David Soukup named IISE Fellow

Adjunct Professor David Soukup is not a mechanical engineer, yet he has spent more than 35 years at ASME (the American Society of Mechanical Engineers), a sprawling organization that boasts more than 80,000 members. 

Soukup, a licensed professional engineer who holds degrees in systems and industrial engineering, explains that despite its name, ASME, where he currently holds the title of Managing Director, Governance, is dedicated to multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences, making the post a good fit for him. “When you’re involved in the management of any large organization, it also helps to be adept at operations research fundamentals such as Markov Analysis, which is a mathematical method used to predict the value of certain variables or to forecast behaviors and decisions within groups of people,” he says, “That’s certainly a skill industrial engineers develop, since they’re responsible for determining the most effective ways to design, manage and improve systems of all types, whether they involve processes, materials, information – or people.”

Soukup has been teaching in Tandon’s Technology Management and Innovation Department for almost as long as he’s been with ASME, joining the faculty in 1997 to teach graduate-level courses on computer simulation, human factors, project management, and manufacturing systems. In 2020, at the behest of Industry Associate Professor Tom Mazzone, who directs the school’s Industrial Engineering program, he launched a student chapter of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), which has achieved “Gold Status” from the international group multiple times since its inception. 

Last year, the IISE Northeast Region ran into a roadblock while planning its annual conference for student chapters. With just five months to go before the announced date, Tandon’s chapter stepped into the breach and agreed to organize and host the event – a process that typically takes at least a year.  

That crack feat of management was just one factor in Mazzone’s decision to endorse Soukup as a Fellow of the IISE, an honor akin to a lifetime achievement award in that profession.

Mazzone said, “I am personally very grateful for the leadership, time and passionate commitment that Dave has put into our student club. Simply put, without Dave there would not have been a club. Under Dave’s leadership, membership has grown both in numbers and diversity. We now have membership that has expanded beyond the Industrial Engineering program to include the MS Management of Technology and undergraduate Business and Technology Management Program. He was responsible for helping us to secure the opportunity to host the regional conference and he guided and pushed us to help make it happen under very challenging circumstances. 

In addition to his strong commitment to teaching, Dave’s caring, passionate, supportive leadership of the IISE club has created outstanding opportunities for our students to connect with each other, with companies, with professionals in industry and, most important develop strong leadership skill in the process.”

Soukup – whose other laurels include an Outstanding Professional Engineer in Education Award from the New York State Society of Professional Engineers, ASME Fellow, and membership in the Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi Honor Societies – was inducted at the IISE’s 2024 Annual Conference and Expo, held in Montreal in May.

Soukup said, “Of course I’m thrilled to be recognized by the IISE and feel it represents a new pinnacle in my career,” he says. “But one of the greatest honors of my life has been the chance to teach, advise, and mentor the next generation of aspiring engineers at Tandon.”