SAE Selects Kyritsis for Education Award

The Society of Automotive Engineers has selected Associate Professor Dimitrios Kyritsis to receive the 2009 Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award. The award recognizes younger educators who are successfully preparing engineers to successfully meet the challenges that face society. Recipients are selected on the basis of their contributions to teaching and curriculum development, research publications and publishing.

Professor Kyritsis' research is closely related to current challenges in power engineering, including power generation and bio-fuels. In his research program, he explores the fundamentals of the configurations from which liquid batteries will be built, for example, flows in catalytic channels, flows around catalytically coated wires, and flows over catalytically coated surfaces. He uses laser diagnostics to explore catalytic processes and has already demonstrated a new combustion phenomenon in studies of small ducts, flames that oscillate and produce sound. This thermoacoustic energy represents a fascinating new area of research in combustion science and technology. He has also established flame propagation in sub-flammable mixtures in compositionally stratified media-a combustion phenomenon that may lead to significant advances in fuel economy.