COUNTERFLOW TECH - Key Persons
Alison Hoxie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and
Doug Parker holds a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has 27 years of experience at 3M performing basic research, developing technology, and commercializing innovative products in a wide variety of markets (Consumer, Industrial, health care, electronics, automotive, aerospace and others). He successfully led commercialization teams to develop and launch several new product offerings in multiple world markets. He has extensive experience managing global R&D and new product development labs, which have supported over $1B in sales.
Paul Strykowski is the George Taylor Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (1982), and his MS and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from Yale University (1985, 1986). Dr. Strykowski held a postdoctoral fellowship at the German Aerospace Research Establishment in Gottingen, Germany from 1986-88, where he worked on computational modeling of unstable free shear flows. Since 1988 he has been on the mechanical engineering faculty at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Strykowski has worked in the broad area of fluid mechanics, with an expertise in free shear flow instabilities and turbulence. Early in his career he focused on countercurrent shear layers and the unique characteristics created when dissimilar fluids travel in opposing directions under very compact conditions. Initial success in this area led to advancements in supersonic engine combustion, supersonic jet thrust vector control, and most recently in understanding the mixing characteristics of two-phase bubbly flows and the atomization of highly viscous liquids. Dr. Strykowski's laboratory uses high-speed laser imaging to qualify and quantify the velocity and density fields to control flow turbulence and understand the theoretical connections between the laboratory observations and hydrodynamic stability theory.
Vinod Srinivasan is the Richard and Barbara Nelson Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Previously he was faculty in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. Dr. Srinivasan has also held research positions in global research centers of major corporations in the energy industry.
His research interests are in the areas of fluid dynamics, and heat transfer, and mass transport phenomena relevant to power production and energy utilization. Current topics include three broad areas: phase change heat transfer (boiling, spray cooling); atomization of viscous liquids using insights from linear stability theory; and heat transfer in particle suspensions. Applications range from thermal management of high heat flux devices such as power electronics and solar receivers in solar-thermal power plants, to combustion of renewable biofuels. In each case, high-fidelity laboratory experiments are complemented by theory and reduced-order modeling to arrive at essential design guidelines for transferring to applications.