James Malas III, Ph.D. '91, and Ridha D.M. Wirakusumah, BSEE '85, MBA '87, have been named winners of the 1996-97 Ping Recent Graduate Award. The award recognizes those who have graduated in the past 15 years and have shown active interest in the university and/or how an Ohio University education has been a factor in their career development. The award, named after President Emeritus Charles J. Ping and his wife Claire, is presented annually by the Ohio University Alumni Association.
Malas, a senior materials research engineer at the Wright Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, has significantly impacted research directions in advanced materials processing and improved capabilities for designing and controlling metal forming processes. He attributes his success to the specialized knowledge he gained while pursuing an individual interdisciplinary Ph.D. in engineering at Ohio University. His doctoral program was used as a model in the successful proposal to the Ohio Board of Regents to create a new Ph.D. program in integrated design at Ohio University.
Malas is a member of the Ohio University Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board, and he actively promotes the capabilities of the university's Advanced Materials Processing Center to government organizations and numerous manufacturing industries around the country. He continues to collaborat e with faculty and students of the Russ College of Engineering and Technology.
Malas has earned several professional honors, serves on editorial review boards for international journals and organizes many major technical conferences.
Wirakusumah is an active member of the Ohio University Indonesian Alumni Chapter. He played a role in developing Ohio University's Asian Alumni C onference and was a delegate at the first conference in 1992.
At 29, Wirakusumah was the youngest person to reach the vice presidential level at Citibank in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Currently, he is devising and implementing a health care business strategy for General Electric Capital-Retailer Financial Services of Stamford, Conn. Wirakusumah expects to eventually return to Indonesia to take over the position of country manager of GE Capital-Indonesia.
As the former dir ector of corporate finance at Bankers Trust Jakarta, Wirakusumah headed the bank's corporate finance group arranging debt and equity fund raising in local and international capital markets.
Wirakusumah earned a bachelor's degree cum laude from Ohio University in electrical engineering, and a master's degree in international finance and business administration. He was a leader in the Indonesian Students Ass ociation, and was a member of Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, and Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society.
