Engineering a Career in Fullerton
and the World by Dave Reid
From Dateline February 27, 2003
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Jesa Kreiner, chair of the Division of Engineering
and professor of mechanical engineering, first came to campus
in 1969 because he had long dreamed of California and wanted
to help create a successful engineering program. One of his
special interests is designing devices and machines to assist
people with physical handicaps. He is standing in front of one
of the wind tunnels housed in a College of Engineering and Computer
Science lab. |
Jesa Kreiner, chair of the
Division of Engineering and professor of mechanical engineering,
has been a leader in engineering education for many years.
On Feb. 22, Kreiner, who came to the United States from his native
Yugoslavia in 1962, received the Orange County Engineering Council's
Engineering Educator Award during the council's National Engineering
Week Awards Banquet in Huntington Beach.
As a boy growing up during World War II, Kreiner and
his family fled Belgrade for Italy when the Germans occupied the
country. He returned to his homeland and earned a degree in mechanical
engineering from the University of Belgrade in 1961.
Arriving in the U.S. with limited knowledge of English,
Kreiner learned of an organization that assisted immigrants with
academic credentials through an article in The New York Times.
The organization helped him with English, and circulated his resume,
which led to job offers in New Hampshire and Nebraska, as well as
Louisiana, where he taught for six years at Centenary College.
Realizing his career would be “uneventful”
if he did not have an advanced degree, Kreiner made the decision
to attend Oklahoma State, where he earned a doctorate in mechanical
engineering.
Kreiner, who came to Cal State Fullerton in 1969,
enjoys working with students, creating devices to assist people
with physical handicaps and collecting early 1900s apple-coring
machines - “a marvelous piece of engineering.”
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