APL Director Emeritus Roca Inducted as Member of Pan American Academy of Engineering

Richard T. Roca, director emeritus of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., has been inducted as a full member of the Pan American Academy of Engineering.

Created in 2000, the Pan American Academy of Engineering (Academia Panamericana de Ingeniería, or API) honors exceptional engineers who have contributed to the scientific and engineering progress of their individual countries, and the greater Americas as a whole. Roca was one of 19 engineers inducted during a ceremony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Oct. 21, 2010. API currently has 116 members, representing 24 different countries.

“Dr. Roca’s induction into the Pan American Academy of Engineering is an excellent selection given his proven ability to reach across diverse communities and create innovative solutions and partnerships,” says Ralph Semmel, director of APL, who succeeded Roca in that position. “This is a wonderful opportunity for Rich to impact the global technology community by sharing the expertise he gained in his management positions at both AT&T and APL.”

Academy members are creative and enterprising engineers from a wide range of specialties who have transformed scientific knowledge into useful technologies, and adapted them to meet the needs of society in the form of projects, services and processes. During the induction ceremony each new member signed a charter, signifying their commitment to “strengthen engineering and technological activities in each country of the Americas and promote in them economic, social and human welfare within sustainable development.”

“As an ardent supporter of the API’s mission to foster collaboration and dialogue between engineers across the hemisphere, I’m extremely honored to be named as a member of this distinguished group,” Roca says. “It’s a rewarding coda to the innovative projects I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of throughout my career.”

Roca became the seventh director of APL in January 2000, and became the Lab’s director emeritus in July 2010. Roca is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a past vice president of its Board on Engineering Education. Before joining APL, Roca spent more than 30 years at Bell Labs, later AT&T Labs, in various technical and senior leadership positions. He also currently serves on several advisory bodies to federal government agencies including the United States Strategic Command Strategic Advisory Group and the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee. He is an alumnus of Lehigh University and MIT. Roca and his wife, Diane, live in Columbia, Md.