LSU Names Acharya as 2010 Distinguished Research Masters Award Recipient

LSU named Sumanta Acharya and Nina Lam Distinguished Research Masters on Tuesday, May 11, at 2 p.m. at the Faculty Club. Raluca Cozma and Jasson Vindas were also recognized as recipients of the annual Distinguished Dissertation Awards.

Sumanta Acharya

Acharya, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, holds the L. R. Daniel professorship and the Fritz and Francis M. Blumer professorship in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is the founding director of the Center for Turbine Innovation and Energy Research, or TIER, which focuses on energy generation and propulsion research.

During his 27-year career at LSU, Acharya has developed multifaceted, continuously funded, nationally and internationally recognized research programs covering the areas of heat transfer, combustion, fluid mechanics and scientific computation. His diverse scholarly contributions include nearly 150 refereed journal articles, most of which appear in top-tier journals of his field, where he is recognized as a leader. He has also presented extensively in national and international conferences with more than 200 refereed papers.

In support of this recognition for Acharya, Richard Goldstein, member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Royal Academy of Engineering, said, "As one who has worked for many years in the film cooling area, I can truly state that he [Acharya] is probably the leading expert on numerical prediction of film cooling heat transfer, primarily through his own advances and contributions."

Acharya's research sponsorship portfolio, nearing $25 million dollars during his LSU career, reads as the "who's who" of federal funding agencies and includes major efforts in the area of gas turbines (with sponsorship from several major gas-turbine companies) and computational fluid dynamics (including the highly prestigious NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, or IGERT, grant that he leads). He has developed the necessary infrastructure and has successfully transitioned his research to impact gas-turbine industry internationally.

"Addressing problems relevant to industry is very important in engineering research and has high potential impact on economic development," said Interim Department Chair Dimitris Nikitopoulos. "His accomplishments in this area are indicative of Professor Acharya's abilities beyond the academic norm, which he has amply exceeded."

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Article excerpted from LSU Highlights feature by Ashley Berthelot, Editor, Office of Communications & University Relations, 225-578-3870, aberth4@lsu.edu