Tom Drayer'87, MS'91, Ph.D.'97 named distinguished Heta Lambda Beta society member

Tom Drayer '87, MS'91, Ph.D.'97 can't get enough electrical engineering.

It's why his three Virginia Tech degrees are all in electrical engineering, why he serves as the chair of the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering advisory board, and one of the many reasons why he was named a distinguished alumni spring Heta Lambda Beta Society (HLB) induction.

HLB was established to recognize graduates of the electrical and computer engineering programs, and formally induct them as ECE alumni. More than 200 graduates are inducted annually. 

Drayer received Meritorious Presidential Rank award and Meritorious Civil Servant award. He is also an inventor on two licensed patents and has published over 20 technical papers. Most recently he served as the Technical Director for the NSA organization that is responsible for all its back-end mission data processing, compliance, dataflow, decryption, analytics, storage, and analyst toolsets.

Why did you choose electrical engineering and Virginia Tech for your undergraduate degree?

My grandfather was a very accomplished architect and I had initially wanted to follow in his footsteps. I loved the Virginia Tech campus and was impressed by their architecture program, but decided that I didn’t have the aptitude to be a great architect, so I changed to engineering at the end of my senior year in high school. 

How has your Virginia Tech education impacted your over the course of your career?

My parents had really instilled a strong work ethic and nurtured my technical curiosity, but the outstanding faculty and staff at Virginia Tech gave me the knowledge and skills required to develop solutions to real-world problems. My graduate program was much more applied than theoretical so it really prepared me for a career focused on innovation and problem solving.  

Why did you choose to get involved with the advisory board? Why it important to you to give back to Virginia Tech and our students?

My debt to the university started in my long tenure as a student, when it enabled my education through several different campus jobs and scholarships. Receiving a Bradley Fellowship made the most impact on my career, it was the primary reason I even considered pursuing a doctoral degree.  

Serving on the advisory board has introduced me to many alumni with truly amazing careers and so many of them find meaningful ways to give back to the university. I have seen the impact the advisory board has had on the department and hope that our contributions in the next few years will have impact for decades to come.