Tom “Mach” Schnell, professor of industrial and systems engineering and incoming director of the Iowa Technology Institute, is among six faculty members selected by the Iowa Board of Regents for extraordinary contributions and sustained record of excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.

Regents Award for Faculty Excellence winners were selected by committees appointed by shared governance in collaboration with UI administration and confirmed by the Board of Regents.

The Captain Jim “Max” Gross Chair in Engineering is a distinguished expert and experimental test pilot in aviation human factors and flight testing. He established the UI’s world-renowned Operator Performance Laboratory, a unique test flight organization with 14 aircraft.

Schnell has led more than 424 research projects, securing more than $70 million in funding, and has published over 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He also has four patents.

Schnell collaborates on projects with major government agencies, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, Federal Aviation Administration, and NASA. He has significantly advanced aviation safety and technology with his innovations, including a Synthetic Vision System that is now used in thousands of aircraft to provide pilots with superior situation awareness that has helped to reduce the probability of controlled flight into terrain accidents.