Charles Bostian Named Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech

Charles Bostian of Blacksburg, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been appointed an Alumni Distinguished Professor by the university's Board of Visitors.

The rank of Alumni Distinguished Professor is reserved for select faculty who have made long-term and outstanding contributions to the instructional program of the university, thus influencing the lives of generations of alumni.

Since joining the Virginia Tech faculty in 1969, Bostian has been a leader in forging the university's preeminent wireless communications program. For 16 years he headed the Satellite Communication Group and in 1993 he became the founding director of the Center for Wireless Telecommunications.

A member of Virginia Tech's Academy of Teaching Excellence and a recipient of the Wine Award for Teaching Excellence, Bostian has taught more than 4,000 students in electrical engineering courses. During his teaching career, Bostian has initiated courses in radio wave propagation and satellite communications, as well as an honors course in telecommunications. He is the co-author of the most widely used textbooks in both satellite communications and radio frequency design.

Bostian also has directed numerous graduate students to completion of their master's degrees and doctorates and has served as principal investigator on research projects totaling $5.8 million in funding.

Prior to his appointment as an Alumni Distinguished Professor, Bostian held the Clayton Ayre Professorship of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. A Fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Bostian received his Ph.D., master's degree and bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University.

The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college's 5,600 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a "hands-on, minds-on" approach toward engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 2,000 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study ranging from biomedical engineering to state-of-the-art microelectronics and nanotechnology.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities, and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg, and other campus centers in northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 170 academic degree programs.