Not only is he a pioneer in his field, but he is a world-class engineer who enjoys classical music and jazz, loves to watch Tom Hanks movies and plays golf whenever he can get on the course.

William Lord, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, is a high-profile teacher of networks, systems, machines, power, electromagnetics and nondestructive evaluation. He also conducts research in the nondestructive evaluation area.

Lord, who came to Iowa State in 1988, identified electromagnetics as his favorite area of study. He said he is particularly interested in modeling how different kinds of electrical and ultrasonic energy interacts with materials.

This allows predicting from such models how to detect defects in various man-made bodies, such as aircraft, without destroying those bodies, he said.

Lord credited his love for teaching to the uniqueness of the job.

“A professor’s job is the best in the world because it’s always a thrill to teach and to work with young people,” he said.

The English-born professor completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies at Nottingham University of England before kicking off his professional career at the University of Tennessee in 1964.

Besides his internationally recognized engineering research, Lord is also the first ISU faculty member to hold the Palmer chair in electrical engineering. Lord said this position involves a $1 million endowment for the ISU Foundation, of which he receives a portion to spend on his ongoing research.

Lord has taught several electromagnetics courses at Iowa State, including Electrical Engineering 213, an electromagnetics course for computer engineers.

Lord said he is proud of his affiliation with Iowa State.

“What makes Iowa State unique is that it’s an excellent land-grant university, and the people here are very special because they really care about education and about making this institution better,” he said.

Lord said Iowa State needs to play a major role in providing all students, regardless of their individual majors, with a solid background in the sciences. He described this era as the “golden age” for science and technology.

There is always room for improvement, Lord said, and Iowa State can become better “by ourselves being excellent and doing good research.”

About two weeks ago, Lord began acting as interim vice provost for research and the graduate college. Being occupied with research, teaching and administrative issues, Lord said it is this work variety that enriches his professional career.

“To be honest, I enjoy the diversity of doing all of these things,” he said. “That’s what makes the job so exciting.”

Because he was born in Eastwood, England, and raised in a working-class environment, Lord said he understands the disadvantages of having a rigid social class structure which, he said, is not featured in the United States.

Lord has toured countries such as Greece, South Africa and Australia, but said it’s a privilege to have become a naturalized citizen of the United States due to the vast amount of freedom each American enjoys.

Despite being a university professor for more than three decades, Lord said he feels nervous every time he teaches a class. A major reason for this, he said, is his desire to deliver the material to students in an enthusiastic and convincing manner.

“If you don’t believe in what you’re teaching, the students pick it up extremely quickly,” he said.