September 2022
Dr. Salam Daher received a Link Foundation Modeling, Simulation and Training Fellowship Award in 2016. She currently serves as Assistant Professor in Informatics and Computer Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and is courtesy faculty in the College of Nursing at the University of Central Florida.
Dr. Daher received the Link Fellowship in 2016 while pursuing her PhD in Modeling and Simulation at the University of Central Florida (UCF). The Link Foundation supported her doctoral research in healthcare simulation on a new class of patient simulators called physical-virtual patients. The Link fellowship allowed her the freedom to explore multiple aspects of the research and development; she developed new software, explored different hardware possibilities while building the simulator; collaborated with healthcare experts; designed and conducted research studies; and published papers and presented at conferences in technology and simulation areas. The Link fellowship was her first fellowship outside of UCF, which also opened the door to multiple subsequent scholarships and awards such as the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) scholarship in 2017, and the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) award in 2018 during her PhD, and beyond. In 2021, the Society for Simulation in Healthcare selected Dr. Daher for the Technology Innovator of the Year award.
She currently has a faculty appointment in the Department of Informatics, and in the Department of Computer Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark, NJ where she has been an assistant professor since 2019. In parallel, she has a courtesy faculty appointment at the UCF’s College of Nursing in Orlando, FL. Her research focuses on using technology to improve simulation and training, especially in the healthcare simulation domain. Dr. Daher’s expertise and interests include synthetic environments, virtual humans, and virtual/augmented/mixed reality (VR/AR/MR). She loves the multidisciplinary aspect of combining computing, engineering, manufacturing, arts, science, languages, and various disciplines when creating simulation and training to solve real world problems especially in the education, military, and healthcare domains. She teaches courses that cover topics in designing and developing interactive applications such as simulations and serious games, computer programming, 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling, and digital media. In 2022 she received the Excellence in Teaching Awards by a faculty member of the Yin Wu College of Computing at NJIT.
Since her time as a Link Fellow, Dr. Daher has published in multiple peer-reviewed journals and conferences related to technology and healthcare simulation, both as author and as co-author with her students. She enjoys the combination of research, teaching, and giving back to the community. She finds it very rewarding to mentor undergraduate and graduate students, to introduce them to multidisciplinary research and development, and to inspire, guide and support them on their journey to pursue their education and/or career.
Dr. Margaret L. Loper received a Link Foundation Advanced Simulation and Training Fellowship Award in 1999. She currently serves as a Special Advisor to the Link Foundation Board, and is the Link Foundation Modeling, Simulation and Training Fellowship Program Administrator. She also serves as Regents Researcher at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).
Dr. Loper is the Associate Director for Operations for the Information and Communications Laboratory (ICL) at GTRI. She also served as ICL’s chief scientist for 16 years. However, her career in modeling and simulation began in 1985 with her first job out of school. She decided to focus specifically on parallel and distributed simulation after joining the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) project in 1990 at the Institute for Simulation and Training. Her contributions to distributed simulation are many, but include serving as the first chair of the IEEE standards committee for DIS, and serving as a founding member of the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO). She has received service awards for her work with the DIS and High Level Architecture (HLA) standards, as well as the DIS workshop to SISO standards transition.
Dr. Loper has also been active in professional societies and service activities for the simulation community. She has been General Chair for several international simulation conferences, and Chaired ACM’s Special Interest Group on Simulation and Modeling (SIGSIM). She is widely published, authoring 7 book chapters, 67 conference and journal papers, and 12 conference tutorials. Dr. Loper has been recognized for her contributions, being named a Titan of Simulation by the Winter Simulation Conference and earning the Distinguished Contributions Award from ACM SIGSIM.
In addition to research and service, Dr. Loper has taught simulation courses for both academic and professional education. She is a founding member of Georgia Tech’s Professional Masters in Applied Systems Engineering degree program, where she taught the core M&S course. Dr. Loper started the M&S professional education certificate through the Georgia Tech School of Professional Education, and has taught hundreds of students since it started in 2007. In 2015, she published a book on modeling and simulation in the systems engineering life cycle, based on the lectures from her courses.
Dr. Loper was a non-traditional PhD student, going back to school while working full time and raising a family. Without the Link Foundation’s Advanced Simulation and Training Fellowship, she would not have been able to pursue her career goal. As program administrator for the Link Fellowship in MS&T, she observes that her career has come full-circle. “As a PhD student, working in the area of temporal synchronization, I struggled to find funding opportunities that could help me continue my research. The Link Fellowship gave me the freedom to explore the emerging area of synchronizing time across simulations. Now as administrator, I am able to help students who are discovering today’s novel research areas. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to help them pursue their career goals.”
Dr. Loper holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a MS in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Clemson University.
Dr. Andrew M. Clark
- Trustee, Link Foundation Board, and 1979 Summer Intern at Harbor Branch, he chairs the Link Foundation’s
Fellowship Program in Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE), holds both US and
International Patents for underwater vehicle systems, and has authored or coauthored over 50 technical and scientific
publications. Dr. Clark, a Fellow of the Marine Technology Society, was elected President of that international organization
in 1998 and currently serves as Vice President for Research, Industry and Technology. He received the Lockheed Martin Medal
for Ocean Science and Technology in 2003, and the Compass – Rolex Distinguished Achievement Award in 2007. Dr. Clark is a
Trustee of Florida Institute of Technology and serves on the US Committee to the United Nations Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC).
While earning a BS in Ocean Engineering from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in 1979, Dr. Clark received a Link Foundation Intern scholarship which provided the opportunity for him to spend a summer working at Harbor Branch Foundation (now known as Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University).
It was during the summer as a Link Foundation Intern at Harbor Branch that Dr. Clark made both lifelong professional contacts and friendships. More importantly, however, Dr. Clark credits this time where he first witnessed the tremendous and powerful force created through, as he states, “the total immersion of scientists and engineers working together, solving problems and making discoveries in an unfettered, creative environment,” which set the path for his professional life.
After Dr. Clark’s graduation from FAU, he found himself drawn back to an entry level job at Harbor Branch. There, he worked his way up through the ranks to eventually become Director of Engineering. Since Dr. Clark’s time at Harbor Branch, he has held several leadership positions in both government and industry and has founded three successful companies all which are still operating profitably today. These companies were established on the same ethic of fostering a creative nexus of science and technology, which he learned while an Intern at Harbor Branch. Dr. Clark continues to collaborate with his colleagues at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University to this day.
In 1999, Dr. Clark was appointed as a Special Advisor to the Link Foundation Board of Trustees, and in 2005 he became a Trustee of the Link Foundation. Dr. Clark holds BS and MS degrees in Ocean Engineering from Florida Atlantic University, and a PhD in Ocean Engineering from the University of Hawaii.
Dr. Clark recently stated, “A few years ago, I was bestowed with what I consider one of the most important professional responsibilities, and by far the most rewarding, namely being elected Trustee to the Board of the Link Foundation. This now affords me the opportunity to try to provide this same experience to future generations. I credit the Link Foundation, and particularly Marilyn C. Link, herself, as playing the pivotal role enabling the successes I have enjoyed in my professional life, but more importantly, the satisfaction and enjoyment I’ve experienced in the totality of my life itself.”
Dr. Lee R. Lynd
- Special Advisor to the Link Foundation Board, Link Foundation Energy Fellowship Program Administrator, 1984
Link Energy Fellow, and he currently serves as the Paul and Joan Queneau Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Adjunct
Professor of Biology at Dartmouth College, Professor Extraordinary of Microbiology at the University of Stellenbosch, South
Africa, Director and Chief Scientific Officer of Enchi Corporation, a biomass energy start-up company he co-founded.
Dr. Lynd was a Link Foundation Energy Fellow during the first year that Energy Fellowships were offered in 1984. "The Fellowship came at a time when I did not have support for my graduate work," stated Dr. Lynd. "Thus for me, the Link Fellowship was an important factor in letting me pursue my vision for a thesis involving cellulosic biofuels."
Dr. Lynd is a leading expert on utilization of plant biomass for production of energy, with distinctively broad contributions spanning the science, technology, and policy domains, including leading research on fundamental and biotechnological aspects of microbial cellulose utilization. A frequently invited presenter on technical and strategic aspects of biomass energy, Dr. Lynd has three times testified before the United States Senate, and has been featured in prominent fora such as Wired, Forbes, Nova, and the Nobel Conference.
The Link Foundation was among the first to recognize Dr. Lynd, but hardly the last. Dr. Lynd is the 2011 recipient of the Mines Medal of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology for contributions to engineering or science, and prestigious contributions toward resolution or understanding of the technological challenges that impact society, the inaugural recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Sustainability Prize, recipient of the Charles D. Scott Award for distinguished contributions to the field of biotechnology for fuels and chemicals, two-time recipient of the Charles A. Lindbergh Award in recognition of efforts to promote a balance between environmental preservation and technological advancement, and he received a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award.
Commenting on his involvement with the Link Foundation, Dr. Lynd observes, "As Administrator of the Link Foundation’s Energy Fellowship program, I am delighted and honored to be able to play a part in supporting graduate students in the critically important energy field. I take particular pleasure in knowing that receipt of a Link Fellowship may enable young researchers to pursue their dream as it did for me.”
Dr. Donna F. Wilt
- Special Advisor to the Link Foundation Board of Trustees; former Link Foundation Modeling, Simulation and
Training Fellowship Program Administrator (retired); 1995 Link Fellow in Advanced Simulation and Training; and Professor
Emeritus in the College of Aeronautics at Florida Institute of Technology.
Dr. Wilt has a lifelong passion for aviation and engineering. She was first able to pursue this passion when she worked with aircraft simulators at NASA Langley Research Center while completing a BS in electrical engineering at the University of Florida. She worked on programs to apply the technology from military and airline simulations to the smaller aircraft used in general aviation operations. Here she developed a lifelong goal of making flying safer overall, while taking advantage of the safe and less expensive environment of a device that simulates the relevant aspects of the aircraft and environment.
As her career progressed, Dr. Wilt found herself drawn more to the training aspects of aviation as opposed to engineering design. She eventually became an Air Transport Pilot, Master Certified Flight Instructor, and Gold Seal Flight Instructor focusing on the beginning, or ab-initio, pilot training. The advent of the personal computer opened new opportunities for creating flight training devices (FTD) that were substantially more capable but less expensive than in the past, thereby making it available to a segment of aviation where simulators had previously not been cost effective.
At the time she was ready to pursue a doctorate, there were no PhD programs in the US in aeronautics or flight training so she pursued a PhD in Science Education at Florida Institute of Technology. Dr. Wilt’s PhD research was on the forefront of how to teach higher-order cognitive skills, such as situation awareness and decision making, to beginning pilots using low-cost FTDs.
Dr. Wilt explained, “the Science Education Department was doing research in computer-based training, but had not done research in the area of flight training. The Link Foundation’s Advanced Simulation and Training Fellowship gave me the freedom and ability to pursue an area of research that aligned with my passion for aviation and my goal of making aviation safer.”
Dr. Wilt holds a BS degree from the University of Florida, a MS degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD degree in Science Education from Florida Institute of Technology.
The Link Foundation is pleased to have made a difference in the lives and careers of many including Dr. Daher, Dr. Loper, Dr. Clark, Dr. Lynd, Dr. Wilt and many others who have received Link Foundation Fellowships/Internships/Scholarships over the last sixty-nine years. We count it a privilege to continue our association with them today.
We are proud of all of our Link Fellows/Interns/Scholars and of the vital contributions that they have made, and continue to make, in the advancement of modeling, simulation and training, ocean engineering and instrumentation, and energy resource development and conservation, throughout their careers. These discoveries are increasingly valuable to the world in which we live and significantly impact the advancement and security of our nation in important ways.
If you are or were a Link Fellow/Intern/Scholar, we would love to hear from you! Please write to us! We would be honored to tell your story!