Bill Jordan

I want to welcome you to our poverty ELG! I think the next two years will be an exciting time as we explore ways to integrate engineering, business, and Christian faith in a way that has a positive impact upon poor people in our world.

I am not a native Texan. We moved here in 2005 when I became the Mechanical Engineering Department Chair. This is my second time to live in Texas as I obtained my Ph.D. from a school in College Station, Texas. I have been married for almost 27 years to Gail. We have two sons. One of them is a chef in Ohio, and the other one is an English major at Louisiana Tech University.

I grew up in the mile high city of Denver, Colorado, the second son of a Denver police officer. As long as I can remember, I have had interests and abilities in science. As a result of this, I took advanced placement math, chemistry, and physics while in high school. I found school relatively easy, and got good grades. Even some of my hobbies had a scientific flavor to them. One of my favorite clubs was chess club. Not all of my interests were in the sciences. I became a fanatical supporter of the Denver Broncos and continue supporting them to this day. I have been politically involved for a long time. Twice I have had the privilege to be a delegate at my party’s national convention.

When I was in college I learned for the first time what it really means to follow Jesus as your savior. I became a Christian my junior year in college and it has affected my life choices. To learn more about my faith, I took a detour from engineering and earned an M.A. degree from Denver Seminary.

I love to travel. I have been in all 50 states and more than 25 countries. Some of my travel has been for pleasure or business. However, some of it has been for missions trips. I have gone on missions trips to the Philippines, the Republic of Georgia, Kenya, Honduras, and Rwanda. I enjoy using my engineering skills in ways that help grow the church around the world. The culminating project for this ELG will be a business/engineering missions trip to a location in the developing world.

I have been concerned for a long time about how engineers can help deal with extreme poverty in our world. Since coming to Baylor I have been able to put these concerns into practice by leading engineering missions trips to Kenya and Honduras. In May 2009 I will be in Rwanda with an engineering team.

Within the Mechanical Engineering program I teach the freshman introduction to engineering course as well as the culminating senior design course. I also teach courses in the area of material behavior.