FACULTY DISTINCTIONS National Academy of Engineering.................................. 3 National Academy of Sciences........................................ 1 Institute of Medicine....................................................... 1 National Young Investigators.......................................... 8 NSF CAREER Awards (2009-11)................................... 7 Total NSF CAREER Awards........................................ 27 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers ........................................ 1 Alexander Von Humboldt Research Awards................... 2 Fulbright Awards............................................................ 3 AAAS Fellows................................................................. 1 EXTERNAL GRANTS AND AWARDS: JULY 1, 2010-JUNE 30, 2011 DOD 10.20M 23% NIH 7.56M 17% NSF 7.56M 17% DOE 4.82M 11% Corporate 4.40M 10% CDC 2.88M 6% State 1.28M 3% USAID 1.10M 2% Misc. 5.04M 11% Â $44,841,103 100.00%
For more information, visit www.engr.uconn.edu or call (860) 486-2221.
DEAR FRIENDS,
The School of Engineering at the University of Connecticut continues to develop cross-cutting research and educational initiatives that position Connecticut as a leader in high tech manufacturing, sustainable energy, biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, cybersecurity and graduate education. Our highly integrated portfolio of assets includes not only our accomplished students but also one-of-a-kind resource centers and exceptional faculty researchers and instructors. These endowed professorships were made possible through the generous contributions of donors and corporations. We are excited to introduce you to 14 of our most outstanding faculty members. These individuals—including Chair Professors, University Professors, and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors—possess expertise and experience in solving some of the most strategically important challenges facing the world today, spanning the frontiers of energy, water resources, the environment, imaging, biomedical engineering, mechatronics and cyber systems. In the coming year, we will also appoint new Chair Professors through the Nicholas E. Madonna Professorship in Cyber-Physical Systems and the John and Donna Krenicki Professorship in Biomedical Engineering. Sincerely,
Mun Y. Choi Dean
Kazem Kazerounian
Associate Dean for Research & Strategic Initiatives
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EMMANOUIL N. ANAGNOSTOU
Northeast Utilities Foundation Endowed Chair Professor in Environmental Engineering; Civil & Environmental Engineering Ph.D. 1997, University of Iowa
Dr. Emmanouil Anagnostou holds research expertise in remote sensing applications in atmospheric and hydrologic sciences. A hallmark of his innovative research is the synergistic use of space-borne and ground-based measurements within a physical and mathematically optimal data assimilation framework for the improvement of water cycle predictability and the development of sustainable water resources. He has published 95 scholarly research articles, along with several papers published in conference proceedings, reprints and book chapters. His standing in the scientific community reflects international recognition. He is member of the NASA Precipitation Science team, the International Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, the International Science Steering Committee of the International Mediterranean Water-cycle Experiment, the American Meteorological Society Hydrology Committee and the European Geophysical Union Hydrology Committee. Since 2007, he has served as Team Leader of a European Union-funded Marie Curie Excellence Team of experienced and early stage researchers at the Hellenic Center for Marine Research (HCMR). Earlier in his career, he was a Visiting Scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheres of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (1997-98). He has received numerous awards, including the 2002 European Geophysical Union Plinius Medal; the 2005 Marie Curie Excellence 2
Award—the highest recognition by the European Commission in science and engineering; a National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) Award; and a NASA New Investigator Award. At UConn, he has received the School of Engineering Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (2003) and the UConn Alumni Association’s 2011 Excellence in Research Award. He is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. Dr. Anagnostou has delivered major keynote lectures and invited presentations at international conferences and seminars. He is currently Associate Editor of the Journal of Hydrology and has served as Associate Editor for the AMS Journal of Applied Meteorology as well as guest editor of several special issues.
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YAAKOV BAR-SHALOM Marianne E. Klewin Endowed Chair Professor in Engineering and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor; Electrical & Computer Engineering Ph.D. 1970, Princeton University
Dr. Yaakov Bar-Shalom originated numerous target tracking algorithms and pioneered the fundamental theoretical information limit for estimation in the presence of clutter or false measurements for stealthy targets. He was the first to observe that track errors for the same target obtained from independent sensors are statistically dependent, and he developed the algorithm to evaluate their dependence and the optimal track-to-track association and fusion. He also developed the combined tracking and radar management in the presence of electronic countermeasures. He is a world leader in target tracking, with the largest number of publications. Dr. Bar-Shalom co-authored a pioneering paper on the Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) estimator, a technique that has become the state-of-the-art algorithm for tracking maneuvering targets. DSTO (Australia) implemented his Probabilistic Data Association Filter (PDAF) tracker in the Jindalee over-the-horizon radar as the only algorithm to function amid heavy false alarm rate. Raytheon used his Joint PDAF tracker in more than 50 radar systems, from air traffic control to ballistic missile defense. ETC (Mystic, CT) used the IMMPDAF with the amplitude feature information algorithm for tracking a low SNR maneuvering target with active sonar in a heavy clutter environment, yielding the only algorithm to meet the requirements for the U.S. Navy. Northrop Grumman used his 4
debiasing algorithm in the E-2C/D carrierbased long-range surveillance aircraft. For his contributions, IEEE awarded him the Dennis Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications (2008). His research has improved the sensitivity of radars in the presence of noise, particularly background or clutter, which has a significant impact on airborne, sea and ground-based commercial radars for aircraft landing and collision avoidance. A significant commercial application that benefits society, by enhancing air transportation safety, is Raytheon’s use of this technology in their airport surface detection X-band (ASDE-X) radars, which are installed at numerous major airports, from Boston to New Delhi. This technology provides all-weather, reliable tracking of all aircraft and vehicles on airport runways and taxiways. He is an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. 5
BAKI CETEGEN
United Technologies Corporation Endowed Chair Professor in Thermal Fluids Engineering; Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. 1982, California Institute of Technology
Dr. Baki Cetegen joined the University of Connecticut in 1987. Before beginning his academic career at UConn, he worked for five years as a research engineer and group leader at Energy and Environmental Research Corp in Irvine, CA and had a post-doctoral appointment at the University of California, Irvine. He has been the Head of the Department since 2006. Dr. Cetegen’s research interests are in the general area of experimental fluid dynamics and combustion. His early work concentrated on understanding the mechanism of buoyancy-induced instabilities in flames and fires and the role of these instabilities on mixing and entrainment in fires. More recently, he has focused his efforts on mixing and combustion in vortical structures as building blocks of flow turbulence-mixing and flame interactions, shock wave induced mixing in compressible flows, computations and experiments on materials and ceramic coating synthesis by injection of liquid sprays into plasmas and flames, and most recently on the dynamics of premixed and partially premixed flames near their extinction limits. Dr. Cetegen has authored or co-authored more than 75 journal articles and over 100 conference papers and presentations, and he is a co-inventor on three U.S. patents. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, NASA and industry. He was instrumental in the 2010 establishment of UTC Pratt & Whitney Center of Excellence at 6
Image courtesy of Pratt & Whitney
UConn, which funds research projects in the areas of combustion, sensors and system control for propulsion systems. Dr. Cetegen has developed undergraduate and graduate courses in various subject areas, including thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, combustion, advanced experimental methods in thermo-fluids, gas dynamics and radiative heat transfer. He has been a member of the Combustion Institute and served on the executive committee of its Eastern States Section as treasurer and currently as its chairman. He is a Fellow of ASME and an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. 7
ROBERT X. GAO
Pratt & Whitney Endowed Chair Professor in Engineering; Mechanical Engineering Ph.D., 1991 Technical University of Berlin
Dr. Robert Gao’s research expertise and interests span the areas of physics-based sensing methodologies, mechatronic design, signal and image processing, and cyber physical systems. Through his research, he seeks to improve the observability and reliability of machines and processes that have significant environmental impact in terms of energy consumption and waste production, through innovative methods for monitoring, diagnosis and prognosis. His work also addresses human physical activities and exposure to environmental pollutants under free living conditions. Dr. Gao has served as principal or co-principal investigator on more than $10 million in federally and commerciallysponsored research, and published a book on wavelet transform (Springer, 2011), along with over 220 technical papers appearing in journals and conference proceedings. He holds four patents on embedded sensing and signal processing technologies. He is an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, and IFAC Journal of Mechatronics. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Manufacturing Research. Dr. Gao previously served as an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, chaired the Sensors and Instrumentation Panel of the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division, and is presently chair of the Technical 8
Image courtesy of AgĂŞncia Brasil
Committee on Built-in-Test and Self-Test of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society. Dr. Gao received a National Science Foundation Early Career (CAREER) Development Award in 1996. At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he was awarded the Barbara H. and Joseph I. Goldstein Outstanding Junior Faculty Award and the Outstanding Senior Faculty Award. He is the faculty advisor and co-recipient of several Best Student Paper Awards. He is a Fellow of the ASME and IEEE, a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Electron Devices Society, a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE), and an Associate member of the International Academy of Production Engineering (CIRP). 9
HANCHEN HUANG
Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Endowed Professor in Sustainable Energy; Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. 1995, University of California at Los Angeles
Dr. Hanchen Huang’s research involves growth mechanisms of nanowires and nanorods, using a hierarchy of simulation methods— density functional theory based ab initio calculations, classical molecular dynamics simulations, and polycrystalline lattice kinetic Monte Carlo simulations—in synergy with analytical formulations and experiments. This research extends to surface corrosion, and also covers the use of nanomaterials for energy storage and the structural evolution of nanomaterials under radiation and/or mechanical deformation. Dr. Huang’s research has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Army Research Office, Interconnect Focus Center, the Hong Kong RGC, and jointly by the Hong Kong RGC and German DAAD. Before joining UConn in 2009, Dr. Huang was a professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. Earlier in his career, he served on the Mechanical Engineering faculty of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU). Dr. Huang also conducted research in advanced materials and mechanics at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1995-98). He has authored 10
or co-authored more than 100 refereed journal publications. Dr. Huang is Chair/Co-Chair of Nanotechnology Committee of USACM, Chair of the Young Investigator Award Committee of ICCES on experimental science, guest co-editor of multiple journals, including MRS Bulletin, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology. Among Dr. Huang’s awards are the 2007 RPI School of Engineering Excellence in Research Award, the 2002 President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Research and Scholarship (HPKU), the 2001 Bole Award for Professional Leadership (Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society) and the 1992 Scientific Progress Award (China Department of Energy). Dr. Huang is an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.
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BAHRAM JAVIDI
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor; Electrical & Computer Engineering Ph.D. 1986, Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Bahram Javidi’s research interests are in transformative approaches to optical imaging sciences, including imaging at nano scales. Dr. Javidi has been named a Fellow of eight scientific societies, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Optical Society of America (OSA), European Optical Society (EOS), and the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). He is also an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. In 2008, he was named a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. He is recognized by nine best paper awards from IEEE, OSA, EOS, and SPIE. Dr. Javidi is the recipient of numerous honors, including the IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award (2008), George Washington University’s Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award (2010), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Humboldt Prize for outstanding U.S. scientists (2007), SPIE’s Technology Achievement Award (2008), SPIE’s Dennis Gabor Award in Diffractive Wave Technologies (2005), and the IEEE Photonics Society’s Distinguished Lecturer Award (2003 and 2004). Early in his career, he was named a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator, and received an Engineering Foundation and an IEEE Faculty Initiation Award. In 2003, the 12
Image courtesy of D-Kuru/Wikimedia Commons
National Academy of Engineering selected him as one of the nation’s top engineers aged 30-45 to present his research at the sixth German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. He has 750 publications, including nine books, 54 book chapters, 320 peer reviewed journal articles, 370 conference proceedings, and 130 plenary addresses, keynote addresses and invited conference papers. His papers have appeared in the Proceedings of the IEEE Journal, Journal of the Royal Society, Physics Today and Nature. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the IEEE Journal (ranked number two among all electrical engineering journals and transactions), and serves on the Board of Directors of SPIE.
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ERIC JORDAN
United Technologies Corporation Endowed Chair Professor of Advanced Materials; Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. 1978, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Eric Jordan, who also serves on the graduate program faculty in the Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering Department, joined UConn in 1979. His current work focuses on thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) for gas turbine engines, which are ceramic coatings that allow gas turbines on aircraft and power plants to run hotter and burn less fuel. With faculty collaborators and partners at Inframat, Inc., he has developed a new method of fabricating such coatings directly from chemical precursors, called solution precursor plasma spray. This technique has been successfully used to deposit temperature sensing coatings that are currently undergoing testing in gas turbines under a contract from the Ohio Aerospace Institute. These new chemical precursor-based coatings have unique properties, and TBCs made this way are being investigated for commercialization. Dr. Jordan is conducting other fundamental research on the composition and performance of temperature sensing coatings and the development of computer models to predict thermal barrier coating failure lives. He is also involved in projects to introduce composite materials to replace metals in aerospace applications, and in the development of optical methods to estimate the remaining life in coatings, which will allow coatings to be replaced only as needed, potentially resulting in large savings of money on preemptive replacement. 14
Image courtesy of Pratt & Whitney
He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and a member of the academic Advisory Board to the U.S. Department of Energy’s UTSR program, and he has served as an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology. 15
CATO T. LAURENCIN
University Professor and Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery; and Professor, Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering Ph.D. 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; M.D. 1987, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Cato Laurencin is a Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and of Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering. In addition, he is the Director of the Institute for Regenerative Engineering at the University of Connecticut Health Center and the Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (CICATS). Dr. Laurencin has served as Chair of the College of Fellows for the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Through his research endeavors, he has pioneered advances in tissue and regenerative engineering, biomaterials science, drug delivery systems, nanotechnology and stem cell science. As a physician, his efforts have focused on applications to help patients regain mobility and strength following shoulder and knee surgery. He is the founder of New Haven medical start-up Soft Tissue Regeneration, which uses his technology to advance knee ligament reconstruction surgery. In 2011, Dr. Laurencin was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his research contributions in the areas of “biomaterial science, drug delivery, and tissue engineering involving musculoskeletal systems and for academic leadership.� He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004. He is a Fellow of the American Surgical Association, the Biomedical 16
Engineering Society, the American College of Surgeons, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. In 2009, U.S. President Obama presented him a Presidential Award for Excellence for his contributions as an exceptional mentor. In addition, Dr. Laurencin was honored by Scientific American magazine as one of the top 50 innovators for his groundbreaking technological work in the regeneration of knee tissue, and he was named among “100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Dr. Laurencin is the 2009 winner of the Pierre Galletti Award, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering’s highest honor.
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PETER LUH
Southern New England Telephone Endowed Chair Professor of Communications and Information Technologies; Electrical & Computer Engineering Ph.D. 1980, Harvard University
Dr. Peter Luh’s expertise spans optimized operation of power systems, design of auction methods for electricity markets, electricity load and price forecasting with demand management; and planning, scheduling, and coordination of design, manufacturing, and service activities. His current research focus is on “Smart Building Smart Grid,” which aims to reduce energy use in buildings, representing more than 40 percent of global energy consumption, a large portion arising from energy waste due to equipment faults or improper operation of building equipment. The new capabilities to locally generate power with renewable energy sources, curb demand, and even push energy back to the grid further enhance the potential of alleviating global warming and greenhouse gas emission issues. Dr. Luh leads a faculty/ student/industry team on an initiative involving HVAC fault detection and diagnosis, sensor networks, optimized energy management, visualization with augmented reality, and grid integration of renewable energy sources. Dr. Luh joined UConn in 1980 and has held numerous positions of responsibility. He was a Distinguished Engineering Professor (1999-2002), Director of the Taylor L. Booth Engineering
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Center for Advanced Technology (1997-2004), and the Head of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (2006-2009). He is a member of the Chair Professors Group, Center for Intelligent and Networked Systems (CFINS) in the Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Recently, he was a Visiting Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University (2009) and a Visiting Fellow in the Systems Department of United Technologies Research Center (2010). He is a Fellow of IEEE, the Vice President for Publication Activities for IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (2008-present), and an Associate Editor of Discrete Event Dynamic Systems (1999present) and ACTA Automatica Sinica (2005-present). He was the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation (1999-2003) and the founding Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (2003-2007). Dr. Luh is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.
Image courtesy of Department of Energy 19
RADENKA MARIC
Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Endowed Professorship in Sustainable Energy; Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering Ph.D. 1996, University of Kyoto, Japan
Dr. Radenka Maric joined the University of Connecticut in 2010. Her primary interests lie in gaining a fundamental understanding of the effect of processes, microstructure and defects on transport and electrical properties of surfaces and interfaces. In particular, she is interested in developing new materials and novel structures for energy storage and conversion, structural ceramics and hydrogen production and separation. During the last 15 years, a major focus of her research activities has been on developing new manufacturing processes for thin films that may be used in such energy applications as solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) components, resulting in lower materials and processing costs relative to traditional fabrication techniques, while also improving product life and reliability. In addition, Dr. Maric is interested in thin film coatings and nano-particle formation. She has developed various atomization methods for thin film and nanoparticles generation, including aerosol synthesis, high-energy mechanical milling, sonochemical synthesis, self-propagating high-temperature synthesis, sol-gel and flame based processes. Her research on particle dynamics focuses on the fundamentals of aerosol synthesis of materials with applications in fuel cells, batteries, catalysis and nano-composites. 20
PEM courtesy of Department of Energy
Before joining the University of Connecticut in 2010, Dr. Maric was a Group Leader and Program Manager at the National Research Council of Canada’s Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (2004-10) and an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2008-10). Earlier in her career, she was a Program Manager at nGimat (formerly MicroCoating Technologies, 2001-04) and a Senior Scientist and Team Leader at the Japan Fine Ceramics Center, Nagoya, Japan (l996-01). Dr. Maric has published more than 150 scientific papers in the fields of nanomaterials processing, thin film deposition, material coatings, fuel cells and batteries. 21
KRISHNA R. PATTIPATI
United Technologies Corporation Endowed Chair Professor in Systems Engineering; Electrical & Computer Engineering Ph.D. 1980, University of Connecticut
Dr. Krishna Pattipati joined the University of Connecticut in 1986 following six years with Alphatech, Inc., Burlington, MA. He directs the Cyberlab, which is dedicated to the application of systems theory and optimization techniques to solve problems of interest to commercial industry and national defense. The Cyberlab’s current research activities are in the areas of adaptive organizations for dynamic and uncertain environments, diagnostic and prognostic techniques for cyber-physical systems, multi-object tracking, multi-user detection in wireless communications, and combinatorial optimization. These applications share common characteristics of uncertainty, complexity and computational intractability. Dr. Pattipati has published 20 book chapters and over 350 scholarly journal and conference papers in these areas. His research has been funded by the the Office of Naval Research, NASA’s Ames Research Center, DARPA, Aptima, NPS, General Motors, Toyota, National Science Foundation, and many others. He has been a consultant to Alphatech, Aptima, Qualtech Systems, and IBM. He is a co-founder of Qualtech Systems, a recognized leader in advanced integrated diagnostics software tools (TEAMS, TEAMS-RT, TEAMS-RDS, TEAMATE) with numerous applications at NASA, semi-conductor fabrication facilities and medical equipment, to name a few. Dr. Pattipati was selected by the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC) Society as the Outstanding Young Engineer 22
(1984) and was the recipient of the Centennial Key to the Future award. He was Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on SMC: Part B-Cybernetics (1998-2001). He was a co-recipient of the Andrew P. Sage Award for the Best SMC Transactions Paper (1999), the Barry Carlton Award for the Best AES Transactions Paper (2000), the NASA Space Act Award (2002, 2008), the University of Connecticut AAUP Research Excellence Award (2003), and the University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award (2005). Dr. Pattipati received best technical paper awards at the 1985, 1990, 1994, 2002, 2004, and 2005 IEEE Autotest Conferences, and at the 1997 and 2004 Command and Control Conferences. He is an elected Fellow of IEEE and a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.
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SANGUTHEVAR RAJASEKARAN United Technologies Corporation Endowed Chair Professor of Computer Science; Computer Science & Engineering Ph.D. 1988, Harvard University
Dr. Sanguthevar Rajasekaran joined the University of Connecticut in 2002. During his career, he has contributed significantly to numerous application domains, including bio and medical informatics, parallel and high performance algorithms and computing, data mining, randomized computing, combinatorial optimization, large scale modeling and simulations, among many. In the area of bioinformatics, he has worked on problems including motif-search, primer-selection, sequence-assembly, and protein-based memories. He co-developed a web-based motif-search system that has been searched tens of thousands of times by biologists in more than 150 universities in dozens of countries across the globe. Some of the best-known algorithms for (l, d)-motif search were developed by Dr. Rajasekaran. He currently serves as the principal investigator for a National Institutes of Health-funded project on motif search. In parallel computing, Dr. Rajasekaran has investigated such fundamental problems as sorting, packet routing, and selection, and has contributed toward many of the best known algorithms for these problems. Dr. Rajasekaran seeks out and solves difficult open problems, as in the demonstration that border length minimization was intractable. He also invented an elegant solution for the diffraction problem in protein memories, solving a 20-year challenge. Dr. Rajasekaran invented an optimal parallel algorithm for linesegment Voronoi diagram computation in two dimensions, solving a 24
decade-long open problem, and he solved a 13-year old problem by inventing an O(n4.752) time algorithm for tree adjoining grammar parsing. Before joining UConn, Dr. Rajasekaran was a faculty member at the University of Florida and the University of Pennsylvania. From 2000-02, he was the Chief Scientist for Arcot Systems. Dr. Rajasekaran has published over 200 articles in journals and conference proceedings, co-authored two texts on algorithms, and co-edited five books on algorithms and related topics. He is an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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PRABHAKAR SINGH
United Technologies Corporation Endowed Chair Professor of Fuel Cell Technology; Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering Ph.D. 1978, University of Sheffield, England
Dr. Prabhakar Singh is the Director of the Center for Clean Energy Engineering. He conducts research in advanced energy conversion systems including fuel cells, functional materials, fuels and fuel processing, high temperature alloys and coatings, and novel synthesis techniques. His research has been supported by United Technologies Corporation, Conoco Phillips, Rolls Royce, FuelCell Energy, enzymSys, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Army, the Office of Naval Research and others. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 technical reports and papers, serves on the editorial boards of ASME and ACerSoc, and holds more than 50 U.S. patents and trade secrets.
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He has received numerous honors, including election to the rank of Fellow in ASM International, the American Ceramic Society and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers. Prior to joining the University of Connecticut, Dr. Singh worked at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, where he provided technical direction and managed the advanced solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) development activities of the NETL-PNNL-led Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) Core Technology Program. Dr. Singh held key technical and management positions at Ford Motor Company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation and FuelCell Energy. He is credited with a number of seminal research contributions. During the development and testing of highly efficient molten carbonate fuel cells and SOFC power generation systems, he identified, for the first time, the unusual corrosion of fuel cell bipolar current collector/interconnect materials exposed simultaneously to an oxidizing and a reducing gas environment. To overcome this problem, he developed corrosion mechanisms based on underlying thermo-chemical and electrochemical processes. He also developed advanced laboratory capabilities and programs to study and develop innovative and cost-effective materials systems for applications in advanced fuel cell and fuel processing systems at Ford Motor Company and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Dr. Singh also received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
Image courtesy of UTC Power
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CHIH-JEN (JACKIE) SUNG
Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Endowed Professor in Sustainable Energy; Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. 1994, Princeton University
Dr. Chih-Jen Sung joined the University of Connecticut in 2009. He was previously a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. His research interests include aerodynamic and chemical structures of flames, laser diagnostics, development of detailed and reduced chemistry, ignition and flame stabilization in subsonic and supersonic flows, high-pressure and unsteady flame phenomena, soot and NOx formation, catalytic combustion, alternative fuel utilization and combustion, and clean combustion technology. Dr. Sung and his group are investigating the combustion properties of various conventional and alternative fuels, with special emphasis on the creation of experimental validation databases for chemical kinetics, thermochemistry, transport processes, and flame structure over a wide range of conditions, through the application of advanced diagnostic methods. The new experimental datasets are used to develop an accurate, well-validated kinetic model suitable for flame and engine simulations. The ultimate goal is to develop a suite of predictive combustion modeling capabilities for understanding and optimizing the design and utilization of non-petroleum based, carbon-neutral fuels in advanced combustors, and to take advantage of the changes in fuel composition being driven by the commercial and military alternative fuel programs. 28
Dr. Sung is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and a past member (1998-2008) of the AIAA Propellants and Combustion Technical Committee. He received the 1998 Best Paper Award from the 12th Microgravity Science and Space Processing Symposium at the 36th AIAA Aerospace Science Meeting, the National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 2002, Northern Ohio AIAA Best Paper Awards (2004, 2006), the Distinguished Paper Award in Colloquium Laminar Flames from the 31st International Symposium on Combustion (2007), and several teaching awards. Dr. Sung has authored or co-authored more than 105 archival publications in combustion and propulsion.
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