Letter from the chair
Greetings colleagues,
I am proud to share some of the recent accomplishments from the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department in the College of Engineering at the 91·çÃùÄñ³ª.
The department has offered an aerospace engineering minor since 2021. Thanks to a $36 million gift from the George W. Gillemot Foundation, the department began offering bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. programs in aerospace engineering (AE) this fall. We offer the only four-year AE bachelor’s program in Nevada. There are more than 60 students with a declared AE minor, and more than 30 undergraduates pursuing an AE bachelor’s degree. This December, the first Ph.D. in AE was granted. Two new AE faculty were hired in July, and three more are expected to be hired in the next two years.
Our faculty continues to excel, and an additional ME faculty has been hired to start in January. Among our recent faculty recognitions: Associate Professor Pradeep Menezes was selected as the founding editor-in-chief of Tribology and Interfaces; Dr. Menezes also remains a top researcher in the national rankings. Associate Professor Yan Wang was the corresponding author of a paper describing the generation of a coherent phonon flatband — the first instance of this — in the Sept. 26. 2025 edition of Nature Communications. Teaching Associate Professor Angelina Padilla received the Ralph E. and Rose A. Hoeper Award for Excellence in Teaching and Advisement in May.
In addition to our new AE programs, the ME Department offers an ABET-accredited B.S. in mechanical engineering, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. programs in mechanical engineering. We also have unique certificates in nuclear packaging and in transportation security and safeguards. Over the past five years, the department consistently has awarded the largest number of B.S. degrees in the College of Engineering. All our graduates participate in our signature, hands-on laboratory and capstone design experiences, and many are active in student clubs. We also see our students take advantage of internships or our industry-oriented minor programs that align with Nevada’s engineering employers. In the past three years, our graduate program enrollment has remained strong, and our alumni have found leadership positions in industry, national labs and academia.
Our department is home to exciting research at the forefront of mechanical and aerospace engineering. In the recent years, our faculty have received numerous distinctions, including the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship and the Air Force Office of Strategic Research Young Investigator Program award. The department also has seen a streak of National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy faculty early career development awards.
A number of our students have received prestigious fellowships and awards such as the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program award and the University’s Sam Lieberman Regents’ Award.
External funding for the ME Department continues to be strong, averaging more than $3 million per year for the last four years. This includes funding from NSF, NASA, DoE, Department of Defense, the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC, as well as industry partners.
I invite you to take a deeper look at our programs, research and faculty.
Sincerely,
Petros Voulgaris
Founding Aerospace Program Director
Victor LaMar Lockhart Professor
Chair, Mechanical Engineering
pvoulgaris@unr.edu