Ashwani Gupta Named Royal Academy of Engineering Fellow

Department of Mechanical Engineering Distinguished University Professor Ashwani Gupta (ME/AE) was named as Fellow to the Royal Academy of Engineering, the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering.

Gupta was selected alongside 72 leading figures in the field of engineering and technology who will be formally admitted to the academy during a special ceremony to be held in London on November 28.

“Engineering is everywhere, but nowhere the same, and our new Fellows represent the great breadth and diversity of engineers who are striving to address some of the world’s most complex challenges,” said Professor Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, in the organization’s press release.

Gupta is being honored for his role as a leading international authority on swirl flows and volume distributed combustion. He has also contributed to work on cleaner energy and power that has resulted in significant energy savings, near zero emissions and reduced CO2 footprint from industrial furnaces and power applications using fossil and alternative fuels.

His lasting contributions to green flame and distributed combustion development are now used worldwide in advanced industrial furnaces.

In recent years, Gupta received the Royal Aeronautical Society’s (RAeS) 2020 Honorary Fellowship award, the 2016 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Soichiro Honda gold medal, the 2021 ASME Dixy Lee Ray award, the 2015 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Mechanical Engineering Division Ralph Coats Roe Award, and the 2014 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Air Breathing Propulsion Award.

He has been awarded higher doctorates (D.Sc.) from the University of Sheffield and University of Southampton, and honorary doctorates (Ph.D. Hons) from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, King Mungkut University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand, and the University of Derby, UK.

Over the course of Gupta’s career, he has co-authored over 300 journal papers, 550 conference papers, three books, 18 edited books and 19 book chapters. In 2016, Gupta was elected to honorary membership/fellowship of ASME, the highest professional recognition bestowed by ASME. He is also the recipient of Thailand's Surindra Rajabhat University’s Golden Elephant Award in recognition of his scientific achievements and collaborative efforts.

He is a Fellow of AIAA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and a Member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA).

Gupta is joined in this recognition by UMD alumni Dr. Harish Bhaskaran (M.S. ’02, Ph.D. ’06). Bhaskaran is currently a faculty member at Oxford University where he is a professor and associate head of mathematical, physical, engineering and life sciences. He is also co-founder of Salience Labs, a computer hardware manufacturing company that specializes in silicon photonic solutions for advancing AI applications.

Published September 21, 2023