Sandia/California is proud of the important contributions that our staff members have made in both the arena of science and technology and in the world at large. We are pleased to highlight a few of the many honors that have been bestowed upon Sandians in recent years.
Dennis Siebers has been named a 2010 Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The Fellow grade recognizes significant engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession.
According to the ASME citation, Siebers was honored for “research at the forefront of developing a new understanding of diesel combustion, which became a key enabler for the industry’s achievement of a two order-of-magnitude reduction in diesel pollutant emissions, and simultaneously, higher fuel efficiencies over the last two decades.” During this time, he became a leader in the field of engine combustion research, helped grow and lead Sandia’s world-renowned engine research program, and worked with the Department of Energy (DOE) to formulate and lead national engine/fuel research programs. Earlier in his career, Siebers developed new heat transfer understanding related to solar-central-receiver power plants and was instrumental in evaluating the Solar One receiver thermal performance.
Since 2002, Siebers has managed the Combustion Research Facility’s Engine Combustion Department, which provides the science base on advanced combustion strategies needed by the U.S. engine industry to develop more efficient, cleaner internal combustion engines for transportation. He also provides technical management support to DOE’s engine combustion research programs. Siebers joined Sandia in 1976 and worked under Sandia’s Doctoral Study Program while pursuing his PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Siebers plays a key role in the Combustion Research Facility’s collaboration with industry, universities, and other national laboratories and is actively involved in the international combustion research community. Siebers is a Fellow in the Society of Automotive Engineers, the author or coauthor of more than 80 papers, and the recipient of several annual best paper awards from various organizations.
Chuck Mueller was presented with the 2009 Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) John Johnson Award for Outstanding Research in Diesel Engines at the 2010 SAE World Congress Awards Ceremony on April 13 in Detroit.
Chuck was recognized for his paper: “An Experimental Investigation of the Origin of Increased NOx Emissions when Fueling a Heavy-Duty Compression-Ignition Engine with Soy Biodiesel.” The paper addresses a key barrier to the broader use of biodiesel, an important emerging fuel that has the potential to enhance U.S. energy security while reducing carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbon, particulate matter, and greenhouse-gas emissions from on- and off-highway engines.
Prof. André L. Boehman of Pennsylvania State University served as second author on the paper, while Glen C. Martin, a former postdoctoral student at Sandia (now at Caterpillar Inc.,) served as third author.
The SAE John Johnson Award recognizes the authors of an original and outstanding technical paper presented at an SAE meeting on the subject of diesel engines in the on- or off-road industries. The paper must be published in SAE International’s Journals and must address research advancements in diesel engines regarding efficiency and low emissions achieved by innovative experimental and modeling research of the engine, fuel, and/or aftertreatment systems.
Neville Moody has been named a Fellow by the Materials Research Society (MRS). He is one of 29 new MRS Fellows named this year. According to the MRS citation, Neville was selected “for outstanding research characterizing the deformation and fracture of materials, for service shaping the quality of professional society activities, and for mentoring generations of students, professors, and researchers.”
The title of MRS Fellow honors those MRS members who are notable for their distinguished research accomplishments and their outstanding contributions to the advancement of materials research, world-wide. The maximum number of new Fellow appointments each year is limited to 0.2% of the current MRS membership.
Neville earned his PhD in Materials Science from the University of Minnesota in 1981. After joining Sandia that same year, his research focused on the determination of hydrogen effects on deformation and fracture in titanium, stainless steels, and superalloys, employing experimental testing, modeling, and simulation techniques. For the past 15 years his research has included the study of deformation and fracture on the submicron scale in thin films and small volumes.
The Chinese Institute of Engineers, USA named Sandian Jacqueline Chen, a technical staff member at the Combustion Research Facility, as a recipient of the 2009 Asian American Engineer of the Year award. The award recognizes outstanding Asian American scientists and engineers for their significant contributions to their industries.
Chen pioneered the use of petascale direct numerical simulations (DNSs) for turbulent combustion, with a focus on turbulence-chemistry interactions in canonical laboratory-scale flames. These simulations provide physical insight into the underlying science required to develop predictive models for designing clean and fuel-efficient internal combustion engines (ICEs) that can use 21st-century alternative fuels.
DOE has recognized Chen’s achievements through many Office of Science awards, including DOE INCITE Awards in 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009. The INCITE awards provide allocations on the nation’s most powerful supercomputers to enable research into high-impact scientific advances; since 2004, Chen has been awarded nearly 60 million hours of supercomputer time. These awards have enabled Sandia to move DNS into the petascale simulation sale to provide quantitative predictability.
Chen has been with Sandia for more than 25 years. She earned both of her mechanical engineering graduate degrees—a master’s from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD from Stanford University—while receiving education assistance benefits from Sandia’s University Programs.