Four MNE Faculty Elected ASME Fellows

The department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering is proud to announce that four of their faculty have been elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME). The election of a fellow of ASME recognizes significant engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession.

Dr. Christopher Rahn, obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992 and is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University.  His research work on the modeling, analysis, and control of mechatronic systems garnered the prestigious Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and has resulted in one book, over eighty refereed publications, and several patents. He was an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control and is currently an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics and the Vice-Chair of the ASME Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound.

Dr. Liming Chang, Professor of Mechanical Engineering conducts research in contact-mechanics and lubrication fundamentals. His main expertise lies in modeling and experimentation of elastohydrodynamic (EHL), mixed and boundary lubrication. Dr. Chang has published widely the results in a number of international journals. His achievements of research originality include (1) modeling of micro-EHL and mixed lubrication with thermal and transient effects, (2) analysis of lubricant rheological behavior on EHL and micro-EHL responses, (3) micro-contact mechanics and boundary lubrication modeling, (4) modeling of contact and lubrication problems with optimal balance between accuracy and practicality, and (5) chemical-mechanical polishing. Dr. Chang has been an associate editor of two leading tribology journals, ASME Journal of Tribology and Tribology Transactions.

Dr. Joe Sommer obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1980 and is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. His research expertise is in the areas of kinematics, biomechanics, machine vision and vehicle dynamics which garnered him the 2002 Milton S. Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Sommer was one of the founders of the Excellence Center in Computer Science and Systems Engineering in Linkoping (ECSEL). "ECSEL is a coalition of seven schools and colleges of engineering committed to a five-year effort to renew undergraduate engineering education and its infrastructure and to make the engineering profession attractive to a broader spectrum of youth. Funding for the coalition comes from the National Science Foundation". Dr. Sommer has published 110 scientific publications and has supervised over 50 graduate degrees.

Dr. Savas Yavuzkurt obtained his Ph.D. from Standford University in 1978 and is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. His research expertise is in the areas of turbulent flows (experimental and theoretical), convective heat transfer- particularly gas turbine heat transfer, experimental methods in fluids and combustion and alternate energy sources. Dr. Yavuzkurt is a member of ASME Gas Turbine Heat Transfer, ASME Fluid Machinery, ASME Coal Biomass and Alternate Fuels committees, and a member of the Center for Acoustics and Vibration at PSU. He has published numerous scientific publications and has supervised about 30 graduate degrees. He has taught mechanical engineering topics to more than 3000 undergraduate and 300 graduate students in 30 years.