Alumni Day - Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering ...

A L U M N I N E W S
First Annual MMAE Alumni Day
On May 12, 2006, the MMAE Department held its first
annual Alumni Day on the main campus of IIT.
Retired Professor Bernard Rasof, Professor Sheldon Mostovoy, Professor Marek Dollar (Former MMAE Chairman), Guiru Nash (MMAE ’98), Professor Philip Nash,
Professor Sammy Tin
Emeriti Professor Robert Bonthron, Emeriti Professor Rollin Dix, Dr. John Olin
(Carmel, CA; ME ‘61)
Emeriti Professor Mark Morkovin and Professor Hassan Nagib
Alumni
MMAE 2007
Day
The 2007 MMAE Alumni Day will be held on the Main Campus of IIT on
Friday, May 11, 2007, in conjunction with IIT’s graduation activities. Please
mark your calendar and plan to attend. Additional information will be mailed in
January 2007.
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A L U M N I N E W S
MMAE Alumni Receive IIT Awards
Several MMAE Alumni were recognized at an awards luncheon
in May 2006. We congratulate the following awardees:
Alumni Service Award is given to an individual who
has demonstrated selfless commitment to the university
through exceptional sustained contributions in the areas
of leadership, service, and support.
Hassan Nagib (MAE ‘68, MS ’69, PhD ’72)
Alumni Award of Merit is presented annually to an
IIT graduate who has made an outstanding contribution
to the university.
Geoffrey Fear (MET MS’51)
Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded in memoriam to
an individual who achieved personal success, made an
outstanding contribution to his/her chosen field of endeavor,
and who achieved recognition among his/her colleagues.
James Hartnett (ME BS ’47)
President Lewis Collens with Alumni Service Award winner,
Professor Hassan Nagib
Young Alumnus Award is awarded to an alumnus
who has received an undergraduate degree within the last 10
years and has excelled in the areas of leadership and professional
success and/or has selflessly served the community or
the university.
Jennna McGrath (ME BS ’99)
Professional Achievement Award pays special tribute
to alumni who have achieved personal success and made
outstanding contributions to their chosen fields and who are
widely recognized and lauded by their colleagues.
Lewis Thigpen (ME MS ’69, PhD ’70)
Alumni Medal is awarded annually to an individual who
has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to society
through service and support and who has achievd significant
personal and professional success.
Jamshyd Godrej (MAE BS ’72)
President Lewis Collens with Alumni Award of Merit winner, Mr. Geoffrey Fear
MMAE Alumnus Named to
National Academy of
Engineering
William Saric (’69) was named a
Member of the National Academy of
Engineering in 2006. He is the
Stewart & Stevenson Professor in
Engineering at Texas A & M
University and Director of the Flight
Research Laboratory. Professor
Saric was the recipient of the MMAE
Department’s Alumni Recognition
Award in 2005.
MMAE Alumnus Joins Delft
University of Technology
from Virginia Tech
After having served Virginia Tech
for 20 years in the College
of Engineering (beginning in 1985),
ESM Professor Zafer Gurdal
(MS ’81) retired to join the faculty
of Delft University of Technology
(Netherlands) as the Chair of
Aerospace Structures.
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A L U M N I N E W S
Where Are Our Alumni?
The Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering Department has
5,411 living alumni in the US. How does your state compare?
Top five states with MMAE Alumni:
1. Illinois- 2,736
2. California- 477
3. Florida- 213
4. Michigan- 202
5. Indiana- 165
Source: Illinois Institute of Technology Alumni Relations Department, August 2006.
Numbers shown include only living alumni with valid mailing addresses.
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A L U M N I R E C O G N I T I O N A W A R D S
PROFESSOR URMILA GHIA
Professor Urmila Ghia received her BS degree in
Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bombay (India)
in 1965, and MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering at IIT in 1967 and 1971, respectively.
Since then, she has been at the University of Cincinnati (UC)
where she is currently Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
During 1994 and 1995, Dr. Ghia served as Acting Vice-
Provost for Academic Affairs, and during 1995-2000, as Head
of the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Nuclear
Engineering at UC.
Her research activities are in the area of analytical/computational
fluid dynamics, focused on unsteady two-dimensional
and three-dimensional separated-flow analysis for turbomachinery
flows and heat transfer; fluid-structure interactions
in high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) aircraft; and adaptive-grid
generation and higher-order accurate solution
techniques. She was Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of
Fluids Engineering (1999-2000). Presently, she is Chair of
the ASME Fluids Engineering Division. She chaired the
AIAA 7th Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference in
1985, and, most recently, she chaired the ASME Fluid
Engineering Division Summer Meeting, held jointly with the
International Conference on Nuclear Engineering, which
drew nearly 1100 attendees.
She is a Fellow of the Graduate School of UC, a member of
the YWCA Academy of Achievement, and has received the
Sigma Xi Research Recognition Award, UC’s Outstanding
Woman Award, and the YWCA’s Career Woman of
Achievement Award in 1997. In 2004, Dr. Ghia received the
George Rieveschl Award for Distinguished Scientific
Research, and in 2005, the BP Faculty Excellence Award.
She is a Fellow of the AIAA.
Professor Ghia is also very active in encouraging the
advancement of women across her campus. She has served
as Co-Chair of WIN (Women’s Initiatives Network) and chair
of WILD (Women’s Institute for Leadership Development)
aimed at advancing women and staff into policy-making
positions in the academy. She is currently director of UC’s
WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) Program that
pairs science and engineering women undergraduates with
faculty on summer research projects.
20 | MECHANICAL, MATERIALS AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

A L U M N I R E C O G N I T I O N A W A R D S
DR. THOMAS MOREL
Dr. Thomas Morel is the President and founder of Gamma
Technologies, Inc. (GTI) located in Westmont, IL. He received
his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Czech Technical
University in Prague in 1965. After working for two years, he
returned to his studies and received his MS and PhD degrees
in Mechanical Engineering from IIT in 1969 and 1972,
respectively. In his MS dissertation he worked as part of a
team designing the rocket-powered land speed record holder
“The Blue Flame.” His contribution (together with that of
Prof. Paul Torda) was the aerodynamic design of the vehicle.
The Blue Flame successfully established the land speed
record in 1970, at 622 mph (1001 km/h). His PhD dissertation
topic was “Modeling of Turbulence in Free Shear Flows.”
He started his career with General Motors R&D Labs focusing
on vehicle aerodynamics where he contributed to basic
research on drag generation on bluff bodies. He also worked
on methods for wind-tunnel design. One of his methods is
still used for the design of contraction cones.
In 1983, Morel was a founder of Integral Technologies, Inc.
(ITI), an engine consulting firm. He was responsible for the
development and application of advanced CAE design
methodologies for internal combustion engines. He was the
principal developer of the engine design analysis codes
WAVE and IRIS. ITI was acquired in 1988 by Ricardo
Consulting Engineers. After the acquisition, he spent five
years as the Executive Vice President of Ricardo North
America and continued to be responsible for commercial software
development.
In 1994, he founded GTI, as an engineering software firm
serving the engine and automotive industry. The product of
GTI is GT-SUITE, a CAE software for the design and analysis
of engines: engine power, combustion, emissions, noise,
valvetrains, cranktrains, drivetrains, cooling systems, and
fuel injection, all in one tool. This tool is extensively used by
a large portion of the leading engine and vehicle manufacturers
worldwide.
His contributions to engineering have been widely recognized.
He is a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers
and American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He is also a
past Chairman of the ASME Fluids Engineering Division.
He holds one U.S. patent.
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