Letter from the chair
Greetings colleagues,
I am proud to share some of the recent accomplishments of the Mechanical Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at the 推荐杏吧原创.
A $36 million donation to establish bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. programs in aerospace engineering was provided by the George W. Gillemot Foundation. This is the largest gift ever given to University and will provide the necessary support to move aerospace engineering from a minor degree program to a major degree program. That is on top of a number of other achievements, including Assistant Professor Jun Zhang’s award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Assistant Professor Floris van Breugel’s award by National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Associate Professor Pradeep Menezes’ award by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
In addition to these funding accomplishments, several other faculty have received national recognition. Professor Miles Greiner was appointed by the White House to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board; Assistant Professor van Bruegel published a paper in Current Biology, which was covered by the Washington Post; and Associate Professor Menezes continues to be listed as a top researcher in the national rankings. In addition, Assistant Professor Yifei Jin’s paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS); and Assistant Professor Aditya Nair’s work was mentioned in Aerospace America magazine, among other achievements.
Here are few other new and newsworthy things to know about our department.
- Faculty member Daichi Fujioka promoted to lecturer II.
- ME offers ABET-accredited Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. programs, a unique graduate certificate in Nuclear Packaging and a graduate certificate in Transportation Security and Safeguards. Over the last five years, the department consistently has awarded the largest number of Bachelor’s degrees in the College of Engineering. All our graduates take part in our signature hands-on laboratory and capstone design experiences and many participate in our varied student club activities and/or take advantage of internships or our industry-oriented minors that align with Nevada’s engineering employers. In the past three years, our graduate program enrollment has grown in excess of 25%, and our alumni find placement in leadership positions in industry, national labs and academia.
- Our department is home to exciting research at the forefront of many areas in mechanical and aerospace engineering. In the past few years, our faculty have received numerous impressive distinctions, including the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Program (YIP) award and a streak of NSF and Department of Energy (DOE) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards.
- A number of our students have received prestigious fellowships and awards such as the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) awards and the University’s Sam Lieberman Regents’ Award.
- Mechanical Engineering’s external funding has been strong, averaging more than $3 million per year for the last four years. This includes funding from NSF, NASA, DOE, U.S. Department of Defense, American Chemical Society (ACS) Petroleum Research Fund (PRF), NRC and industry.
I invite you to take a deeper look at our programs, research and faculty.
Sincerely,
Petros Voulgaris
Founding Aerospace Program Director
Victor LaMar Lockhart Professor
Chair, Mechanical Engineering