Unusual Achievements
Jack Josephson
Egyptology has long been the realm of those who can translate hieroglyphics, as well as discuss the astronomy and culture of the ancients. However, when an earthquake devastated Cairo in 1992, the Egyptian government called Jack Josephson (BSE CE '51) to assess the damage. Josephson, a civil engineer, had become a noted authority on Egypt. The Cairo Museum also called on him to catalogue its statues; the result was a book entitled Catalogue General of Egyptian Antiquities in the Cairo Museum (Statues of the XXVth and XXVIth Dynasties). Apart from lending his engineering expertise to Egypt and its culture, he created J. Josephson Incorporated, which specialized in the interior finishes of high-rise structures and invented a polyvinyl chloride interior finish that took the construction world by storm.
Wen-Ying Tsai
Art and engineering were notable influences on the scientific, 
experimental style of Wen-Ying Tsai (BSE ME '53), an engineer-sculptor who has created an impressive body of work consisting of kinetic and cybernetic sound sculptures, many of which have become part of collectors' indoor landscapes. Some of his works are interactive, including a small fountain which a simple clap of the hands will activate. Museums and galleries all over the world have exhibited his work. Wen-Ying Tsai received the 2001 Mechanical Engineering Alumni Society Merit Award.
Thomas Knoll
In 1987, Thomas and John Knoll were two kids who loved imagery and computers and were lucky enough to have a darkroom in their basement. This combination of interests and opportunity was the basis for the creation of one of the most powerful and popular programs for digital photo manipulation: Adobe Photoshop.
As a Michigan Engineering graduate student, Thomas Knoll (BS EP '82, MSE CI CE '84) had written a program that enabled a computer to recognize and manipulate various characteristics of a digitized picture. John, an employee at Industrial Light and Magic, the famous special-effects studio, recognized that Tom's image-processing program was very similar to the image-processing tools of the Pixar image computer. The brothers refined the program over a period of months and created an improved version of the application that became "ImagePro" in 1988 and, two years later, Adobe Photoshop, a suite of powerful, comprehensive and easy-to-use tools for the manipulation of digital images.
Stefan Humphries
Athletics has turned out a number of scholar-athletes, over the years, but there might be none finer than Stefan Humphries (BSE ES '84), who captained the University of Michigan's 1983 football squad and collected multiple honors: 1984 Big Ten Athlete of the Year, All-American, two-time Academic All-American, recipient of the Big Ten's Medal of Honor for excellence in academics and athletics, and 1986 Super Bowl champion with the Chicago Bears. Today, Humphries is a physiatrist who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Greg Barton
Greg Barton (BSE ME '83), a four-time Olympic medalist in sprint kayaking, made his biggest splash at the 1988 games, winning two gold medals. He also holds multiple titles in marathon and outrigger canoeing, and open-ocean kayak races. Barton designs high-performance kayaks and paddles, and is currently the president of Epic Kayaks, Inc. He produced and is the instructor for a training video/DVD "The Kayak Forward Stroke."
Brent Lang
In 1988, Brent Lang (BSE IO '90) went to the summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, and brought home a gold medal as a member of the 400-meter freestyle relay team. Lang swam at Michigan from 1987-90.
Kevin Sullivan
Kevin Sullivan (BSE CEE '98), was a 14-time All-American, a four-time NCAA Champion, and a 12-time Big Ten Champion in cross country and track while at U-M. An injury dashed his dreams of running in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Four years later, however, he made the trip to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and finished fifth in the 1,500-meter event. Currently, he's a volunteer assistant coach for the University of Illinois women's track and field, and cross-country teams. And he's training for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Jeff Masters
Weather forecasting is of great importance to farmers, airlines, navies, armies, shipping, tourists, highway commuters, athletic teams -- it seems that everyone has an interest in what the weather will bring. In 1991, Jeff Masters (BS AOS '82, MS '83, PhD '97) contributed to the development of a powerful and elegant menu-based telnet interface that displayed real-time weather information around the world. Today, the Internet site is a commercial enterprise known as The Weather Underground. It tracks and forecasts weather for more than 60,000 U.S. and international sites speaking 35 languages, making it the most widely translated weather site in the world.
