Ben G. Streetman,
Dean of Engineering
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Ben Streetman, dean of the prestigious University of Texas College of Engineering, was once a small-town boy, the son of a Baptist minister. He was born in the northeast Texas town of Cooper and grew up in Mineola and Coleman. When he was a child his parents gave him the freedom to explore their West Texas countryside, and he showed great curiosity about his natural surroundings. During his high school years, when his older brother, David, left to study music in Vienna, Streetman sailed to Europe to join him. He recalls that his parents couldn't afford to give him much money at the outset, so at each new city he and David would stop by the American Express office to pick up an additional $50, which he never doubted would be there. His European travels taught Streetman self-reliance and sparked his curiosity about other cultures. He settled into a normal high school routine after returning to Texas, but his passion for travel has persisted ever since. Streetman's parents and brothers went to Baylor University, but it didn't have a strong engineering program, so he applied to The University of Texas, enrolling in 1957. Streetman threw himself into electrical engineering, but also was active outside of the classroom. He joined University Baptist Church and became involved in the civil rights movement. He and other members of the church participated in sit-ins and marches to integrate businesses on the Drag near the University. Streetman managed to take time out of his busy schedule to go on a blind date with a journalism major named Ann Music. He discovered that Ann had grown up within 15 miles of him and that both had a brother who had received a PhD in chemistry under the direction of the same professor. He proposed a little more than four months later and they married in 1961, the year he received his BS degree. During his junior year at UT his academic advisor, Bill Hartley, "made a big to-do over how many A's I had on my transcript and said it was my patriotic duty to go to graduate school and get my PhD." Because his brothers had also earned their doctorates, he decided to forge ahead. 
After earning his PhD in 1966, Streetman left for the University of Illinois in Urbana, the home of the best semiconductor facility at the time. When he and Ann arrived in January the thermometer read -15 degrees that day, and she was ready to leave immediately. Ben reassured her that the move was "only temporary." Sixteen years later, in 1982, he and Ann, along with their two sons, Paul and Scott, returned to Austin when then-engineering dean Ernest Gloyna offered him an endowed chair to begin a microelectronics facility. Both Ben and Ann happily launched their Austin careers. Streetman founded UT's Microelectronics Research Center, which now boasts 14 endowed chairs and is one of the top facilities in the country. Ann eventually became president of the Texas Safety Association before entering the private sector as a consultant in legislative public affairs. In 1983, Streetman represented UT in the group that persuaded Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) to set up headquarters in Austin, beginning the city's ascent as a center of high technology. Streetman was part of the same group that reformed in 1987 to bring Sematech to Austin. 
His teaching and research have been recognized by the College of Engineering, which honored him as a Distinguished Graduate and awarded him the General Dynamics Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching and the Dad's Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship, in recognition of his teaching of undergraduates. He has also received the Education Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest professional engineering society with more than 300,000 members worldwide. In 1996, then-UT president Robert Berdahl asked Streetman to become dean of the College of Engineering. Streetman says he had no ambition to be an administrator but accepted the responsibility, adding, "I have a lot of love for UT and a lot of ambition for UT to become well-recognized in engineering." Streetman is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE and the Electrochemical Society. He was awarded the AT&T Foundation Award of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and has received the Frederick Emmons Terman Medal of the ASEE and the Heinrich Welker Medal. Dean Streetman serves on the Science and Technology Advisory Council for ALCOA and has served on the Research Advisory Committee for United Technologies Corp. He serves on the National Academy of Science Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable and on several other panels and committees in industry and government. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for National Instruments, Global Marine, and CustomTracks. He is the author of the book Solid State Electronic Devices, which is used throughout the world in four languages, and he has published more than 270 technical articles. Thirty-three students of electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, and physics have received their doctorates under his direction. In 1998 Ben Streetman was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award of The University of Texas at Austin. By Cora Oltersdorf,
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