year studying
By KATE DOWNEN
News Writer
Mohamed Gad-el-Hak, Notre Dame professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, was recently awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize, Germany's highest research award for senior American scientists and scholars in all disciplines.
"I am very grateful to Germany and the von Humboldt Foundation, to the University of Notre Dame for giving me the means to conduct my teaching and research, and grateful to all former students, undergraduate and graduate, who have been an inspiration to me," Gad-el-Hak said.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is a non-profit organization that enables highly qualified foreign scholars to carry out long-term research in Germany. Forty prizes are awarded annually.
The award will allow Gad-el-Hak to spend 12 months in Germany researching fluid mechanics, the study of fluid motions around hard objects such as submarines, airplanes and ships. The long-term goal of this research is to improve land, air and water vehicles through understanding the diagnostics and control of turbulence.
Gad-el-Hak is known worldwide for advancing several novel diagnostic tools for turbulent flows. He holds two patents and has published more than 300 articles and authored or edited eight books and conference proceedings. He has also presented at 175 invited lectures.
A member of several professional associations, Gad-el-Hak currently edits four publications.
In 1998, he was named as the 14th Freeman Scholar by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the organization's division of fluids engineering. In 1999, he was awarded the Japanese Government Research Award for Foreign Scholars.
Before joining the Notre Dame faculty in 1986, he worked as senior research scientist and program manager at Flow Research in Seattle.
He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. He went on to receive his doctorate in fluid mechanics from Johns Hopkins University.
Gad-el-Hak has since taught and conducted research at University of Southern California, University of Virginia, Institute National Polytechnique de Grenoble and Universite do Poitiers.
All News Stories for Friday, January 28, 2000
