Mountain Ascent an Uplifting Experience

Faculty & Staff News

James R. Barber Named Thurnau Professor
James R. Barber, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been named a 2005 Arthur F. Thurnau Professor. This prestigious professorship recognizes and rewards faculty for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education...(full story)

Goldstein elected to the National Academy of Engineering
Professor Steven Goldstein has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest professional recognition to be bestowed upon an engineer. Membership in the academy honors engineers for their contributions to engineering research, practice or education...(full story)

Two New Faculty Join ME
Nikolas Chronis has been appointed Assistant Professor. He will join the department in fall 2006. Angela Violi has been appointed Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. She will assume the position in January 2006...(full story)

Teamwork Leads to Outstanding Achievement
ME Associate Professors Huei Peng and Anna Stefanopoulou have earned 2004-2005 Outstanding Achievement Awards. Working as a strong team, the two established the Fuel Cell Control Systems Laboratory in 2001, with support from the National Science Foundation and the U-M Automotive Research Center. The 2.5kW PEM (proton exchange membrane) laboratory is unusual among academic institutions, and the insights gained from experiments have advanced the understanding of PEM fuel cell technology and control both on campus and internationally...(full story)

Bullets to Bamboo Slide Rules to Computers: 40 Years of Meeting Challenges For Mechanical Engineering Senior Supervisor Lynn Buege, marking his 40th anniversary at the University of Michigan will likely be spent doing what he’s done every other day: solving problems and helping faculty and students achieve their goals. That’s no mean feat, considering the breadth of research at ME, but Buege has spent most of his life meeting challenges....(full story)

Brei Tours State with Michigan Road Scholars Program
This spring Associate Professor Diann Brei boarded a bus with 23 colleagues representing more than a dozen U-M departments, schools and campuses. The group was bound for a five-day tour of the state of Michigan as part of the university's Michigan Road Scholars Program...(full story)

Fluid Dynamics You would be hard-pressed to find a professor who spends more time in and around the water than David Dowling. Dowling's research spans a variety of topics in acoustics and fluid mechanics, and when he's not working, his favorite recreational activity is swimming ...(full story)

Prized Professor
ME Associate Professor Anna Stefanopoulou has earned the 2005 Henry Russel Award. This coveted award has been bestowed by the University of Michigan since 1926 and is conferred annually in recognition of "distinguished scholarship and conspicuous ability as a teacher." The award is one of the highest honors the University grants to faculty with less than six years' tenure. The distinction carries with it a financial award of $1,200...(full story)

Faculty Promotions
Eleven faculty received promotions effective September 2005. (Full story)

Meet Smriti Isaac, Graduate Admissions Coordinator
Since Smriti, also known as Simmi, Isaac joined the ME department in December 2004, she has had a full plate. The new graduate admissions coordinator in the Academic Services Office came on board right in the midst of the fall 2005 application review process, which she coordinated before moving on to host two different groups of prospective students in the spring, and is at present working to develop the fall orientation program for approximately 160 new students...(full story)

Staff Excellence Recognized at ME
Once again, a member of the ME staff has been recognized for exceptional service to the College of Engineering. In May 2005, Technical Services Supervisor Steve Erskine received an Excellence in Staff Service Award from former College of Engineering Dean Steven Director...(full story)

New Summer Exchange Program Receives Funding
ME ProfessorVolker Sick and colleague Frank Behrendt, a professor in the Institute of Energy Engineering at Technische Universität Berlin, have received funding to develop a summer program for students. The grant comes from Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), or the German Academic Exchange Service, which promotes German universities to promising international students and faculty...(full story)

Cats and dogs and birds, oh my…
It all started with a calico cat named Pizza Pie. Then came Petie, and a lifelong love affair with animals had begun for ME Undergraduate Student Advisor Susan Gow...(full story)

Inspiring Girls to Learn About Science
Associate Professor Dawn Tilbury has helped inspire girls in grades five through eight to explore the world of science by participating in two Sally Ride Science Festivals. The objective of the festivals is to increase the number of girls who have a foundation for and interest in further education in science, math and engineering...(full story)

MLK Symposium Panel Celebrates Diversity
As part of the annual Martin Luther King Symposium, held in March 2005, five local writers, including three from the Mechanical Engineering Department, took part in a panel discussion, “Contemporary Authors: A Complex Community.” These writers, representing fantasy, historical and romance novels, short fiction, poetry and children’s books genres, addressed the writing process and the power of words to communicate ideas...(full story)

From Lab to Museum
A design concept developed by Graduate Student Mohammed Shalaby and Associate Professor Kazuhiro Saitou will soon make its way into a museum exhibition at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. The exhibit, entitled "Green by Design," focuses on designing products, buildings and cities to be sustainable right from their very start...(full story)

'New and Improved' Course Sparks 'New and Improved' Cell Phone Designs
At the end of the winter semester, students in the newly redesigned ME495, ME’s Senior Laboratory, had done more than earn their grades. The class of 113 used a code developed as a Ph.D. thesis project, to improve cell phone battery design. Students were asked to survey UM undergraduates on cell phone usage, and then improve the power supplies for four commercially available cell phones, creating smaller and lower-cost systems...(full story)

Four Decades at U–M… and Still Going Strong
At a time when people are moving around more than ever, working for one organization for over 40 years is quite an accomplishment. Since the day she was hired, January 18, 1965, Arlene Schneider has continued to find challenges and new areas to explore, and she has no intention of slowing down...(full story)

Not a Typical Day: Defense Science Study Group Teaches Through Experience
It's not everyday that Associate Professor Dawn Tilbury travels in a KC-135 with an F-14 Tomcat escort. Or that she rides in an armored vehicle at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina or jumps from a 34-foot tower at Fort Bragg. For a participant in the Defense Science Study Group, however, such unusual experiences are the norm, she has come to learn...(full story)

Mountain Ascent an Uplifting Experience
The classic question: why climb a mountain? For Assistant Research Scientist Stani Bohac, the answer is equally classic: “I love challenges,” he said. That’s why he and a team of eight other climbers, including Mechanical Engineering PhD students Jonathan Hagena and Alex Knafl, made an ascent of Mt. Rainier in Ashford, Washington last July...(full story)

Professor Christophe Pierre Named Dean at McGill University
Christophe Pierre, formerly the Stephen P. Timoshenko Collegiate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has joined the faculty of McGill University in Montreal as dean of the faculty of engineering and professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering... (full story)