Gretar Tryggvason to Receive ASME’s Fluids Engineering Award

NEW YORK, June 26, 2012 – Gretar Tryggvason, Ph.D., a resident of South Bend, Ind., and Viola D. Hank professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, and department chair at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, will be honored by ASME.  He is being recognized for remarkable contributions to the art, science and practice of computation in fluids engineering; and for outstanding leadership in mechanical engineering education.  He will receive the Society’s Fluids Engineering Award.

The award is conferred upon an individual for outstanding contributions over a period of years to the engineering profession and, in particular, to the field of fluids engineering through research, practice or teaching.  It will be presented to Dr. Tryggvason during the Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting, which is being held in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, July 8 through 12.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Notre Dame, Tryggvason served as head of the department of mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts (2000-10); and as an assistant, associate and full professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1985-2000).

He has also held short-term visiting positions at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; NASA’s Lewis Research Center, Cleveland; the University of Marseilles, France; and the University of Paris VI.  He spent a year (1984-85) as a postdoctoral researcher at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University.

Tryggvason is best known for developing, with his students and collaborators, a front-tracking method for direct numerical simulations of multiphase flows and the use of this method to examine several systems, including bubbly flows, droplet motion and boiling.

He is the author of more than 100 journal papers and numerous other publications, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Computational Physics, and has supervised over 20 doctoral dissertations.  He holds two patents.

A Fellow of ASME, Tryggvason was conference chair for the 2008 International Mechanical Engineering Education Conference.  He served as vice chair (2000-02) and chair (2002-04) of the Fluids Engineering Division’s Multiphase Flow Technical Committee, and was a member of the Fluids Engineering Honors and Awards Committee (2006-08). He was lead organizer of the Numerical Methods for Multiphase Flows Symposium at theFluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting (2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006); and co-organized other forums and symposiums at various summer meetings between 1993 and 1998.

Tryggvason earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik, in 1980.  He earned his master’s and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Brown University (Providence, R.I.) in 1982 and 1985, respectively.

About ASME: ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world.