Carpenter presents research at prestigious Future Leaders seminar

Mechanical engineering doctoral student James Carpenter was recently invited to present his research at a new seminar series called “Future Leaders in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – Celebrating Diversity and Innovation.”

The series is a collaboration between CalTech, Georgia Tech, Princeton, and Stanford, to highlight contributions made by graduate students and postdocs from underrepresented groups within mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering—while providing mentoring and networking opportunities for the speakers to meet other senior leaders in the field. Presenters are selected based on nominations for their work.

Carpenter, who works in Associate Professor Nenad Miljkovic’s Energy Transport Research Lab, presented on “Proximity Effects During Dropwise Condensation on Superhydrophobic Surfaces.” He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri-St. Louis/Washington University in Saint Louis (joint degree) in 2015 and his master’s in mechanical engineering from UIUC in 2018. His research interests include sustainable energy solutions, thermal efficiency enhancements of engineering systems, and the application of nano-scale heat transfer concepts to achieve both. Currently, his research focuses on ice-bridge formation on superhydrophobic surfaces.

Each presenter was paired with one or more mentors who offer advice about many topics (professional development or job-searching, for example). Carpenter’s mentors were Dr. Samuel Graham, Mechanical Engineering Professor and Department Chair at Georgia Tech, and Dr. Dennice Gayme, Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University.  

MechSE Professor Andrew Alleyne and former MechSE Professor Kimani Toussaint, now at Brown University, are several of the members of the seminar planning committee.