Dr. Nesrin Ozalp is a Professor and Chair of Mechanical and Civil Engineering at Purdue University Northwest, and a Full Professor by Courtesy at the School of Mechanical Engineering of Purdue University West Lafayette. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington’s Mechanical Engineering Department and her MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Dr. Ozalp specializes in the areas of designing novel solar reactors for emission-free generation of fuels. She is the Lead Principal Investigator of research projects totaling about $5M, the corresponding author of 110+ peer reviewed journal, book chapter, and conference papers, Co-PI of completed Phase I of Solar Carbon Black commercialization with Fraunhofer, supervised 25 graduate students' theses. She has given 35 invited/keynote talks on her research at institutes including the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Fraunhofer-IWS, NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW), Delft University of Technology, and others. She is an Associate Editor of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications, Associate Editor of Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering, and the recipient of many research and teaching awards including the Outstanding Reviewer Award by the ASME Heat Transfer Division, and the College-Level Distinguished Teaching Award by the Texas A&M Association of Former Students. Dr. Ozalp is an ASME Fellow.

Dr. Yong Tao is the Betty L. Gordon Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor, and department chair of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Tao's research interests include (i) fundamentals of thermal/fluids sciences, (ii) renewable energy and energy efficiency in buildings, including solar, wind, and geothermal heat pump systems, and (iii) sustainability science. His research has attracted more than $19.5M funding from the US federal agencies and industries, including multidisciplinary research network projects, such as Predictive Modeling Network for Sustainable Human-Building Ecosystems, where researchers from engineering, computer science and social science work together to advance the discoveries and solutions for better world.

Dr. Tao is a fellow of ASME, past chair of ASME Heat Transfer Division, founding board director of American Society of Thermal & Fluids Engineers (ASTFE), editor-in-chief of Heat Transfer Research journal, and a licensed Professional Engineer. Beginning in 2020, he became President of ASTFE. He was the founding dean of Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Florida. In 2016, Prior to joining NSU he served in the department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering at the University of North Texas (UNT) in Denton as chair, endowed PACCAR professor of engineering, distinguished research professor, and director of PACCAR Technology Institute, hosting the unique zero energy research lab. He was responsible for tremendous growth of new B.S. and new Ph.D. programs, and research profile. Dr. Tao has also served as associate dean at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, while on faculty as professor of mechanical and materials engineering and director of the Building, Energy, Environment and Conservation Systems Laboratory before joining UNT.

Dr. Jianping Zhu assumed his current role as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs in July 2016. He served as the Interim Provost from July 2015 until June 2016, and Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of College of Graduate Studies from January 2012 – June 2015. Prior to joining Cleveland State University, he was chair of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Arlington from 2005 – 2011 and chair of Department of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics at the University of Akron from 2001 – 2005. From 1990 to 2001, he was on the faculty of Mississippi State University. Dr. Zhu was a former president of the Texas Association of Academic Administrators in Mathematical Sciences (TAAAMS). The organization regularly provides colleges, universities, and governing bodies in the State of Texas with advice and recommendations on the development and enhancement of graduate and undergraduate programs in mathematical sciences. He also led the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Arlington to significantly expand its graduate program and increase the number of Ph.D. degrees awarded to underrepresented minorities and US citizens. In recognition of this accomplishment, the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Arlington was selected by the American Mathematical Society as the recipient of the 2013 Award for an Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department.

Dr. Forrest Faison, M.D., Sc.D.(Hon), FAAP, is a distinguished executive healthcare leader and recent CEO, visionary, and innovator with proven worldwide leadership experience and accomplishments in all aspects of health care delivery, education, and global health systems management.

He is a proven and experienced healthcare crisis leader with experience ranging from extensive complex pandemic response operations, humanitarian assistance, and disaster response/relief to large international healthcare operations.

Among his distinguished career, Dr. Faison served for nearly four decades in the United States Navy. Over his tenure, he rose to the rank of vice admiral and served as the 38th Surgeon General of the Navy and chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery from 2015 to 2019. In that role, Faison led a global healthcare network of 63,000 medical personnel stationed around the world who provide high quality health care to more than one million people.

Dr. Faison joined Cleveland State University in March 2020, as Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation and Chief of Healthcare Strategy, leading Ohio Inter-University Council Pandemic Response and Planning. He has been on faculty and member of Board of Regents in Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and taught in Harvard Business School as a guest lecturer.

Dr. Pepper is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and was Founder/Director of the Nevada Center for Advanced Computational Methods at UNLV. He was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the US Air Force Academy from 2011-2013, an ASME Congressional Fellow in 2004 in the office of US Senator Dianne Feinstein, served as Interim Dean of the UNLV College of Engineering, and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He obtained his B.S.M.E. (1968), M.S.A.E. (1970), and Ph.D. (1974) degrees from the University of Missouri-Rolla (now MS&T). He worked at the Savannah River Laboratory in Aiken, SC, from 1974-1987, was Chief Scientist of the Marquardt Company, Van Nuys, CA, from 1987-1990, co-founder/CEO of Advanced Projects Research, Inc., Moorpark, CA, and founded Nevada Energy and Environmental Systems, Las Vegas, NV. He has published over 350 technical papers on fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and environmental transport including six books on advanced numerical modeling and indoor air dispersion.

Dr. Patel received his undergraduate training from Emory University, and subsequently graduate training from West Virginia University. He then completed his Residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education. He currently is a consultant in the Departments of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and holds the Academic Rank of Assistant Professor of Medicine. Dr. Patel also serves as the Program Director of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship in Mayo Clinic Florida, Practice Chair for the Department of Pulmonary Medicine and is the Medical Director of Respiratory Services. His interests include Lung Cancer, Interventional Pulmonology and Invasive Mechanical Ventilation.

Dr. Sanghavi's educational experiences include board certification in internal medicine from Presence Saint Joseph Hospital in Chicago and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine at Presence Saint Joseph Hospital. He graduated from the Critical Care fellowship training program at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, followed by board certification in Critical Care Medicine. He did his graduate training at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, having completed a two-year Master's program in Health Administration. Currently he leads the Sepsis Committee and is the director of Medical ICU at Mayo Clinic Florida. He works in MICU, SICU and transplant ICU as staff intensivist.

Dr. Lydia Bourouiba is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she founded and directs The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory. Her research leverages advanced fluid dynamics experiments at various scales, biophysics, applied mathematics to elucidate interfacial flow and fluid fragmentation processes driving mixing, transport, and persistence of particles and microorganisms driving multiscale epidemiology and disease transmission in human, animal, and plant populations in particular. Prof. Bourouiba founded the Fluids and Health Conference, creating an international forum for exchange on frontier research and challenges in health, where fluid dynamic concepts are at the core, including infectious diseases and food safety, and related policy. Prof. Bourouiba is the recipient of many awards, including the Tse Cheuk Ng Tai’s Prize for Innovative Research in Health Sciences, the Ole Madsen Mentoring Award, and the Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award for high-risk/high-reward basic science research.

Dr. Akshai K. Runchal obtained his Ph.D. in 1969 from Imperial College (London) under the guidance of Prof. D, B. Spalding. He was a key member of the 3-person team led by Spalding that invented the Finite Volume Method (FVM) of Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in mid 1960's. He started his professional career as a faculty member at IIT Kanpur in 1969. Since then he has taught as regular or adjunct faculty at a number of leading institutes including IIT(Kanpur), Imperial College (London), University of California (Los Angeles), Cal Tech (Pasadena), and Cal State (Northridge). In 1979, Dr. Runchal established the ACRi group of companies (www.acricfd.com) that now have offices in Los Angeles (USA), Nice (France) and Bangalore (India). Core expertise of ACRi Group is engineering, environmental and Space Sciences). Over the past 40 years they have provided advanced technology and CFD Simulation services to a over 200 clients that include major corporations, R&D organizations, cities and governments in over 20 countries. In 2011, Dr. Runchal founded a non-profit CFD Virtual Reality Institute (www.CFDVRi.org) to further the cause of CFD education, training and R&D.

For the past 50 years, Dr Runchal, has consulted extensively on projects related to flow, heat and mass transfer, combustion, environmental impact, management of air, surface and ground water resources, safe disposal of hazardous and nuclear waste, and, policy and decision analysis. He is the principal author of the ANSWER®, PORFLOW®, TIDAL®, and RADM™ simulation models that are widely employed by commercial, academic and R&D organizations. He obtained a Bachelor's in Engineering with Honors from Punjab Engineering College (PEC, Chandigarh) in 1964. He is the author or co-author of 10 books and over 200 technical publications. He is a Fellow of the ASME and has served as Chairman of the IIT Kanpur Foundation Board. He has been a regular member of the IIT Gandhinagar Advisory Board since 2012. He has acted as an Advisor to DeitY (Government of India) and the Indian Army. He has been engaged in assisting a number of educational institutes in their R&D and Industrial Relations Programs. Dr. Runchal has received professional honors and awards and, has provided invited contributions at a number of international conferences and seminars.

Dr. Runchal grew up in the scenic hill town of McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala that is now on the world map as the hometown of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since 2006 he has been deeply engaged in reviving the lost heritage of Kangra Miniature Paintings through Kangra Arts Promotion Society – an NGO based in McLeod Ganj. He divides his time between Los Angeles and McLeod Ganj and is actively engaged in promoting education, training and R&D in CFD and related disciplines.

Dr. P. Zannetti dedicated his entire professional career over four decades to the study of air pollution and atmospheric sciences. He started his scientific career in the early 1970s at the IBM Research Center in Venice, Italy, at a time when IBM was sponsoring advanced computer simulation activities in environmental sciences and air pollution at several of its Research Centers throughout the world. Since then, Dr. Zannetti has focused his scientific research toward the development of advanced computer simulation techniques with practical applications to air quality problems in the international arena. In particular, he performed pioneering work for the development of new Lagrangian modeling techniques in which air pollution is simulated by computer methods using a series of independent segments, puffs, or particles.

Dr. P. Zannetti has worked for IBM Research (IBM Scientific Centers of Venice, Italy; Palo Alto, California; and Bergen, Norway), consulting companies (AeroVironment, Inc. and Failure Analysis/Exponent, Inc.), and government organizations (Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait, and CRTN-ENEL, Milan, Italy). He is the President of EnviroComp Consulting, Inc., a company he founded in 2001, and The EnviroComp Institute, a non-profit research organization he founded in 1996.

He has written more than 300 publications, including over 40 books and book chapters. Particularly important are: 1) the book "Air Pollution Modeling" completed in 1990, which was the first comprehensive book in the field and is still a widely used textbook today; and 2) the 4-volume book series "Air Quality Modeling", completed in 2010, which is the most updated and complete publication series on computer methods for air pollution studies.

He has studied many air pollution cases throughout the world. In particular, in his early scientific endeavors, he studied and modeled the air pollution problems affecting the city of Venice, Italy, and was the project manager of the first comprehensive air pollution study (monitoring and modeling) in the Persian Gulf.

In parallel with his research studies, in the last 25 years he has investigated, as a consulting expert, more than a hundred complex legal disputes and air pollution claims related to industrial, transportation, and agricultural activities, in the US and abroad, including shortterm and long-term emissions and accidental releases. Certain of these legal disputes involved class actions. In most of these cases, he simulated ambient concentrations and depositions caused by chemical emissions using his own computer models and/or those developed and recommended by government agencies, such as the EPA.

He has taught air pollution courses in Italy (University of Bari), California (Berkeley Extension), Kuwait (Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research), and England (Wessex Institute of Technology) where he is a Professor of Environmental Sciences. In the last 2 years, he has presented invited seminars at the United States Military Academy of West Point, and the universities of St. Petersburg (Russia), Amman (Jordan), and Roskilde (Denmark).

His professional credentials have been certified with the title of Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP), given by the Institute of Professional Environmental Practice (IPEP). The QEP certification recognizes professional achievements for environmental professionals and their compliance with the highest of ethical and professional standards. Since 1997, he has been the Regional Coordinator for IPEP in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dr. Sumanta Acharya is the Department Chair, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Illinois Institute of Technology. Previously, he was the Department Chair and Ring Companies Endowed Chair of Mechanical Engineering at University of Memphis. From 2010-2014, he was at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as Program Director, Thermal Transport, Division of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Transport (CBET). Dr. Acharya earned his Bachelors of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. He then attended the University of Minnesota, where he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.

Dr. Acharya’s research program encompasses both experimental and computational work with extensive contributions in the areas of computational methods and parallel computing, gas turbine heat transfer, gas turbine combustion, and several related are to thermal systems. He received $25M+ funding for his research. Dr. Acharya has published nearly 200 archival journal articles and book chapters, and has presented over 230 papers in national and international conferences. In recognition of his research, Dr. Acharya was awarded the prestigious ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award in the Science category in 2011, the AIChE 2014 Donald Q Kern Award for significant achievements in heat transfer, and the 2016 AIAA Thermophysics Award for significant accomplishments in the field of Thermophysics. He was also awarded the 75th Anniversary Heat Transfer Division Medal for sustained contributions and service to the heat transfer community. Dr. Acharya is an ASME Fellow.

Samuel Graham is the Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. Professor and Chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He research is focused on the development of advanced electronic devices for future applications in RF communications, power electronics and electric vehicles, and wearable devices. Dr. Graham has a passion for creating new technologies that solve challenges in society (energy, healthcare, transportation, communications). In addition to chairing the School of Mechanical Engineering, he also holds an appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech, a joint appointment with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and is a Visiting Professor at Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan. He is also a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board and the Emerging Technologies Technical Committee of the US Department of Commerce.

Dr. James Klausner is an MSU Foundation Professor and Mechanical Engineering Department Chair at Michigan State University (2016-present). He serves on the board of directors for the American Society of Thermal Fluid Engineers (2018-present) and the International Titanium Association Foundation (2016-present), and he formerly served as Chair of the ASME Heat Transfer Division (2011-2012). For three and a half years he served as a Program Director at the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Prior to that he held the Newton C. Ebaugh Professorship in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida (1989-2015). Dr. Klausner has authored more than 150 refereed publications. Dr. James Klausner research interests concern the fundamental physics driving fluid, thermal, and chemical, transport with a focus on contemporary engineering applications that support sustainable energy and a sustainable economy. These include, energy conversion and storage, chemical processing, thermal management, desalination, powder flow, cryogenics, circular economy, and advanced manufacturing. He has developed a number of phase-change thermal management processes that operate at unprecedented heat fluxes. He has 13 patents and copyrights that resulted from his research work.

Dr. Yuebin Guo is the Henry Rutgers Professor of Advanced Manufacturing at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Prior to Rutgers, he served as the Assistant Director for Research Partnerships at the U.S. Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO). Before joining AMNPO, he was Professor and Funding Director of Consortium for Surface Integrity and Functionality at The University of Alabama. He was also Alexander von Humboldt visiting professor at RWTH Aachen and Fraunhofer IPT, Germany.

His research interests are in smart manufacturing, digital twin, machine learning, and materials informatics. He is an author of 300+ peer-refereed technical publications in these areas. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including ASME Federal Government Swanson Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Research Award for experienced scientists, Tau Beta Pi Outstanding Faculty, NSF CAREER, SAE Teetor Educational Award, and SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer. He is an elected Fellow of ASME, SME, and CIRP.

Professor Yogesh Jaluria is Board of Governors Professor and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. His research work is in the field of thermal science and engineering, covering areas like convection, computational heat transfer, fires, materials processing and manufacturing, thermal management of electronics, energy, environment, and optimization of thermal systems. He is the author/co-author of 6 books and 4 extensively expanded subsequent editions of 3 of these. He is the editor/coeditor of fifteen conference proceedings, eleven books, and thirteen special issues of archival journals. He has contributed over 500 technical articles, including over 220 in archival journals and 19 book chapters.

He has received several awards and honors for his work, such as the prestigious 2020 Holley Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for his work on optical fiber drawing, 2010 A.V. Luikov Award from the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer in recognition of outstanding work done over the career, 2007 Kern Award from American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) for outstanding contributions to heat transfer or energy conversion, the 2003 Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award from ASME, and the 2002 Max Jakob Memorial Award, the highest international recognition in heat transfer, from ASME and the AIChE. He received the 2000 Freeman Scholar Award, the 1999 Worcester Reed Warner Medal, and the 1995 Heat Transfer Memorial Award all from ASME. He has served as Department Chairman and as Dean of Engineering. He was the Editor of the Journal of Heat Transfer (2005-2010), and Computational Mechanics (2003-2005).

He is an Honorary Member of ASME, a Fellow of AAAS and APS, an Associate Fellow of AIAA and member of other professional societies. He served as the founding President of the American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE) from 2014 to 2019.

Suresh Garimella became the 27th president of the University of Vermont on July 1, 2019.

A seasoned administrator and an accomplished educator and researcher, Dr. Garimella previously led complex and expansive portfolios at Purdue University, a top-ranked, flagship research university. As Purdue’s inaugural Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships, Dr. Garimella led a $660 million per year research enterprise, achieving five consecutive years of record research funding. He also oversaw Discovery Park, a unique set of facilities and institutes where disciplines converge to solve global challenges related to health and life sciences, sustainability, food, energy and defense, and security. He was responsible for Purdue’s international programs and its global and corporate partnerships, focused on strengthening relationships to advance innovation, research, education and commercialization. He previously served as Purdue’s Chief Global Affairs Officer (2013-2014) and Associate Vice President for Engagement (2011-2013). Dr. Garimella held the Goodson Distinguished Professorship in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue, and holds an appointment as Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at UVM.

Dr. Garimella conceived of and implemented an ambitious $250 million Life Sciences Initiative focused on Pillars of Excellence in integrative neuroscience and immunological sciences, complementing Purdue University’s existing strengths in drug discovery and plant sciences. In addition, he and Purdue’s Provost partnered to develop the Integrative Data Science Initiative, which is focused on applying data science research to pressing fundamental and socially relevant issues while establishing an educational ecosystem of data fluency to prepare students for the rapidly expanding future of a data-driven knowledge economy.

In 2018, Dr. Garimella was appointed by President Trump to the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation and also serves as an independent body of advisers to both the president and Congress on policy matters related to science, engineering and educating the next generation of scientists.

The co-author of over 525 widely cited archival publications and 13 patents, Dr. Garimella is an expert in micro- and nano-scale transport phenomena, thermal management and energy efficiency in electronics systems, and renewable and sustainable energy systems technology and policy. He founded the Cooling Technologies Research Center, a graduated National Science Foundation I/UCRC, in 1999 and directed it for two decades. He has supervised over 90 graduate students, 27 of whom are now faculty members in prestigious universities.

Dr. Garimella served as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. Department of State from 2010 to 2011, analyzing cross-cutting issues at the intersection of energy security and climate change. He was a State Department delegate to the International Energy Agency (IEA). From 2011 to 2016, Garimella was a senior fellow of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), a regional partnership announced by President Obama in 2009 to promote clean energy, advance energy security, fight energy poverty, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support strategies for sustainable landscapes and build capacity for climate change adaptation.

Dr. Garimella serves in editorial roles with leading energy-related journals. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and has received numerous awards in recognition of his educational, research and service contributions.

Dr. Garimella received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. from The Ohio State University, and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

Peter Kilpatrick is provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Illinois Tech.

Kilpatrick previously served as professor and McCloskey Dean of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame from 2008 to 2018.

During his time at Notre Dame, the College of Engineering grew by more than 60 percent in its number of faculty members, increased its enrollments by nearly 70 percent, and more than doubled its external research funding to more than $50 million per year.

Prior to Notre Dame, he served on the faculty of North Carolina State University in chemical engineering from 1983 to 2007, the last eight-plus years as the department head. Kilpatrick also served as the founding director of the North Carolina Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center, a unique good manufacturing practice (GMP) facility that was designed to train the next generation of biopharmaceutical professionals and biotechnology industry professionals.

He is the author of more than 100 refereed journal articles in the areas of colloid and interfacial science, emulsion science, and molecular self assembly, particularly as they apply to energy and to bioseparations. According to Google Scholar, his work has been cited more than 5,300 times, largely in the areas of emulsions and interfacial and colloidal phenomena. He is also the holder of 12 patents and has been actively engaged in two startups.

Kilpatrick is the recipient of numerous local (NC State) and regional teaching and research awards, including the ASEE Regional Teaching Award. He also holds an honorary doctorate from the Pázmány Péter Catholic University (Budapest, Hungary), the oldest university in that country. He is the immediate past chairperson of the Global Engineering Deans Council. He also serves as the chairperson of the Clover 2030 International Advisory Board, an initiative focused on reinventing engineering education in Chile.

He received his A.B. in chemistry from Occidental College (summa cum laude) in 1978 and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1983.

Kilpatrick joined Illinois Tech on July 30, 2018.

Dr. Leo Kempel is the ninth dean of the Michigan State University College of Engineering. He previously served as acting dean and was associate dean for research from 2008 to 2013. Kempel leads ten academic programs and has strengthened the college's innovation in the automotive, composite materials, energy, health care technologies, pavement preservation, and security sectors. Under his leadership, two new academic departments have been established – the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering. His current research interests are conformal antennas, engineered materials for microwave applications, and computational electromagnetics. Kempel is a Member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Commission B of the International Scientific Radio Union (URSI). He received the MSU College of Engineering's Withrow Distinguished Scholar (Junior Faculty) Award in 2001, the MSU Teacher-Scholar award in 2002, and a CAREER award by the National Science Foundation in 2002. Kempel received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1989 and a doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1994.

Dr. Francine Battaglia is the Chair of Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences of University at Buffalo. She received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1997, and her MS and BS degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She began her career at the University at Buffalo after working 10 years at Virginia Tech and 8 years at Iowa State University. Prior to her career in academia, she received a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship to work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Building and Fire Research Laboratory. She is the recipient of the MAC Academic Leadership Development Program Fellow, 2019-2020, and the College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence, Virginia Tech, May 2016. She served as the ASME Board of Governors for Service as IMECE Conference Chair, November 2017. Dr. Battaglia is a Fellow of ASME and a Fellow of ASTFE.