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Sheila Edalatpour
Lauren Ross
Sheila Edalatpour, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, studies quantum-size effects on radiative heat transfer (RHT), energy emitted from heated surfaces and transferred from one component to another in the form of electromagnetic waves. She will investigate how RHT changes when the materials involved are quantum size, or when they are separated by a gap of the same size as one or multiple atoms. Determining how material size affects RHT can help engineers design new materials to build more efficient, powerful and reliable devices for energy, computing, health care and other purposes.
Lauren Ross, assistant professor of hydraulics and water resources engineering, is improving understanding of how estuary shape, river discharge and tides influence fresh and saltwater mixing. The extent of the mixing process can influence how long particles, such as contaminants, nutrients and larvae, remain in an estuary, and whether it experiences hypoxia — or low oxygen levels. She will use on-site data and numerical model simulations to quantify the mixing processes in more complex estuaries — Penobscot River Estuary in Maine, Reloncavi Fjord in Chile and Gironde Estuary in France.
UMAINE TODAY WINTER 2021–22
