UT Tyler Receives $150,000 to Support Mechanical Engineering Majors, Department

Office of Marketing and Communications

December 12, 2022

Media Contact: Hannah Buchanan
Editor/Writer–Strategic Communications & Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.539.7196 (cell)

The University of Texas at Tyler announced a $150,000 gift from Lance Hibbeler, PhD, to the College of Engineering that will provide enhancements to the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The gift also names the “Lance C. Hibbeler Materials Testing Laboratory,” which is located within the department.

“We are grateful for this tremendous gift that will impact our mechanical engineering students for many years to come,” said UT Tyler President Kirk A. Calhoun, MD, FACP. “This is even more special because it comes from one of our very own, and I’m especially thankful to see our alumni support the university and their colleges.”

Hibbeler graduated summa cum laude from UT Tyler in 2006, with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently employed as an engineer at Intel Corp., outside of Portland, Oregon. At Intel, Hibbeler uses computational process modeling to help design, develop and debug the chip-making process, and he has gone on to receive substantial recognition at the departmental /divisional and business-unit levels for his work.

“We are indebted to Lance for his significant gift that will support our current and future mechanical engineering majors,” said Javier Kypuros, PhD, dean of the College of Engineering. “Lance is one of our many alumni who go on to become very successful as change agents in their organizations and communities and are so supportive of the college.”

Hibbeler credits UT Tyler for his success, noting that the university gave him a solid educational foundation to excel.

“I was able to get admitted to and graduate from one of the top engineering schools in the world for my graduate studies, and then find employment at a tech company all with the educational foundation I received at UT Tyler,” said Hibbeler. “I hope that the funds will be used to make the lab better and cause future students to share my love of the subject matter. The entire human race comes out ahead when we have more passionate engineers working to solve the world's problems.”

In addition to his UT Tyler bachelor’s degree, Hibbeler holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, a master’s degree in theoretical and applied mechanics, and a doctorate in mechanical engineering, all from the University of Illinois. He has served as a speaker at the UT Tyler Career Success Conference.

With a mission to improve educational and healthcare outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 80 undergraduate and graduate programs to 10,000 students. UT Tyler recently merged with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (now known as UT Tyler Health Science Center). Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center (HSC) and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.