CHARLES CUONG NGUYEN, D.Sc.

Dean and Professor

School of Engineering
The Catholic University of America
Washington, DC 20064

nguyen@cua.edu, http://engineering.cua.edu/dean
Phone: (202)319-5160, Fax: (202)319-4499

Short Biography of Dr. Charles Cuong Nguyen

Dr. Charles Cuong Nguyen is a researcher, educator, administrator and presidential appointee. He is currently Dean of School of Engineering and Professor at the Catholic University of America (CUA).  Elected Dean in 2001, he has been the first Vietnamese American Dean of a college at a major university in the U.S. He has also been the first Asian American dean at Catholic University in the history of the university. He was Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at CUA from September 1997-June 2001.  He earned the Diplom Ingenieur in Electrical Engineering at Konstanz University, West Germany where he was also named "Best Graduate of the Class of 1978," in 1978. Later he received his Master of Science in 1980 and Doctor of Science in 1982 both with honor at the George Washington University. Professor Nguyen has published over 100 technical and scientific papers in the area of control and robotics, co-edited three books and guest-edited 10 special issues in major journals. He also presented numerous research papers, organized and chaired numerous technical sessions at many international conferences. He was the chairman of the Robotics Committee of the Fifth International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing (ISRAM'94) and was the program vice-chair of the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, 1997 (ICRA'97). Dr. Nguyen is a member of ISMM, Sigma Xi, and a member and Chief Faculty Advisor of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a senior member of Society of Manufacturing Engineering (SME), and a senior member of Robotics International of SME. He is a member of the advisory board of Vietnamese Association for Computing, Engineering Technologies and Science (VACETS) since 2001. He is a member of the Board of Directors, Asian Division of the U.S. Library of Congress and member of the Board of Directors, Library and Education Assistance for Vietnam (LEAF-VN). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Vietnamese Culture and Science Association (VCSA) and serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Viet Second Chance Family (VSCF).

He was the recipient of the Research Initiation Award from Engineering Foundation in 1986 and was awarded NASA/ASEE Fellowship Awards in 1985 and 1986. He was the recipient of the Academic Vice President Research Excellence Award in February 1989 from the Catholic University of America and a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award from the George Washington University in 2002. He was awarded a Senior Research Associateship from the National Research Council/National Academy of Science to conduct robotic research at the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA) during his sabbatical leave of the academic year 1990-1991. Among many other awards, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from World Automation Congress (WAC) for contribution to robotics and intelligent automation in June 2004 and the Community Service Award from Asia Entertainment for Achievements in Education in August 2004. He was the recipient of the Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Viet Bao and congresswoman Loretta Sanchez,  Westminster, California, August 27, 2006, recipient of the Member Resolution No. 2580 from the California Legislature Assembly, Westminster, California, August 2006, recipient of the Tenth Anniversary Award from the International Journal of Intelligent Automation and Soft Computing (AutoSoft), WAC 2006, Budapest, Hungary, July 2006. He received the 2006 Excellence in Community Service Award from the Vietnamese American Medical Research Foundation (VAMRF) in February 2007, the Leadership Award from the International Network of Engineering Education and Research (INEER) in September 2007 and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the District of Columbia Council of Engineering and Architectural Societies (DCCEAS), February 2009. In May 2004 he was appointed by President Bush to serve on the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) and went to Vietnam to represent the United States in working with high-ranking Vietnamese officials in the area of educational exchange between the two countries.

His life and achievements are listed in 40 biographical registers and Who's Who such as Men of Achievements, Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America, Who's Who in American Education, Who's Who in Engineering, Who's Who among Asian Americans, etc.

He is the Founder and founding Editor of International Journal of Intelligent Automation and Soft Computing (AutoSoft). He currently serves as the chair of the Editorial Advisory Board of AutoSoft. He is an Associate Editor of International Journal of Computers and Electrical Engineering and served on the Editorial Board of Journal of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems. He also served on the Editorial Board of Journal of Engineering Design and Automation and was Guest Editor of Journal of Robotic Systems, International Journal of Computers and Electrical Engineering and International Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the International Journal of Intelligent Computing in Medical Informatics and Image Processing, TSI Publisher, and an associate editor of the IEEE Systems Journal, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE Publisher.

His research interests lie in the areas of medical robotics, time-varying control systems, control of large space structures, decentralized control, control of robot manipulators, closed-kinematic chain manipulators, robot vision, intelligent control and neural networks. His research has been continuously funded by government agencies such as NASA, US Air Forces, JPL, and Engineering Foundation. He has been the principal investigator of 15 research projects.