2/16/2016 Julia Cation
On February 8 the National Academy of Engineering announced the 2016 election of 80 new members and 22 new foreign members. Among them were MechSE alumnus K.R.
Written by Julia Cation
On February 8 the National Academy of Engineering announced the 2016 election of 80 new members and 22 new foreign members. Among them were MechSE alumnus K.R. Sridhar (PhDME ’90), co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy in Sunnyvale, CA.
Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Membership honors people who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education, and to the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.
Sridhar was elected for his contributions to transport phenomena and thermal packaging of electrochemical systems and generation of clean, reliable, and affordable power.
Sridhar also earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from Illinois in 1984. He was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of the MechSE department in 2011.
In 2010, Sridhar launched Bloom Energy with a solid-oxide fuel technology he developed – called a Bloom Box – that is producing clean electricity for some of the biggest corporations in America. Google, eBay, FedEx, Wal-Mart, and Coca-Cola, to name a few, use large Bloom Boxes to power manufacturing facilities and large office buildings. Bloom also offers a service that enables customers to purchase electricity generated from Bloom servers without having to buy those servers.