Ekkad named R.J. Reynolds Professor

Dr. Srinath Ekkad has been named the R.J. Reynolds Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University.

Ekkad was named head of the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2017. He succeeded Dr. Richard Gould, who had led the department for 13 years.

He was previously the Rolls-Royce Commonwealth Professor for Aerospace Propulsion Systems in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, the associate vice president for research programs and the director of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Center for Advanced Diagnostics.

Ekkad has published more than 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals, contributed to four book chapters and wrote the book, “Gas Turbine Heat Transfer and Cooling Technology.” He holds professional affiliations as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and a member of the ASME K-14 Gas Turbine Heat Transfer Committee and the International Society of Rotating Machinery (ISROMAC) Scientific Committee, among other appointments.

He is the winner of the Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising, the Virginia Tech Dean of Engineering Award for Research Excellence and the ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer.

Ekkad’s research focuses on thermal management, energy concepts, propulsion, and advanced system diagnostics and has been supported by multiple federal and industrial sources including National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Toyota, Honeywell and GE, among others.

He earned his B.Tech in mechanical engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in India in 1989, his M.S. in mechanical engineering from Arizona State University in 1991 and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University in 1995.