Preston Ransom

2025 Distinguished Alumni Award

For leadership and commitment to the Grainger College of Engineering and the ECE Department, and the creation of long-lasting programs to broaden participation in the Grainger community.

Preston Ransom graduated from high school in Peoria, IL and entered the University of Illinois in 1954 as a freshman in electrical engineering.  After earning the BSEE, he worked at Raytheon Corporation in Boston for a short period before returning to the UI and earning the MSEE and Ph.D. degrees.

Following graduate studies, he joined the faculty at the U. of I. as an Assistant Professor in 1969, eventually attaining the rank of full professor in 1988. Professor Ransom taught courses primarily in the areas of electro-magnetics, communication and optical information processing.  His research interests included holography, interferometry and optical processing. During his faculty tenure, he was a senior member of IEEE, a member of Sigma XI, the Optical Society of America, Eta Kappa Nu, and the American Society of Engineering Education. In 1976, he was a Visiting Research Fellow at University College London, England

In 1987, Professor Ransom was appointed Assistant Dean and Director of the Office of Continuing Engineering Education (OCEE).  As OCEE Director, he was responsible for the management of seven off-campus degree programs, the Engineering Online Initiative, the development and implementation of non-credit programs, and the management of the college’s video and satellite facilities.

In response to an initiative by the National Science Foundation, Professor Ransom led the effort to create the College of Engineering’s first diversity program for graduate students in 1992. It was named the Support for Under-Represented Groups in Engineering (SURGE) Fellowship program. The “under represented groups in engineering” was defined by NSF as all females, minorities (excluding Asians) and persons with disabilities. The goal of SURGE was to increase the number of PhD’s among these under represented groups. To increase the number of minority applicants, a second program, the Multicultural  Engineering Recruitment for Graduate Education (MERGE) program was created in 1995. 

In 2001, Professor Ransom retired from the faculty and was granted the status of Emeritus Professor by the U. of I. Board of Trustees. After retirement, Professor Ransom was asked by the Dean to continue to serve as Director of SURGE and MERGE on a part-time basis. He continued to administer the diversity programs until 2013. 

During his 21 years as director, 100 SURGE fellows earned their PhD.  

Nominated by his peers, Samuel White and Warren Smith.

Current as of 2025.