The 2019-20 academic year brings 12 new faculty members to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder, making CU Boulder home to 58 full-time mechanical engineering instructors and professors.听Meet the team and see why the department is so excited about these听talented听new hires.听
Meet Our Talented New Faculty Members
Associate Professor Chunmei Ban
Chunmei Ban听will be joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering听at University of Colorado Boulder in August 2019 as an associate听professor.听She joins from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech where she was an associate professor and听has been leading projects related to electrochemical materials research. Ban also has 10 years of experience working at NREL where she developed听next-generation, high-energy electrochemical materials including silicon, metal oxides and phosphates, magnesium metal anodes and organic radical materials.听
Professor Francois Barthelat
Francois Barthelat will be joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder in August 2019 as a professor after听13 years at听McGill University in Montreal as a professor and the Chwang-Seto Faculty Scholar.听Barthelat's Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Bioinspiration explores key structures and mechanisms in natural materials and develops bioinspired, high-performance materials. He has discovered new deformation and fracture mechanisms in bone, mollusk shells and fish scales with engineering applications.听
Assistant Professor Nick Bottenus
Nick Bottenus听is excited to join the faculty in mechanical engineering at University of Colorado Boulder as an assistant professor in January 2020 after spending his听last 12 years at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.听Bottenus鈥� research is focused on developing system-level solutions to problems in diagnostic ultrasound imaging. He has worked with clinicians in the Duke University Hospital across fetal, cardiac and liver clinics and spent six months as an intern at Siemens Healthcare in Mountain View, California.听
Associate Professor Sarah Calve
Sarah Calve听will be joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder in January 2020 as an associate professor after 7 years at Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University.听Her research group, the Musculoskeletal Extracellular Matrix Laboratory, develops tools to quantify how the composition, turnover, organization and mechanical properties of the musculoskeletal system change during scar-free tissue assembly. The goal is to听understand听how different components integrate to form functional tissues during normal development and to identify parameters that will guide the design of regenerative therapies.听
Assistant Professor Longji Cui
Longji Cui听will be joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Program at University of Colorado Boulder in January 2020 as an assistant professor. Since August 2018, he has served as Visiting Assistant Professor in CU Boulder鈥檚 Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been the Evans Attwell-Welch Fellow of Rice University, and has performed postdoctoral research in Smalley-Curl Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rice.听Cui鈥檚 research lies at the intersection of thermal science and micro/nano-scale engineering.
Assistant Professor Kaushik Jayaram
Kaushik Jayaram听will be joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder in January 2020 as an assistant professor after working as a听post-doctoral scholar at Harvard University. Jayaram obtained his doctoral degree in integrative biology in 2015 from the University of California Berkeley.听Jayaram鈥檚 research combines biology and robotics to uncover the principles of robustness that make animals successful at locomotion in natural environments which inspires the design of novel, next-generation robots for effective, real-world operation.听
Associate Professor Hope Michelsen
Hope Michelsen听will join the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder in August 2019 as an associate professor after working with Sandia National Laboratories and starting a听climate science program听that focuses听on the impact of combustion emissions on climate. This program has听taken听her as far听as the Arctic to make measurements of greenhouse gases and particles. Before听Sandia, Michelsen听received an NSF postdoctoral fellowship to study stratospheric ozone loss听at Harvard University and听worked closely with scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on an experiment that flew on the space shuttle.
Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee
Debanjan Mukherjee听joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder in January 2019 as an assistant professor. In his new role, Mukherjee is forming an interdisciplinary research group that studies complex flow physics underlying physiological and biomedical phenomena. His research group employs engineering principles to understand basic mechanisms of severe diseases like stroke and heart attack. He aims听not only to understand why and how such diseases occur but also how better treatment plans or medical devices could be developed to improve patient health.听
Teaching Professor Derek Reamon
Derek Reamon听is joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder as a teaching professor in August 2019 after serving as the Co-director of CU Boulder's听Integrated Teaching and Learning Program听for 12 years and Engineering Plus degree program for 6听years.听Reamon conducts research in engineering education, focusing on hands-on engineering curriculum.听He has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the John and Mercedes Peebles Innovation in Education Award, the Sullivan-Carlson Innovation in Teaching Award, and the Charles Hutchinson Outstanding Teaching Award, among others.听
Professor Massimo Ruzzene
Massimo Ruzzene听will be joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder as a professor in August 2019, coming from Georgia Institute of Technology where he was the听Pratt & Whitney Professor of Aerospace Engineering and held a courtesy appointment in mechanical engineering. Ruzzene also served three years听as Program Director with the National Science Foundation. Ruzzene's current research projects investigate the vibro-acoustic behavior of the human skull and the coupling of acoustic waves with the brain to assess the feasibility of ultrasonic-based imaging.听Another听project investigates wave听interaction with structural defects.
Instructor Janet Y. Tsai
Janet Y. Tsai听began as an instructor of mechanical engineering and mechanical engineering design in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder in January 2019.听 As a former manufacturing and design engineer for iRobot Corporation, Tsai听brings Roomba stories to her courses to illustrate the ups and downs of new product development, overseas collaborations听and high-volume consumer product manufacturing and distribution.听Tsai鈥檚 research focuses on ways to encourage more students, especially women and those from nontraditional demographic groups听to pursue interests in the world of engineering.
Instructor Michael Walker
Michael (Mike) Walker听joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering in January 2019 as an instructor听and is听the Director for the Energy Engineering minor in the college.听Walker has researched the economic impact of increased condenser fouling in thermoelectric power plants that utilize municipal wastewater for cooling, the听development of a coal conversion process that can achieve carbon capture and sequestration with decreased water consumption and increased thermal efficiency, energy consumption in food manufacturing systems, and energy-water relationships in industrial steam systems. Walker holds multiple teaching awards.听
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