Dion Messer

Dion Messer

Dion Messer, EE ’84

Dion Messer, electrical engineering, was honored as Distinguished Alumna at homecoming celebrations in early October. She addressed scholarship donors and recipients at the 26th Annual College of Engineering Scholarship Breakfast.

“The advice I would give current students at NMSU is to take the fullest advantage you can of the excellent education you are receiving. This is your time to absorb it all. When you leave NMSU, you’ll leave with a foundation upon which to make a career and a profession,” said Messer. “Remember to be kind, to be generous and to never burn bridges because you just don’t know what life holds.”

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from NMSU in 1984, Messer began her career as a communications engineer with a NASA contractor at White Sands Missile Range, helping maintain communications with the Space Shuttle while in flight. She later earned her master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin, becoming recognized worldwide as a digital signal processing expert who co‑invented nine U.S. patents and authored numerous peer‑reviewed IEEE publications.

She went on to earn her law degree at the University of Texas School of Law, followed by a judicial clerkship with the Honorable William Bryson at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She later served as a patent litigation attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Weil, Gotshal & Manges before joining Limelight Networks, Inc. as general counsel of intellectual property. There, she second‑chaired a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning 9–0, and built a patent portfolio of more than 150 patents in under five years. Before retiring, she drafted patent applications at Kilpatrick Townsend.

Her commitment to people extends back to NMSU. She serves on the NMSU Foundation Board of Directors, is an active member of the NMSU Alumni Association, and has donated to her alma mater since 1987. Her philanthropy includes two facility namings in the College of Engineering that support faculty and student research opportunities. She also invests in the President’s Associates Scholars program, NMSU’s premier scholarship for New Mexico students.