The Viterbi School of Engineering following the recommendation of the Award’s Committee is honored to announce Professor Earl H. Dowell of Duke University as the 2024 winner of the A.V. Balakrishnan Award for Scientific Excellence in Research.
Professor Dowell was honored with the 2024 A.V. ‘Bal’ Balakrishnan Research Award on Wednesday, October 16th, 2024 in the Ming Hsieh Boardroom (RTH 526), University Park Campus. He presented an in-person lecture at USC as part of his acceptance.
The Award is funded by the generous support of Ms. Sophia Balakrishnan in memory of her beloved husband Professor A.V. ‘Bal’ Balakrishnan, a well-known Professor and Researcher in the area of systems.
Read about the awards ceremony here.
The 2024 A.V. ‘Bal’ Balakrishnan Awards
Ming Hsieh Boardroom, Ronald Tutor Hall, University Park Campus
Wednesday, October 16th, 2024
See all of the 2024 Balakrishnan Awards event photos here.
[Zoom recording from this event will be added here once made available]
Awardee Special Lecture: Fluid Structural Thermal Interaction (FSTI) in Hypersonic Flow
Abstract: When flowing fluids and deformable structures interact, they may become unstable (flutter) and if the system is nonlinear this may lead to limit cycle oscillations and even chaotic dynamics. Physical phenomena of interest include wind induced oscillations of long span bridges and tall buildings, internal flows in nuclear reactors and gas turbines, blood flow through arteries and airflow over human tongues. However historically and even today much of the progress is driven by aerospace applications including high performance flight vehicles be they aircraft, jet engines, launch vehicles, missiles or rotorcraft. Current interest in FSTI in hypersonic flow is high and will be the subject of this talk. Both experimental and theoretical (computational) work will be discussed.
Biography: Dr. Earl H. Dowell is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and a Fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has also served as Vice President for Publications and member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the AIAA; as a member of the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board; the Air Force Studies Board, the Aerospace Science and Engineering Board and the Board on Army Science and Technology of the National Academies; the AGARD (NATO) advisory panel for aerospace engineering, as President of the American Academy of Mechanics, as Chair of the US National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and as Chairman of the National Council of Deans of Engineering. From the AIAA he has received the Structure, Structural Dynamics and Materials Award, the Von Karman Lectureship, the Crichlow Trust Prize and the Reed Aeronautics Award; from the ASME he has received the Spirit of St. Louis Medal, the Den Hartog Award, Lyapunov Medal and the Caughey Medal; and he has also received the Guggenheim Medal which is awarded jointly by the AIAA, ASME, AHS and SAE.
He has served on the boards of visitors of several universities and is a consultant to government, industry and universities in science and technology policy and engineering education as well as on the topics of his research.
Dr. Dowell research and teaching ranges over the topics of acoustics, aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, dynamics and structures. In addition to being author of over four hundred research articles, Dr. Dowell is the author or co-author of four books, “Aeroelasticity of Plates and Shells”, “A Modern Course in Aeroelasticity”, “Studies in Nonlinear Aeroelasticity” and “Dynamics of Very High Dimensional Systems”.
Dr. Dowell received his B.S. degree from the University of Illinois and his S.M. and Sc.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before coming to Duke as Dean of the School of Engineering, serving from 1983-1999, he taught at M.I.T. and Princeton. He has also worked with the Boeing Company.