News & Events

10-17-17

Josette Bellan, Visiting Associate in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, is the recipient of the 2018 The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Pendray Aerospace Literature Award. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to literature with the emphasis placed on the high quality or major influence of the piece. The award was also established as an incentive for professionals to write eloquently and persuasively about their field. Dr. Bellan is recognized “for widely reaching, seminal and outstanding publications on bio-fuels, sprays and high pressure flows to meet future challenges of Aeronautics and Astronautics combustion systems.” [Publication list]

Tags: honors MCE Josette Bellan

10-13-17

Brent Fultz, Barbara and Stanley R. Rawn, Jr., Professor of Materials Science and Applied Physics, has been elected as a 2017 Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) “For seminal experiments demonstrating the importance of vibrational entropy to the phase stability of materials and transformational leadership in the development of neutron scattering techniques.” [APS Fellow Archive]

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10-11-17

Marco Bernardi, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, has won a 2017 Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Award. The objectives of this program are: to foster creative basic research in science and engineering, enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators, and increase opportunities for the young investigators to recognize the Air Force mission and the related challenges in science and engineering. Professor Bernardi received the award for his proposal entitled, “Ab Initio Electron-Defect and Electron-Phonon Scattering for Understanding and Designing High-Mobility Semiconductors and Oxides.” [AFOSR Press Release]

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09-18-17

Stevan Nadj-Perge, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, has been named the 2017 KNI-Wheatley Scholar in Nanoscience for his proposal to develop a novel nanofabrication technique to integrate atomic size objects, such as atomic chains, into superconducting interferometer devices. [Nurturing Nanoscience]

Tags: APhMS honors KNI Stevan Nadj-Perge

09-12-17

Stella Brach, Postdoctoral Scholar in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, has won the 2017 Paul Germain Prize.The prize is awarded once every two years during the French National Congress on Mechanics for the best PhD thesis in Mechanics. [Read her thesis]

Tags: honors MCE Stella Brach postdocs

09-11-17

G. Ravichandran, John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering; Otis Booth Leadership Chair, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, has been elected to the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea). The Academia Europaea was founded in 1988 and is an organization of eminent, individual scholars from across the continent of Europe. The 3000 members cover a wide range of academic disciplines including the humanities, social, physical and life sciences as well as mathematics, engineering and medicine. In addition to Professor Ravichandran, EAS Past Chair Ares Rosakis, Caltech's Provost Edward Stolper, the Institute's Past President David Baltimore, and Professor Alexander Varshavsky are members of the Academy.

Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Guruswami Ravichandran

09-09-17

Mechanical Engineering alumnus Evan Sloan (BS '17) has been chosen to attend the Infiniti Engineering Academy. Sloan will spend six months at Infiniti's European Technical Center and six months with the Renault Sport Formula One Team. "Evan was always excited about race cars," says Professor Guillaume Blanquart and faculty advisor for the Caltech's Formula SAE Electric team. "As a sophomore, he converted a gas-powered go kart into an electric vehicle. Four months later, he was the mechanical lead on a 60-person team in charge of designing a Formula One-style race car from scratch. The team would never have reached the Formula SAE competition without Evan's drive, dedication, and perseverance." [Caltech story]

Tags: honors MCE alumni Guillaume Blanquart Evan Sloan

08-01-17

Austin Minnich, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics, is a recipient of the Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The award recognizes an engineer who is under 36 years of age and is committed to pursuing research in heat transfer, and has demonstrated the potential to make significant contributions to the field.

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07-28-17

Ares J. Rosakis, Theodore von Karman Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, has been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). This honor is given to individual AGU members who have made exceptional scientific contributions and gained prominence in their respective fields of Earth and space sciences. [AGU release]

Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Ares Rosakis

07-22-17

Austin Minnich, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics, is a recipient of the International Photothermal and Photoacoustics Association (IPPA) Junior Prize. He received the prize for outstanding contributions to the understanding of quasiballistic thermal transport, including the development of photothermal methods to directly probe heat conduction at length scales comparable to phonon mean free paths; for demonstrating how microscopic transport properties of thermal phonons in solids may be obtained using photothermal experimental methods along with ab-initio calculations; and for advances in the mathematical treatment of quasiballistic transport using the Boltzmann equation.

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