LSU Engineering Honors Two Alumni at Evening of Engineering Excellence

The LSU College of Engineering recently held its second annual Evening of Engineering Excellence on April 24 in LSU Stadium Club West, where two new members were inducted into the Hall of Distinction. LSU Industrial Engineering and Computer Science alumnus Mohit “Mo” Vij and LSU Chemical Engineering alumnus Philip Westmoreland were inducted into the LSU College of Engineering Hall of Distinction by Dean Vicki Colvin.

Mohit “Mo” Vij

Vij is an LSU industrial engineering and computer science graduate, earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at LSU. After graduating, he built two successful technology companies headquartered in Louisiana—General Informatics, where he served as the president and CEO for more than 20 years, and 365Labs, where he serves as the CEO today and is helping build technology that is powering public safety for more than 100 agencies across 18 states. 

General Informatics won Baton Rouge’s “Company of the Year” award in 2017, while Microsoft awarded General Informatics as “Best in Nation” among 6,000 other IT companies. The company has been featured four times in INC Magazine’s list of fastest-growing companies in America and has been on the “LSU Top 100” list of fastest-growing companies five times. Today, Vij sits on the board of General Informatics, a company that continues to grow with clients and offices in seven states. 

Vij’s other company, 365Labs, was ranked by INC Magazine as one of the top 20 fastest growing software companies in America in 2022 and 2023, just two years after its inception. In 2024, 365Labs was selected as Baton Rouge’s “Company of the Year.” Vij also built the Technology Park @Highland to spur a technology eco-system in the Capitol city, and is now developing phase two of the $90 million campus. 

When Vij is not working on developing new technology, he loves to travel the world with his two daughters and equally-established engineer wife, Anjali, who has had a 17-year career with Texas Instruments.

Dr. Phillip Westmoreland

Westmoreland received his master’s degree in chemical engineering from LSU in 1973. He earned his bachelor’s from North Carolina State, and later earned his Ph.D. from MIT. He is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University where he researches reaction kinetics, focusing on energy, pollution prevention, and reaction engineering using experimental, computational and theoretical approaches. He is also an honorary professor at Nanjing University of Technology. 

In the late 70s, Westmoreland worked for Union Carbide/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, then served on the chemical engineering faculty at UMass Amherst from 1986 to 2009, and served at the National Science Foundation from 2006 to 2009. In 2015, he was Professor Invité at the Université de Lorraine and was also Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at Imperial College London the same year. 

Westmoreland was president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2013, and is a trustee and former president of the educational nonprofit Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering. He has served as a board member of the Combustion Institute, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Council for Chemical Research, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Foundation, and the LSU Chemical Engineering Industrial Advisory Board. 

The college established the Hall of Distinction in 1979 to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to the engineering profession. In its inaugural year, 7 charter members were elected. The Hall of Distinction now includes 95 members.