Alumni
Distinguished Alumni Recognized with 2025 Engineering Medals
Each year, the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association (CEAA) recognizes distinguished alumni and other leaders with special awards of distinction during the Columbia Engineering Reunion. The 2025 recipients of the Thomas Egleston Medal for Distinguished Engineering Achievement, the Samuel Johnson Medal for Distinguished Achievement Beyond Engineering and Applied Science, and the Michael Pupin Medal for Service to the Nation will receive their awards at the Dean’s Welcome and CEAA Awards Dinner on Thursday, May 29, 2025, the official kick-off event for reunion weekend.
Meet this year’s CEAA Medalists
Thomas Caulfield BS’82, MS’84, EngScD’86
Thomas Egleston Medal For Distinguished Engineering Achievement
Dr. Thomas Caulfield is Executive Chairman to the board of directors at GlobalFoundries (GF). Previously, Caulfield served as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GF. He was named CEO in 2018 and led the company’s initial public offering in October 2021, which was not only the largest semiconductor IPO in history at that time, but also the largest IPO across all of Nasdaq that year. In 2014, he joined the company as senior vice president and general manager of the Fab 8 facility. At GF, he has led operations, process development, and the expansion and ramp-up of semiconductor manufacturing production.
Prior to GF, he served as president and COO at Soraa and Ausra and held senior roles at Novellus Systems and IBM. He holds a BS, MS, and a PhD in materials science and engineering from Columbia Engineering and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia’s Engineering Center for Strategic Materials. Prior to Columbia, he earned a BS in physics at St. Lawrence University. He currently serves on the board for Sandisk Corporation (following its spinoff from Western Digital Corporation) and was a trustee at Union College from 2018 to 2025.
Caulfield was selected as this year’s Egleston Medalist for his significant contributions to the field of semiconductor manufacturing and his leadership in the areas of technology innovation, operations, and process development. Caulfield has also served as a mentor to the next generation of engineers and in November 2024, addressed Columbia Engineering students as part of the School’s Tech CEO series.
Savio Tung BS’73
Samuel Johnson Medal For Distinguished Achievement Beyond Engineering and Applied Science
Savio Tung is the chairman of Investcorp Technology Partners and serves as a senior advisor following his retirement as Investcorp’s chief investment officer. Before joining Investcorp in 1984, Savio Tung was a senior banker at Chase Manhattan Bank and worked in its offices in New York, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and London. He was also a key executive in establishing Chase’s Bahrain office and marketing presence in the Persian Gulf Region.
Tung holds a BS in chemical engineering from Columbia Engineering. He is a trustee emeritus of Columbia University (1998-2011) and received the Columbia Alumni Medal in 2002. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an independent non-executive director of Bank of China, Hong Kong Limited.
Tung is being honored with this year’s Johnson Medal for his deep industry knowledge of international businesses, investment management, and private equity, as well as his service and commitment to higher education and to Columbia.
Zvi Galil, Dean Emeritus of Columbia Engineering
Michael Pupin Medal for Service to the Nation In Engineering, Science, or Technology Beyond the Candidate’s Professional Field
Zvi Galil is a renowned computer scientist specializing in algorithms, complexity, and cryptography. He earned his BS and MS in applied mathematics from Tel Aviv University and a PhD in computer science at Cornell University. He began his academic career at Tel Aviv University and IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center before joining Columbia University in 1982, where he chaired the Department of Computer Science (1989–1994) and served as Dean of Engineering (1995–2007). During his tenure, he oversaw the naming of the School, the launch of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and expanded faculty, student enrollment, and distance learning. In his honor, Columbia established the Zvi Galil Award for Student Life in 2008.
Galil later served as president of Tel Aviv University (2007–2009) and dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing (2010–2019), where he led the groundbreaking creation of the Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS), now the largest program of its kind in the U.S. He currently holds the Frederick G. Storey Chair and serves as executive advisor to Online Programs at Georgia Tech.
Galil is a fellow of the ACM and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a recipient of multiple honors, including Columbia’s 2025 Doctor of Letters, to be awarded at this year’s Commencement ceremony.