Faculty News
McGaughey Wins Prestigious Research Grants Awards Will Support Nanoscale Heat Transfer Investigations
Alan McGaughey
Associate Professor Alan McGaughey recently received more than $650,000 in funding to support his groundbreaking work on nanoscale heat transfer in solid materials. The new grants will support the continu- ing efforts of McGaughey’s Nanoscale Transport Phenomena Laboratory to develop a better understanding of
how heat is transferred in solids and across solid-solid interfaces at the atomic level.
McGaughey is one of only 38 engineers and scientists nationwide to receive funding under the US Air Force’s Young Investigator Research Program. A three-year, $358,846 grant will support McGaughey as he develops quantum mechanics- based theoretical and computational tools for predicting heat generation and transfer in a range of materials and devices.
“ In addition, McGaughey has
received a three-year, $300,000 grant from the National Science Founda- tion Division of Materials Research Condensed Matter and Materials Theory program. This award—won in collaboration with Dr. Yang Wang from the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center—also supports McGaughey’s theoretical and computational research, as well as his educational activities related to nanoscale heat transfer.
A New Perspective on Heat Transfer While the topic of heat transfer has been a mainstay of the MechE curriculum for decades, McGaughey’s research focuses on heat transfer mechanisms at the atomic scale.
“Many basic heat transfer principles no longer apply at the nano scale,” says McGaughey, who holds a cour- tesy appointment in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “My research applies a new range of tools, including principles based in chemistry and physics,
to understand thermal transport and management at the atomic level. I hope to introduce a new set of heat transfer principles to allow for the design of materials with tailored thermal properties.”
Applications for McGaughey’s research include any McGaughey is one of only 38
engineers and scientists nation- wide to receive funding under the US Air Force’s Young Investigator Research Program.
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product where heat build-up is a challenge, including lighting, computers, and light-emitting diode (LED) displays. The Air Force is particularly interested in reducing the temperature of turbine blades, as well as effectively removing heat from the complex electronic systems that control aircraft. “This is really an emerging research area,” notes McGaughey. “We believe that, by looking at the atom- level mechanics of heat transfer, we can begin to design a new gen- eration of materials and products that take thermal management to a new level.”
A Small Scale Makes a Big Impression A key component of McGaughey’s research is sharing his nanoscale perspective with MechE under- graduates. In addition to introducing
atom-level principles in the heat transfer class he teaches to third-year students, McGaughey has created a lecture series entitled “Mechanical Engineering From the Nano Scale Up.” He frequently serves as a guest speaker in MechE’s
undergraduate courses, using this lecture series to make students aware that a whole new world of scientific prin- ciples exists at the nano scale. “It’s really eye-opening for undergraduates to explore the basics of mechanical engineering, including heat transfer, in an entirely new way,” says McGaughey. In 2009, McGaughey was recognized for his curriculum innovations with the Struminger Junior Faculty Fellowship, a financial award created to support leading-edge educa- tional efforts. The Fellowship is endowed by MechE alum Donald Struminger (B.S. 1959), who is profiled on pages 10-11.•
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CARNEGIE MECH
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