance and add to the stature of the College of Engineering.

Brown designed and currently manages development of CARE data analysis software, which has won two national awards. Brown has implemented CARE systems for vehicle crash databases in nine states.

Additionally, Brown designed and managed development of the Law Enforcement Tactical System, a database search engine that has 10,000 law enforcement users. He is working on design and development of Secure Homeland Access and Reporting Environment, a homeland security project funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under the Information Technology Evaluation Program.

Brown has been a professor at the Capstone since 1991. He served as department head of computer science from 1991 to 1997. Prior to his time at the University, Brown was professor and department head of computer science at Auburn University.

In 1966, Brown received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Rutgers University. He received a master’s degree in industrial engineering from Montana State University in 1967 and a doctorate in industrial engineering from Texas Tech University in 1969.

A prolific writer who has been published extensively, Brown has written three textbooks, several book chapters and a multitude of journal articles. He has presented papers at numerous conferences and has taught innumerable workshops and short courses on CARE and other topics.

This award was created as a tribute to T. Morris Hackney and was made possible by contributions from Mr. John H. Josey and his son, Mr. Howard Josey.

In 1837, UA became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering, with about 1,900 students and more than 90 faculty, is one of the three oldest continuously operating engineering programs in the country and has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.