Four College of Engineering faculty members have been awarded named professorships in recognition of their research, teaching and service.

Suresh Advani has been named the George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Guang R. Gao has been named Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, John W. Gillespie Jr. has been named the Donald C. Phillips Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Norman Wagner has been named the Alvin B. and Julia O. Stiles Professor of Chemical Engineering.

Suresh Advani

Advani, who has helped drive important advances in the science of composites manufacturing, also is the associate director of UD’s Center for Composite Materials. He studies polymer and composite processing and rheology, the science of how things flow, and has developed a computer-based virtual simulation of the composites manufacturing process.

“More and more people manufacturing composites are using simulations before making the composite,” Advani says. He holds technology transfer workshops to demonstrate the value of simulations.

Another area of his research is the potential use of carbon nanotubes in composite materials, and he has National Science Foundation funding to explore this field. Carbon nanotubes are “very tiny particles, almost like soot, but very strong,” Advani says.

He also is working on the development of fuel cells, which involve transport of gases across membranes. They are of international importance as governments seek more efficient use of energy and fuels that are more environmentally friendly.

The Laird professorship is named for George W. Laird, the son of noted benefactor William Winder “Chick” Laird Jr., who died in 1977 and provided a bequest that funded computer-assisted engineering programs at UD.

Guang R. Gao

Gao, who conducts leading edge work in high-performance computing, and his research group came to UD in 1996 from McGill University. “This is a very important subject and a very important time,” Gao says, noting mounting Japanese challenges to the supercomputing supremacy traditionally enjoyed by the United States. “Supercomputing is at the heart of our technology, and we cannot afford to lose.”

Gao’s research is in the area of highly parallel computing systems, as he develops architecture and execution models making thousands of processors work together smoothly and efficiently.

Currently, Gao is part of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency High-Productivity Computing System project.

As part of that work, Gao has applied a unique vision in a novel computer memory model known as the location consistency model, which was proposed by Gao and IBM researcher Vivek Sarkar in 2000. The model contends that the world of data need not be coherent as long as it provides consistent answers.

On campus, Gao was a leading member of a team that developed a supercomputing center at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI), and he served as the first director of the DBI bioinformatics center.

John W. Gillespie Jr.

Gillespie, EG ’76, ’78M, ’85PhD has been director of the University’s internationally recognized Center for Composite Materials since 1996.

Under his leadership, CCM is now home to four centers of excellence, two involving the Army Research Laboratory, one the Office of Naval Research and another the Federal Aviation Administration, for commercial applications of composites in aircraft.

Much of that work is done in conjunction with more than 60 companies that are part of a consortium sponsoring research at the center, a number that has tripled over the last five years.

“Composites are lightweight manmade materials that offer multifunctional properties that cannot be obtained from the constituents,” Gillespie says.

“The work is highly interdisciplinary and there is strong faculty, staff and student involvement. We have around 40 affiliated faculty from more diverse areas of research than at any time in our history.

“Our affiliate faculty and research professionals are seeking to incorporate communications and power sources into the composite structures, to embed fiber optics and to provide self-healing materials that can repair themselves,” Gillespie says. “Others are working on flexible displays made of polymers as well as nanocomposites that offer levels of flexibility and extremity protection never seen before.”

Gillespie’s own composites research is in the areas of processing science, mechanics, design, interphase science and experimental methods. He and his colleagues have pioneered the application of composite materials for bridge infrastructure applications.

The Phillips professorship is named for Donald C. Phillips, a 1948 alumnus who established a trust that has resulted in UD receiving approximately $1 million to support the Department of Civil Engineering.

Norman Wagner

Wagner has attracted international attention for his work with the Army Research Laboratory on a nanotechnology project to improve body armor and other protective materials by using shear thickening fluid, a liquid that hardens instantly on impact.

The technology has applications for soldiers and civilians, providing enhanced protection against penetration, and also in the medical field, where accidental needle sticks are a concern.

Wagner says he attended several forums at the University’s Center for Composite Materials, at which he met representatives of industry and the Department of Defense and learned of a pressing need for a more flexible and stronger material for use in protective clothing.

“If we had not heard about the need, it might not have occurred to us to make the connection that Kevlar [the fabric used in traditional body armor] impregnated with shear thickening fluid can provide a higher level of protection,” Wagner says. “With [UD’s] proximity to industry and government laboratories, we are able to apply basic science by finding novel applications through partnerships and open collaboration.”

Wagner also is studying dendrimers, which are highly structured polymers, for use in a variety of technologies, including the possible detection and treatment of pancreatic cancer. Wagner focuses much of his work on rheology and is involved in efforts to develop an international-class laboratory on the UD campus.

He notes that, as a new member of the faculty 14 years ago, he knew Alvin Stiles, the late chemical engineering professor and benefactor for whom the professorship is named.