SAE Nominates First Woman President

5 March 1999

    DETROIT, March 4 -- The Society of Automotive Engineers this
week nominated its first woman president, Rodica A. Baranescu, Chief Engineer,
Navistar International Transportation Corporation.
    The SAE Annual Nominating Committee of 66 members selected Baranescu in
voting on Monday.
    She will serve as President-Nominee until the member balloting is
concluded in late October.  Baranescu will then be named President Elect until
March 2000, when she will then become the first woman elected to the highest
post of the nearly 80,000 member organization.
    Baranescu joined SAE in 1980, the same year she began employment at
Navistar. She has been active in SAE, serving a two-year term as a member of
the SAE Board of Directors in 1995-97.  On Tuesday, March 2, she was elected
an SAE Fellow, an honor which recognizes important engineering achievements of
members and enhances the status of SAE's contributions to the profession and
the general public.
    She was a member of SAE's International Coordinating Committee and
currently is serving as a member of the Sections Board, using her
international experience to help the globalization efforts of SAE
International.  During 1997, she actively supported the formation of two
Romanian Joint Groups, a cooperative activity between SAE and the Romanian
automotive society (SIAR).
    Born in Romania, she holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the
Technical University of Bucharest, Romania.  She also taught at the University
for 13 years before coming to the United States.
    At Navistar, Baranescu has worked as an engineer and manager to advance
the social acceptability of diesel engines.  Her technical efforts have
advanced and encouraged the understanding of engine design, combustion,
thermodynamics and alternative fuels.  She has served as chair of the
Alternative Fuels Committee for the Engine Manufacturers Association since
1983.
    Active in the SAE Chicago Section, Baranescu served as chair in 1994.
Under her leadership, the section earned the Gold Award of Excellence.
Baranescu and her husband George live in Western Springs, Illinois, a suburb
of Chicago.