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Associate professor of Electrical Engineering dies by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff
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. |
