Vanka, a Research Professor and Professor Emeritus, was elected for “pioneering development of multigrid algorithms used to compute incompressible flows, and lasting contributions to simulation of complex laminar and turbulent flows, including turbulence-driven secondary flows, particle transport, continuous casting of steel, and Dean vortices in curved channels.
The criterion for election as an APS Fellow is exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise; e.g., outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education. Fellowship is a distinct honor signifying recognition by one's professional peers.
Vanka’s work is focused on a number of areas related to computational fluid dynamics. These include transport processes in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactors, large eddy simulations in continuous casting of steel, microscale mixing, particle transport in turbulent flows and heat transfer in wavy passages.
His most recent contributions have been in CVD flow and transport processes. He investigated a geometry and parameter set that gives uniform deposition of the thin film on large diameter wafers-a process that may be of importance to the microelectronics industry.