THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering 2006-2007 LETTER FROM talented and enthusiastic new faculty members, most of them at the assistant professor level. We lost some faculty to retirement, others to THE CHAIR resignations, and others were recruited to other institutions. Marc Levenston went to Stanford. Chris Lynch went to the University of This will be the last Annual Report California at Los Angeles. Bill King went to the University of Illinois. under my watch as chair of the Tom Kurfess went to Clemson. Dan Baldwin went to industry. So the Woodruff School of Mechanical new faculty not only replaced those who left, but allowed us to grow to Engineering. As most of you know, I help match our faculty size to our enrollment, which has continued to announced last November my grow. Based on enrollment, we still need additional faculty and hope to intention to retire at the end of May add them in the coming year. We also graduated a record number of 2007. In the spring, I was feted with bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students. As you will see in the several very nice going away parties. statistics presented in this report, not only is enrollment up, but student Some of my former Ph.D. students quality continues to improve. We have a very talented group of under- came from across the country and graduate and graduate students. overseas to participate in the celebrations. I was humbled by the honors Another significant change was the loss of our long term presented to me. The honors included being named Emeritus Chair of development officer, Caroline Wood, who left to join the Corporate the School, having a Seminar Room named for me, having an oil portrait Development Office at Georgia Tech. I told her not to forget her roots commissioned, and having the Faculty Development Fund named for and to be sure to do corporate development for mechanical me. In spite of all that recognition, I am still chair of the School through engineering. We welcomed aboard Tom Lawley as our new Director of the end of November. As many of you know, the replacement process Development. Tom graduated in 1995 from St. Andrews Presbyterian for administrators at universities is often a slow process, and the Dean, College in Laurinburg, NC and has held previous development positions Don Giddens, asked me to stay on until a replacement was named. I at the Atlanta Union Mission, Emory University, and Children’s Memorial agreed to stay until the end of November 2007. I fully expect a Foundation in Chicago. Tom is an experienced development officer and replacement to be named by that time. I have enjoyed my time as chair has gotten off to a good start. We look forward to his helping the of the Woodruff School and am honored to have been in this position school build the endowment and obtain funds to help us continue with during a time of tremendous growth in terms of enrollment, faculty, our excellent programs. physical facilities, endowment and recognition. I will miss all of this, but I Also during the year, we had two excellent special lectures. The look forward to more control over my time in retirement. Woodruff Distinguished Lecture about the world energy situation was During the past year, there have been several significant events in given by Steven Koonin, Chief Scientist at BP in April. The the School. Probably the most important was the successful Academic Gegenheimer Lecture on Innovation about the development of the Program Review which was conducted by an outside committee of Boeing Dreamliner 787 was given by Mark Jenks, Wing Design Team experts in the fields of mechanical and nuclear engineering. This Leader at the Boeing Company in December. review is a requirement of both the Institute and the Board of Regents Finally, let me thank all of our alums and friends of the Woodruff that occurs every five years for each academic unit. We had a very School particularly those who have supported the School in one way illustrious committee for an on-site visit in February, and we were or another over the past twenty years. You have helped make my job pleased with the glowing report that they submitted. In a way, it was easier and helped advance the cause of Mechanical and Nuclear not a surprise since we believe we do a good job and we strive to Engineering and Georgia Tech in general. I encourage you to improve. But it is always good to get external confirmation. welcome and support my replacement. A second significant event was the tremendous effort given to recruiting faculty. A recent review of the last fourteen months shows that we have hired 19 new faculty members - three for the Georgia Tech Savannah Mechanical Engineering program, one for the Georgia Tech Lorraine Mechanical Engineering program, four for the Nuclear Ward O. Winer Engineering program, and the remainder for the Atlanta Campus Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair Mechanical Engineering program. We have been able to attract very Atlanta, September 2007 CONTENTS The annual report of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Events . 1 Tech is published in the fall. For more detailed information about Woodruff School under- Programs . 3 graduate programs in mechanical engineering and nuclear and radiological engineering and Enrollment . 9 our graduate programs in mechanical engineering, nuclear and radiological engineering, Scholarships. 11 medical physics, bioengineering, and paper science and engineering, please contact us by Student Groups . 13 any of the following methods: Careers . 13 Fellowships . 14 Degrees . 15 Letter Dr. Ward O. Winer Faculty . 22 Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. Chair of the Staff . 26 George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Research . 26 Georgia Institute of Technology Facilities . 27 Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0405 Honors and Awards . 28 Phone 404-894-3200 Contributors . 29 Fax 404-894-1658 Finances. 30 E-mail [email protected] or The Woodruff Endowment . 30 [email protected] Other Endowments . 31 Online www.me.gatech.edu Advisory Board. 32 GEORGE W. WOODRUFF SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING EVENTS THE WOODRUFF DISTINGUISHED LECTURE The Woodruff Distinguished Lecture was given by Dr. Steven E. Koonin, Chief Scientist of BP, on April 24, 2007 to an audience eager to hear about Energy Trends and Technologies for the Coming Decades. He said that the world’s demand for energy will grow by some sixty percent in the next twenty-five years. Satisfying that demand in an economical and environmentally acceptable manner is one of the most significant challenges facing society. New technologies will play a central role in meeting this challenge, conditioned by the economic, social, and political contexts in which they are developed and deployed. Dr. Koonin was born in Brooklyn, New York and educated at Caltech (B.S. in physics) and at MIT (Ph.D. in theoretical physics). He joined the Caltech faculty in 1975, becoming a full professor in 1981 and serving as the Institute’s Provost from 1995-2004. He left Caltech in 2004 to become BP’s Chief Scientist, where he is responsible for BP’s long-range GEGENHEIMER LECTURE ON INNOVATION technology plans and activities, particularly The Gegenheimer Lecture on Innovation was given by Mark D. Jenks, those “beyond petroleum.” 787 Wing, Empennage and Landing Gear Team Leader for The Boeing Company to a packed house in Georgia Tech’s Ferst Center for the Arts in December 2006. He talked about the development of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which represents a breakthrough in aerospace structures technology with the first-ever composite fuselage and wing, a major advance in large-scale global collaboration, and the creation of a new business model for global cooperation. Mark Jenks has worked for Boeing since 1983. In his current position, he leads the international team responsible for design, manufacture, certification and delivery of the wing, empennage, and landing gear for the 787. Prior, he was director of Technology Integration for the Sonic Cruiser program, Chief Engineer and Deputy Program Manager for the International Space Station, and Manager of the Helicopters Division Development Center. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and M.S. degrees in Management and Materials Engineering form MIT. THE ANNUAL SPRING BANQUET We had another extremely successful spring banquet to honor graduating seniors and under- graduate and graduate students who had won awards during the academic year, and to hear from our Distinguished Alumnus and Outstanding Educator. The annual event is planned and organized by the Woodruff School Student Advisory Committee and is sponsored by the Woodruff Endowment. More than 235 people attended the banquet in the Student Center Ballroom. After the buffet dinner, School Chair Dr. Ward Winer introduced Jean Albert Mori (BME 1958, the Outstanding Alumnus and Dr. Jon Colton, the Zeigler Bottom l to r: Ryan Gentes, Carol Girata, Outstanding Educator. [There are accompanying articles Alison Skala, Jamie Cruse; top: Jeff Clement, about both these recognitions.] Troy Watson, Dave Coleman, Kristi Mehaffey. Once again the students voted on awards to faculty and staff in the School. This year’s recipients were: The Campanile Award to the person who embodies the true spirit of Georgia Tech: Dr. Ye-Hwa Chen. The Borat Award to the person who is the most culturally aware: Dr. John Papastavridis. The Good Will Hunting Award to the person who knows everything about everything: Dr. Al Ferri. The Bruce Almighty Award to the person who has subtle ways of letting you know that he/she is the boss: Dr. Jon Colton.