Three named John R. Jones Fellows in Mechanical Engineering
Stefan Duma, Michael W. Ellis, and Michael J. Roan of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering's Department of Mechanical Engineering were appointed John R. Jones Faculty Fellows in Mechanical Engineering by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors during the board's quarterly meeting Nov. 12.
John R. Jones, a Virginia Tech mechanical engineering alumnus, provided an endowment for the faculty fellow program in 2006 to acknowledge and reward junior and mid-career faculty who have shown exceptional merit in research, teaching, and/or service. Jones retired as an executive of American Electric Power after a 36-year career with the electric utility. Since his retirement, he has remained active as a consultant to the power industry and as a member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Alumni Advisory Board.
Stefan Duma
Duma, a professor of mechanical engineering, has served as assistant department head for research since 2006. He is a faculty member of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences and founding director of the Center for Injury Biomechanics. His research in the area of injury biomechanics has been applied in many sectors, including the automotive industry, the U.S. military, and sports medicine.
Since coming to Virginia Tech in 2000, Duma received the American Society of Biomechanics Young Scientist Award, was named to Technology Review’s international roster of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35, and served a three-year appointment as a College of Engineering Faculty Fellow. He has obtained more than $6 million in externally sponsored research funding and has two patents pending.
Duma received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee, master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati, and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.
Michael W. Ellis
Michael W. Ellis, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, is co-director of the Graduate Automotive Technology Education Center for Automotive Fuel Cells and director of the Energy Systems Laboratory at Virginia Tech. He conducts research in the application of fuel cell systems for building cogeneration, modeling and analysis of building energy solutions, analysis of energy uses in industrial processes, heat pump modeling, and design of hybrid gas/electric chilled water systems.
Since joining the Virginia Tech faculty in 1996, Ellis has obtained more than $5.6 million in externally sponsored research funding. A highly regarded teacher, he won the Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003 and has served as a faculty advisor for the highly successful Virginia Tech Solar Decathlon Team since 2001.
Ellis received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Georgia Tech.
Michael J. Roan
Michael J. Roan came to Virginia Tech as an associate professor of mechanical engineering in 2005. He previously was head of the signal processing department at the Pennsylvania State University’s Applied Research Laboratory and a visiting fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University.
In 2004 Roan received a prestigious Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research. During his two years at Virginia Tech, he has secured external funding totaling more than $2.2 million to support his research in the areas of underwater acoustics and signal processing
Roan received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and Ph.D. from Penn State.
The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college's 5,700 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a "hands-on, minds-on" approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 1,800 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
