Clarkson University: New Horizons in Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series

1y ago
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Clarkson University welcomed City College of the City University of New York Distinguished Professor of Biomedical & Mechanical Engineering Emeritus Sheldon Weinbaum as the fifth speaker in the New Horizons in Engineering Distinguished Lectureship Series. Past speakers include Thomas Zacharia, deputy director for science and technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and National Academy of Engineering members Fazle Hussain, a Cullen Distinguished University Chair and the director of the Institute of Fluid Dynamics & Turbulence at the University of Houston; David Dzombak, the Walter J. Blenko Sr. Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research; and Wesley L. Harris, associate provost for faculty equity, Charles Stark Draper Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the director of the Lean Sustainment Initiative at MIT. The New Horizons in Engineering Distinguished Lectureship Series is dedicated to improving the understanding of important issues facing engineering and society in the 21st century. Weinbaum is one of only eight living individuals elected to all three U.S. National Academies (the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine) and is the only engineer to have received a Guggenheim Fellowship in cell and molecular biology. He received his Ph.D. in engineering in 1963 from Harvard University and is widely recognized for contributions to re-entry aerodynamics and fluid mechanics, with nearly 40 published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics. In the 1970s he shifted his studies to transport and cellular level biomechanical phenomena in the human body. He is known for the Weinbaum-Jij equation for microvascular heat transfer, the discovery of the endothelial pore for the entry of LDL cholesterol, fluid flow and mechanotransduction in bone, endothelial glycocalyx in mechanotransduction and microvascular fluid exchange, and the role of brush border microvilli in glomerulo-tubular balance. Recently Weinbaum proposed a new concept for an airborne jet train that flies on a soft porous track within centimeters of the earth's surface at speeds approaching jet aircraft, with one-fifth of the fuel consumption.