News & Events

05-10-21

Computer science student Ethan Mann, advised by Adam Blank, Teaching Assistant Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, is one of four recipients of the 2021 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. Ethan is interested in machine learning and systems programming, and he enjoys taking technical classes that blend theory and coding. Last year, he researched with Yaser Abu-Mostafa, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, to model the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic with artificial intelligence. He has also interned at the Big Memory startup MemVerge and researched efficient metasurface lens simulation with Sunil Golwala, Professor of Physics and Director of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, and Jack Sayers, Research Professor of Physics. This summer, Ethan will be interning at Facebook as a software engineer, and he looks forward to working in the technology industry after graduating. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to engineering students with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.

Tags: honors CMS Henry Ford II Scholar Award Yaser Abu-Mostafa Adam Blank Ethan Mann

05-07-21

Recent graduate Thomas Anderson has been selected as a 2021 Howes Scholar in Computational Science. This award was established to honor Fredrick Anthony Howes, who managed the Applied Mathematical Science Program in the U.S. Department of Energy during the 1990s. Dr. Howes was highly respected and admired for his energy, dedication and personal integrity. [Past Recipients]

Tags: honors CMS alumni Thomas Anderson

05-06-21

Wei Gao, Assistant Professor of Medical Engineering, is a recipient of a 2021 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award. The objectives of the Young Investigator Program are to attract to naval research outstanding new faculty members, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers. Professor Gao’s award is for his proposal entitled, “Investigation of Sweatomics in Stress Response Using Wearable Biosensors.” [List of Recipients]

Tags: honors MedE KNI Wei Gao

05-04-21

The Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences seeks nominations to recognize and honor individuals within the EAS community who have actively contributed to EAS’s goal to be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive engineering community. The award is available to members of the EAS community, including current students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty. Nominations are due Wednesday, May 19, 2021 and are accepted from anyone in the EAS community, EAS alumni and members of the Caltech community. Click here for full description of how to make a nomination.

Tags: APhMS EE honors GALCIT MedE MCE CMS ESE

05-04-21

Haley Bauser and Daniel Mukasa are recipients of the inaugural 2021 KNI Catalyst Award. The Kavli Nanoscience Institute established the KNI Catalyst Awards to recognize researchers in the nanoscience community who actively promote diversity, equity and/or inclusion at Caltech, JPL, or the broader scientific community. [KNI Release]

Tags: APhMS honors KNI Daniel Mukasa Haley Bauser

05-03-21

Ares Rosakis, Theodore von Karman Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering is the recipient of the 2020/2021 Horace Mann Medal. The Horace Mann Medal is given annually to a Brown Graduate School alumnus or alumna who has made significant contributions in his or her field, inside or outside of academia. Rosakis is recognized for his research and mentoring skills, as well as being “a champion of societal impact that can be realized through the sciences,” says Larry Larson, Sorensen Family Dean of the Brown School of Engineering. [Previous Winners]

Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Ares Rosakis

04-29-21

Caltech grad students helped JPL build a custom wind tunnel in a vacuum chamber for the Mars Ingenuity helicopter. The Ingenuity helicopter may be the first vehicle ever to fly on Mars, but Mars was not the first place it has ever flown. Before packaging it up and blasting it to the Red Planet, engineers at JPL gave the helicopter a trial run in a special wind tunnel. The fan array was designed and built by JPL engineers with input from Chris Dougherty and Marcel Veismann, who are currently working with Morteza Gharib, Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering and Booth-Kresa Leadership Chair of Caltech's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST). Jason Rabinovitch, who was a mechanical engineer at JPL working on testing the helicopter, reached out to the CAST team in 2017. "I'd earned my PhD at GALCIT, so I was aware of CAST and its facilities," says Rabinovitch. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights GALCIT Morteza Gharib Jason Rabinovitch Marcel Veismann Chris Dougherty

04-22-21

Michael Dickinson, Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of Bioengineering and Aeronautics; Executive Officer for Biology and Biological Engineering, has discovered that fruit flies can fly up to 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) in a single journey—6 million times their body length, or the equivalent of over 10,000 kilometers for the average human. "The dispersal capability of these little fruit flies has been vastly underestimated. They can travel as far or farther than most migratory birds in a single flight. These flies are the standard laboratory model organism, but they are almost never studied outside of the laboratory and so we had little idea what their flight capabilities were," Dickinson says. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights GALCIT Michael Dickinson CNS

04-15-21

Harry A. Atwater, the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science and director of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA), has been selected as the new chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. On July 1, he will begin his five-year term, taking over the Otis Booth Leadership Chair from current division chair Guruswami (Ravi) Ravichandran, the John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. After more than three decades at Caltech, Atwater says he's looking forward to the opportunity to serve the Institute in a new way. "I'm excited to be able to pay back or pay forward all of the investments that Caltech has made in me," he says. "I'm excited to try to do what I can to catalyze research initiatives that my colleagues are excited to lead, and to make the division as strong and distinctive as possible." [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS honors GALCIT MCE Harry Atwater Guruswami Ravichandran

04-12-21

Graduate student Sorina Lupu has been awarded the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship. The Amelia Earhart Fellowship was established in 1938 in honor of famed pilot and Zontian, Amelia Earhart. The Fellowship is awarded annually to up to thirty-five women pursuing Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering and space sciences.

Tags: honors GALCIT Sorina Lupu