Longtime Faculty Member Dale Byrne Dies
Dr. Dale Matson Byrne passed away Aug. 1 at the age of 61. He was the first faculty member to be hired in the newly created electrical engineering department, joining UT Dallas in April 1987 as a tenured associate professor. After retiring from UTD in 2006, he taught physics at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
As assistant program head for electrical engineering from 1996 to 1998, Dr. Byrne created the highly successful fast-track program, which enables strong electrical engineering students to obtain both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in five years. He also developed and taught several optics courses, including optical engineering, physical optics, Fourier optics and statistical optics. His research interests in recent years included frequency selective surfaces and the development of an angular scanning ellipsometer.
Dr. Byrne earned his master of science degree in 1975 and his Ph.D. in 1978, both in optical sciences from the University of Arizona, after earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the Florida Institute of Technology. Prior to joining UT Dallas he was a senior research scientist at LTV Aerospace and Defense Co.
He is survived by his wife, Dee, his brother, Dr. Robert Byrne, his son, Timothy, and his extended family.
