Dr. Kandlikar Awareded Kate Gleason Professor Award
On April, 2003, Dr. Satish Kandlikar was given the Kate Gleason Professor Award. The award is given every five years to an RIT mechanical engineering professor whose hard work and dedication has made him/her a renowned expert in his/her field. Dr. Kandlikar is the director of the Thermal Analysis and Microfluidics Laboratory at RIT, has published over 90 papers, has edited numerous journals, and has most recently hosted the first annual Micro-Mini Channel Conference this past spring. This award is highly regarded and comes with an endowment to be used to carry out research.
The award is given in honor of Rochester native Kate Gleason. Kate Gleason was born on November 25th, 1865. She began working for her father, a machine-tool factory owner at the age of 12. She went on to study mechanical arts at Ithaca University and Sibley College of Engraving and Mechanics Institute, which is now known as the Rochester Institute of Technology. Kate is credited with being the first female seller of machine tools which propelled Gleason works to become a top seller of machine tools. Kate is also credited with developing a machine to cut bevel gears, being the first female member of ASME, the first female president of a national bank, and developing low cost housing. Kate died January 9th, 1933, leaving behind the Kate Gleason fund for charity and education.
Its been a long year at the Thermal Analysis and Microfluidics Laboratory at RIT, but extremely exciting nonetheless. The lab has undergone its yearly make over, just so that it never looks the same way twice. Tables have been moved, computers and students added. New test setups have come, old set ups have been torn down for parts. And among other things, an 8 foot optical table has been added to the already crowded lab.
It has been a busy year indeed. Over 15 papers have been published, an international conference with over 120 papers presented was planned and carried out in less than 9 months time. One student has moved onto the Microsystems PhD here at RIT, and another has just been accepted (congratulations Mark and Keat). Heck, I can’t even count the number of times we had to work around local television stations setting up shop in the lab to document research we had done, or the number of times Prabhu seemed to sneak his way onto tv, or into any media situation. But beneath the hustle and bustle of it all, the lab seems to run at a steady speed: full steam ahead.
It is at this speed that I see the Thermal Analysis and Microfluidics Laboratory operating at over the next year. We have already purchased new equipment for next years progress…with a 120,000 frame per second digital camera topping that list, and an added resource thanks to Dr. Kandlikar’s hard work and drive to motivate his students to provide the best research possible.