Dunn-Rankin to Serve Second Term as Department Chair

Derek Dunn-RankinJuly 3, 2017 - Derek Dunn-Rankin will serve as the next chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, effective July 1, 2017.  Dunn-Rankin will replace Ken Mease, who served as department chair for the past three years.

A professor and former department chair (2009-2014) of mechanical and aerospace engineering, Dunn-Rankin is also co-director for CAMP, the California Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, a program designed to increase minority representation in science and technology.

In his second stint as chair, Dunn-Rankin says he will “continue the work of his predecessor in guiding the MAE department’s exciting growth across the diverse fields impacted by the discipline.”

Dunn-Rankin’s research is in combustion and energy, droplet and sprays, and applications of laser diagnostics to practical engineering systems, with recent emphasis on electrical aspects of flames, and the direct combustion of methane hydrates. In his 30 years at UCI, he has advised 27 Ph.D. and 63 M.S. graduates. He received a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1989, the Society of Automotive Engineering Ralph R. Teetor Engineering Educator Award in 1991, a Fulbright Scholar Fellowship in 1997, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship in 2008, and the Oppenheim Prize of the Institute for the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems in 2013. Dunn Rankin earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at UC Santa Barbara, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and doctorate in combustion science from UC Berkeley.

– Lori Brandt

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