Professor Christensen appointed Kritzer Faculty Scholar

The Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering has appointed Kenneth Christensen as a Kritzer Faculty Scholar. The four-year appointment carries with it a stipend for use in advancing his research and education.

Professor Christensen, who does fundamental experimental research in a variety of areas of fluid mechanics, is Director of the Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Flow. He and colleagues were recently awarded a grant from the NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program to develop a new RIM flow facility which will be housed in the laboratory. When completed, the new facility will allow more precise study of surface roughness and its impact on turbulent flow.

His research on rough-wall turbulence was highlighted in the December 2010 issue of Aerospace AmericaYear in Review. He was also honored in 2011 with the Francois Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics by the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics and with an Arnold O. Beckman Research Award from the University of Illinois.