Kelvin Erickson

Dr. Kelvin T. Erickson, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Missouri S&T, has been named Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of electrical and computer engineering. Erickson will be officially recognized during S&T’s commencement ceremonies on Saturday, Dec. 15.

The Curators’ Teaching Professorship was established at Missouri S&T in 1990 to honor outstanding professors, call attention to teaching excellence, and foster improvements in teaching and learning. Erickson teaches process control and programmable logic controllers.

Erickson has brought in over $1.3 million in research grants. His research focuses on manufacturing automation, programmable logic controllers, plantwide process control, model-based predictive control and system identification.

Erickson first joined Missouri S&T in 1978 as a graduate research assistant in the Cloud Physics Research Center while working toward his master’s degree. After earning his Ph.D., he later returned to S&T as an assistant professor of electrical engineering. In 1992, he was promoted to associate professor and named assistant chair for laboratory development. In 2000, he was promoted to full professor and named assistant chair for undergraduate studies. After serving as interim chair for a year, Erickson was named chair of electrical and computer engineering in 2003. He served until 2014.

During his tenure, Erickson has received 16 Outstanding Teaching Awards and three Faculty Excellence Awards. In 2004, he received the Dean of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award and in 2015, he received the IEEE Region 5 Outstanding Engineering Educator Award. In 2016, he received an S&T Faculty Teaching Award. He developed a minor in automation engineering as well as six new courses and several software programs for student use. He has authored five books, and numerous chapters, journal articles and conference presentations.

Erickson earned bachelor of science and master of science degrees in electrical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1978 and 1979, respectively. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Iowa State University in 1983.