Associate professor of Electrical Engineering
dies
by Sarah
R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff
aluk
Derin, 57, of Amherst, an associate professor of Electrical Engineering,
died Feb. 24 at home.
He had served the University
for nearly 20 years. He taught earlier at Syracuse University and
at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. His areas
of academic interest included digital image and signal processing,
statistical communication theory, and detection and estimation theory.
The author or editor
of four books, including "Video Data Compression for Multimedia
Computing," he published 25 journal articles and gave nearly
50 conference papers. He was a faculty member in the Collaborative
Biomedical Research Program and an active member of the Faculty
Senate, where he served on the Rules Committee from 1989 to 1991
and the Program and Budget Council in 1995.
"He was a per-ceptive
and dedicated colleague, always working for the best interests of
UMass," said senate secretary Ernest May. "He will be
missed."
"He always thought
about enriching the students' lives, how to deliver good quality
education to them" said Seshu Desu, chair of Electrical and
Computer Engineering. "That was his main concern.
"He was not a flashy
person. He did very high quality research, slowly and thoroughly.
In both of these ways, his death is a great loss to the department."
He received a B.S. from
Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey, an M.S. from the University
of Virginia Charlottesville, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Princeton
University, all in electrical engineering.
He leaves his wife,
the former Z. Seren Yalkin; his mother, Nerinan Derin of Amherst;
a daughter, S. Yesmin Derin of Amherst; a sister and two nephews.
Memorial contributions
may be made to Baystate Medical Regional Cancer Center, 280 Chestnut
St., Springfield 01199.
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