In the News

Ernest Cravalho

For the past 44 years, Professor Ernest (Ernie) Cravalho has been a leading authority in the fields of thermodynamics, heat transfer, cryopreservation of biomaterials, and energy conversion. He was Associate Dean of the MIT School of Engineering between 1975 and 1977, and the Associate Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology from 1977 to 1982. Ernie is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences, and is a Founding Fellow in the American Institute of Biological and Medical Sciences. In recognition of his commitment to outstanding teaching, Ernie was named a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow in 2000. He recently retired from his position as Professor of Mechanical Engineering in December 2010.

Borijove Mikic

For the past 45 years, Professor Borijove (Bora) Mikic has been a leading authority in heat transfer, establishing groundbreaking theories for nucleate boiling, contact resistance in heat conduction, biological heat transfer, heat transfer enhancement, and the onset of turbulence. For 30 of those years, Bora and his wife Liba were housemasters at MIT, serving at Senior House from 1976 to 1981 and at Next House from 1981 to 2006. Bora was the Associate Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering for 7 years. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award, and is broadly recognized as an outstanding teacher at MIT. Bora retired from his position as Professor of Mechanical Engineering this past summer.

Emanuel M. Sachs

Professor Emanuel (Ely) M. Sachs, the Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has a long history of invention and development. He is the co-inventor of the revolutionary process of 3D printing and has made many valuable contributions to the photovoltaic industry, including string ribbon technology for making low-cost silicon wafers for solar cells. Most recently, he cofounded 1366 Technologies based on cell technology that improves the efficiency of silicon cells to potentially cut the cost of wafers to 1/3 the current level. Ely is also well known for his passion and commitment to education and, in particular, discovery-based learning. He was recognized for this dedication with the Joseph Henry Keenan Innovation in Undergraduate Education Award in 2006. Ely retired this past fall to pursue his work at 1366 Technologies as chief technology officer.