Professor Aggarwal to receive the AIAA Energy Systems Award
Emeritus Professor Suresh Aggarwal, of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UIC, has been selected to receive the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Energy Systems Award for 2017.
“I know that the past recipients were all distinguished researchers in the field of energy,” said Farzad Mashayek, MIE Department Head and Professor. “It’s a great honor to be in such company.”
Dr. Tom l-P Shih, of Purdue University, nominated Aggarwal for the award “for outstanding contributions to energy and combustion systems through pioneering work on advanced spray and flame model development for improved engine performance and pollution reduction.”
Aggarwal is the first UIC professor to win the award, and he will be formally recognized on Wednesday, July 12, 2017, during a recognition luncheon in conjunction with AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum in Atlanta. This is the third time he has been honored by the AIAA, where he is an associate fellow and former associate editor of the AIAA Journal. In 2013, Aggarwal was awarded the AIAA Foundation Abe M. Zarem Educator Award for his aeronautics mentorship and guidance. In 2009, the professor was awarded the AIAA Sustained Service Award.
“I was very happy to hear the news,” said Aggarwal about winning the award. “It was especially gratifying since it implies that my contributions are being recognized by my peers.”
The AIAA is the world’s largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession, serving a diverse range of more than 30,000 individual members from 88 countries, and nearly 100 corporate members. The society established the AIAA Energy Systems Award in 1981, and it is presented for a significant contribution in the broad field of energy systems, specifically as related to the application of engineering sciences and systems engineering to the production, storage, distribution, and conservation of energy.
Aggarwal is the director of MIE’s Flow and Combustion Simulation Laboratorywhere his re-search focuses on the development of physical and CFD-based numerical models for flames and multiphase reacting flows. These models are being employed to simulate and investigate a variety of fluid flow and combustion phenomena that are of direct relevance in propulsion and energy conversion devices. Detailed simulations are also being used to explore strategies for clean combustion, and investigate ‘limit phenomena’ in combustion, such as ignition and flame extinction.
Learn more about Professor Aggarwal’s achievements and research at Aggarwal Profile.