Pegasus Professor Alain Kassab has been recognized for his groundbreaking computational research and his contributions to biomedical engineering education through two recent industry accolades: the George Green Medal and an American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE) fellowship.
The George Green Medal is awarded by the University of Mississippi and the Wessex Institute of Technology in England, with support from the publisher Elsevier. This award is bestowed upon scientists who have made novel contributions to the Boundary Element Method (BEM), a computational technique used by scientists and researchers to solve difficult problems involving heat transfer, fluid flow, acoustics and other physical phenomena.
“The medal is awarded to those scientists who have carried out original work with practical applications in the field of boundary elements and other mesh reduction methods, continuing in this manner to further develop the pioneering ideas of George Green,” says Professor Alexander Cheng, a member of the George Green Medal Committee. “They are also persons of the highest integrity who, by sharing their knowledge, have helped to establish research groups all around the world.”
Kassab has contributed to the development of the BEM technique and advanced its practical applications to 3D problems at the industrial scale. He also pioneered the use of BEM for heterogenous materials and co-authored a book on this topic with UCF engineering alumnus and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Vice Provost Eduardo Divo.
While extending the boundaries of BEM in heat transfer and inverse problems, Kassab also expanded the reach of the George Green Medal by co-chairing the International Conference on Boundary Elements five times during the past three decades. Several of those events were hosted on the UCF main campus. At this event, the George Green Medal is given to the recipient. Kassab is set to receive this award in October.
In addition to the George Green Medal, Kassab has been named a Fellow of ASTFE, an international academic and industry organization that focuses on thermal and fluids engineering. Kassab is also a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
This recent fellowship was awarded because of Kassab’s work in computational methods in heat transfer and inverse problems, and for his work on modeling of cardiovascular problems associated with congenital heart disease.
“This organization is comprised of many distinguished fellows and to be recognized and nominated as fellow of ASTFE is something I am grateful for,” Kassab says. “I truly appreciate the recognition.”
Kassab is also a Trustee Chair Professor and the director of the biomedical engineering program at UCF. He has more than 30 years of experience in research and development in computational heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics, boundary elements and meshless methods. He is also the editor of Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, published by Elsevier.
- Written by Marisa Ramiccio